How to Run WordPress on Unix Hosting
WordPress is a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that is both flexible and scalable enough to power any website or blog. It was originally created as a platform for bloggers to express their musings, but it has grown to power countless small and large businesses’ websites across the globe.
In this guide, we will briefly cover the basics of getting started with WordPress on a Unix hosting platform. We will cover installing WordPress, securing it, and finally, how to tweak and optimize your site’s settings to make it perform at its best.
Why WordPress?
WordPress is an extremely popular CMS among webmasters and content creators due to its simplicity and power. It provides both blogging and content management functionalities, which make it a one-stop-shop for any website or blog. It is a great fit for small businesses that need a simple way to launch a web presence and for bloggers who want an easy way to share their thoughts with the world.
WordPress can also be accessed via a web-based interface, which makes it a perfect choice for remote teams and freelancers who need to keep track of the CMS from anywhere. In most cases, WordPress will be installed directly on a web server along with your site’s content.
There are many different alternatives when it comes to content management systems (CMS), most of which offer similar features and functionality to WordPress. If you are looking for a free and open source solution that is both flexible and powerful enough to handle your site’s content needs, then WordPress is the perfect solution.
Installing WordPress
The first thing you need to do when launching a new WordPress website or blog is to install the CMS software on your site’s server. To install WordPress, you can use either the WordPress installation wizard or manually perform the download and installation process. You will need to make sure that your server has enough storage space to comfortably accommodate all of your site’s content.
Although the manual download and installation process of WordPress is time-consuming, it ensures that you have full control over the software’s configuration and that any problems are promptly identified and fixed. Furthermore, WordPress offers great additional resources for both beginners and advanced users, who want to explore the software’s functionality in greater detail.
Configuring WordPress
Once you have installed WordPress, you will need to configure it to suit your specific needs. This entails entering the right details about your site into specific fields in the WordPress admin area. In most cases, these settings will be done via the WordPress dashboard, which is accessed via a web browser.
Depending on how technical you want your site to be, you can choose from four different sets of pre-made dashboard layouts, which are ideal for different types of websites and blogs. You can create additional custom layouts for greater control over the appearance of your WordPress dashboard. It is a good idea to explore the various options available to you, so you can choose the right one for your needs.
Entering information about your site into the WordPress admin area is extremely straightforward and can be done using the WYSIWYG tool, which stands for ‘what you see is what you get’. This tool makes editing the content of your site much easier than using traditional HTML editors.
Securing WordPress
There are hundreds of different ways to attack a web server, and unless you have the ideal security setup, it is extremely likely that your WordPress installation will be hacked into. To secure your site, you need to ensure that your web server is locked down with the right set of security measures, including an up-to-date firewall, malware scanning, and an SSL certificate. Furthermore, you should consider looking into purchasing a domain registration service, as this will make it much easier to monitor and maintain your site in the future.
Optimizing WordPress
If you are looking for greater performance from your WordPress site, it is a good idea to make a few changes to its settings. There are several different areas where you can make adjustments, including the general health settings, the security settings, and the server settings. To optimize your WordPress installation to achieve greater performance, you should look into making the following changes:
- Updating WordPress
- Activating the W3 Total Cache plugin
- Setting a maximum connection pool size
- Adjusting query and post permissions
- Changing the blog title
- Choosing the right cache for your needs
- Switching the database from MySQL to MariaDB (if you use MySQL)
- Switching the hostname of your blog (if you use DNS)
- Using a content delivery service (if you use WordPress CMS)
- Setting a password for the administrator (if you use WordPress)
- Rerouting the website’s HTTP traffic (if you use HTTPS)
- Adding a blog description (if you use WordPress)
- Using a CDN (if you use WordPress CMS)
- Adjusting the default posts per page (if you use WordPress)
- Enabling comments (if you use WordPress)
- Sharing your blog content (if you use WordPress)
- Creating multi-lingual websites (if you use WordPress)
- Managing multiple sites from a single administrator (if you use WordPress)
- And so on…
Keeping up with all of these changes can be both time-consuming and challenging, which is why it is preferable to use a CMS. Because of its adaptability and scalability, WordPress is ideal for use on Unix-based hosting platforms, where making configuration changes is as simple as editing a few text files and performing a few database queries.