Accessing WordPress Website Through Hostgator

I have a blog that I’ve been running on my own for some time now and I love it. I started out with a free blogspot.com account and have been building up my site with content since. I’ve been using a free theme from WordPress.com (WordPress) and everything has been going well. I recently switched hosts and moved my blog to a paid hosting plan from a company called Hostgator.com. Now when I try to open up my blog in a web browser I get this error message: “Oops! Something went wrong.”, and I can’t log into my WordPress dashboard. Has anyone else run into this issue and if so how did you resolve it? Thanks for your help in advance!

Why Hostgator?

The price point is definitely a factor that draws me to Hostgator. With other more traditional web hosts costing you $2.95 per month plus additional fees for domain privacy, backups, etc I decided to give them a try. I checked out their shared hosting plans and the price was very attractive. I liked the idea of being able to install WordPress to use as a blogging platform since I already had a blog that I was using.

Shared Hosting Vs VPS Hosting

Shared hosting will be what you’re familiar with. Everyone on your web host’s server can access your content, and there’s a finite amount of storage available (usually 1-2GB). What’s great about shared hosting is that you don’t need to have a dedicated IP (internet protocol) address, which is costly and a pain to manage. You simply need to ensure that your domain name points to their server. It’s a great, cost-effective solution if you’re starting a blog or website.

VPS (virtual private server) hosting is similar to shared hosting but gives you more flexibility and allows you to have your own dedicated IP address. Since your content is stored on a server that is not shared with other customers, there’s no risk of other customers accessing your stuff. Your dedicated IP address also gives you the flexibility to run servers like a traditional web host. You could install a WordPress blog on a VPS and use it to power your business if you choose. You can purchase a standalone VPS with any amount of storage you want and a free domain name.

Steps To Take To Get Your Blog Up And Running On Hostgator

If you’ve already got a blog with WordPress installed on it then you can continue to use it on Hostgator. You’ll just need to make a few adjustments to use it as your blog. Myself and several other bloggers have moved our WordPress blogs from Blogger to Hostgator and found the transition very easy. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Change Your Blogger Dashboard URL To A Subdomain Of Your New Blog

The first thing you need to do is change the URL (web address) of your Blogger dashboard to a subdomain of your new blog. So if your blog is called “bloggerblogger.com” then you would need to change the URL of your dashboard to “bloggerblogger.com” as shown in the image below.

What this will do is make your blog more accessible from other websites. When someone visits yourbloggerblogger.com URL they will be automatically re-directed to your WordPress blog without having to manually type in the URL each time. This is a very easy way to increase your blog’s exposure.

2. Install WordPress To Use It As Your Blog

The next step is to install WordPress to use it as your blog. You can do this via the WordPress dashboard. From there, you can choose the plan that you want, and then follow the prompts to install WordPress. Once installed, you can log in to your new WordPress dashboard and begin adding content to it.

Above all else, make sure that you don’t delete your website’s original host’s.com domain as this will inevitably cause you problems down the road. You can always transfer it to another host later if needed.

3. Install And Configure A Free SSL Certificate On Your Blog (Optional)

An SSL (secure socket layer) certificate is a small piece of code (usually a few hundred kilobytes) that adds an extra layer of security to your blog by encrypting all the information that is transmitted to and from your website. Without an SSL certificate, all the information you type into your blogging dashboard is exposed to anyone who sniffs the connection. This includes credit card numbers, passwords, and other sensitive information.

Nowadays, most free SSL certificates come with a basic “Hello World” website built in. All you need to do to install one is paste the URL of your blog into a web browser and hit enter. This will bring up the WordPress dashboard with a login link at the top. When you log in you’ll see a small lock icon at the top right of the page. You can click this to view a drop-down menu with a few different options including “Create a new site” and “Create a blog.”

If you’ve never installed an SSL certificate before, this is a good place to start. Simply choose “Create a blog” and follow the prompts to complete the process. When it’s finished, your blog will display the little green lock icon at the top of its pages.

4. Point Your Domain Name To The Blog’s Web Address

The last step is to point your domain name to the blog’s web address. This is very easy to do, and it’s free. All you need to do is go to your domain name’s registration page and point the A (host) record to the web address of your blog. For example, bloggerblogger.com would have the following A record:

• A (Host): 85.213.119.35
• TXT (Text): bloggerblogger.com
• CNAME (CamelCase): www.bloggerblogger.com
• SOA (Root): administrator.bloggerblogger.com (1440 days)

This means that any time someone types in bloggerblogger.com they will be automatically re-directed to our WordPress blog. To point your domain name to another website, simply type the other website’s URL into the A record box and hit enter.

That’s all there is to installing a WordPress blog on a Hostgator account. You can now start blogging and use all the familiar tools and settings that you’re used to. When you log in to your WordPress dashboard you’ll notice a few differences. First off, the layout is a little different than you’re used to. Instead of seeing all the posts in a long linear stream, your posts will appear as thumbnails along with their contents. You can click on any thumbnail to read the full blog post. This makes it much quicker and easier to find the information you’re looking for. Second, you’ll notice that the left-hand menu has been replaced by a carousel. These are often called “slideshows” because of the way they work. When a visitor clicks on a thumbnail in the carousel they’ll be taken to that blog post. This means you can add new blog posts with ease and have them instantly available to read as soon as people visit your site.

More Than Meets The Eye

While setting up my blog on Hostgator I noticed that they’ve added some extra features that make using their service very convenient and fun. One feature that I found especially useful is their Statuspage for blogs. This page is very similar to Twitter’s status for accounts and it shows you the latest activity and updates from your favorite blogs. It also provides you with a short bio about the blogger and links to their blog posts if they have any.

Another great feature that Hostgator has implemented is the comment moderation panel. This allows anyone with an account on their site to moderate the comments on their blog. It is a very convenient feature because you don’t have to log in to a separate dashboard to do this. Just go to your blog’s comment section and click on the three little dots next to the comment box. This will open up the comment moderation panel so you can approve or reject comments as you see fit. This is an excellent place to put down any rules or guidelines that you may have regarding comments on your blog.