WordPress was developed as a blogging platform in the 2000s. Its open source code base encouraged many developers to develop plugins to extend additional functionalities to the basic WordPress core. As a result, many website owners chose to use WordPress to develop their sites. In this post, you will learn the overview of self-hosting your WordPress site on cloud servers.
Self-hosting WordPress locally on a computer
Installing WordPress locally means that you install WordPress on your own computer. The reasons for doing this are typically for development or learning purposes. You could choose a number of platforms to install WordPress. Usually, you will install it on a Linux platform such as Ubuntu. However, if you are installing on Windows or Mac, then it is easier if you install the XAMPP environment, on which you will install WordPress. XAMPP is the abbreviation for cross-platform, Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl. These are the components to run the environment that WordPress requires.
Self-hosting WordPress on cloud servers
Self-hosting a WordPress site on cloud servers is a viable alternative. It is extremely easy to do that, given the availability of a large number of cloud service providers, such as Digital Ocean, Amazon AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure. Usually, these platforms provide WordPress images which you can install with a few clicks.
However, you will need to connect your server to the internet if you want your the public to visit your website. From this perspective, it is easier to host your WordPress site on a cloud provider since their servers are already connected to the internet.
This post explains the general steps that you need to take in order to install and run a WordPress site by yourself.
- Register a domain name.
- Find a web server to host WordPress.
- Install WordPress on the web server.
- Design and configure the WordPress instance for your use.
Step 1: Register a domain name and point it to your WordPress cloud server
A domain name is the textual representation of the IP address. Every web host has an IP address that is used to identify their locations. These addresses appear in the form of x.x.x.x, where each x is an integer ranging from 0 to 256. A typical IP would look like 123.234.123.234.
To obtain a domain name, you need to purchase it from domain name resellers. After purchasing it, you need to point the domain name to the IP of the web server that you are going to host your WordPress.
You may also purchase the web server concurrently so that you have the IP address that your DNS server could point to.
Step 2: Purchasing a server from leading cloud hosting providers
The web server is the computer that stores your WordPress instance. You could use your computer to host your site, but it takes a lot of time to set it up and maintain it 24/7. In addition, may internet service providers place restrictions if you want to use your line to host server. As such, site owners would usually purchase server from online hosts or cloud solution providers since they could bypass these restrictions. On top of that, cloud providers have much more resilient infrastructure to host servers.
After purchasing the server, your next step is to install WordPress. Many cloud providers provide single-click installs. However, these single-click solutions usually have default configurations, which usually means the WordPress runs on Apache, MySQL and PHP. Although this is the most common configuration, there are other less common setups that are more efficient. Quik Launch uses LiteSpeed Web Server and MariaDB in place of Apache and MySQL. This makes Quik Launch’s plans run very efficiently and reliably, allowing you to handle larger visitor loads.
If you want to pick and choose your own stack, you can consider running your WordPress on a licensed LiteSpeed Web Server. It comes with a free starter license and also paid licenses that accomodate more than a single domain.
Step 3: Setting up WordPress on your cloud server and maintaining its operation
Once the WordPress is installed, you may then start setting it up and adding contents to it. You can also change its theme or engage web designers to further make your site look professional and presentable.
Designing and developing WordPress themes used to require coding knowledge. With the advent of visual drag-and-drop page builders, you can design your site yourself. Elementor, the leading page builder for WordPress, is available for free, while its Pro version can be purchased if you want to use any of its more advance widgets.
How Quik Launch could help you with self-hosting your WordPress on a cloud server
Quik Launch installs your WordPress on Digital Ocean cloud servers. In addition, we use LiteSpeed Web Server to ensure that your WordPress runs at the best efficiency.
When you signed up a LaunchPad hosting plan with Quik Launch, you will receive two accounts: the WordPress administrator and the CyberPanel account. You can start posting articles or change the theme of your site with the WordPress account without the hassle of setting up the servers and DNS. Your WordPress is encrypted with SSL and the contents are served with CDN. All these features are already set up for you the moment you receive the login credentials from us.
Enjoy authoring on the web.
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