getting Started

This series will help walk you through the initial steps of WordPress and building a website. Registering a domain name and creating a safe and secure place to build.

Getting Started

This series will walk you through setting up your staging environment with WordPress and registering a domain name.

1) Registering a Domain Name (Optional)

If you have a particular domain name in mind for your site you should register it as soon as possible via Gandi.

2) Choosing a Staging Environment

Choosing between an offline and online staging environment and reviewing options.

3a) Local by Flywheel

How to setup and install WordPress with Local by Flywheel.

3b) Pantheon

Getting setup with a Pantheon account and creating a sandbox WordPress install.

Sign up for a Pantheon Account

To get started with Pantheon, first we need to setup a free account on their website. Click the button below which will open up the Pantheon website. This is a special link that is specifically made (by Pantheon) for users who are learning or building their first websites with WordPress. They’ve put together a special account for people who are learning WordPress. The account is identical to normal Pantheon accounts but comes with two free WordPress sandboxes to work with. 

Once you click the button above, a new tab will open up at Pantheon and you’ll see a login screen. Click the “Create a Free Account” link in the top-right corner. 

Once you’ve clicked the link you’ll be brought to a registration screen. This is where you’ll create your free account. Fill out the form provided then click the “Create Account” button.

Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be redirected to the login screen. Login using the e-mail address and password you used to create your account.

Once logged in, Pantheon will ask you for the site name. This is just an internal name to recognize the site when using Pantheon. Name your site and click the “Continue” button.

Once you click continue, you’ll see the progress as Pantheon sets up the files and database needed to install WordPress.

Once it’s completed the bar will turn green. Click on the “Visit your Pantheon Site Dashboard” button.

Once you’re on your dashboard, click the “Install WordPress” button on the right handside of the screen. Note: You may get a message about “syncing dev environment” – if you see this, let it finish then click the “Install WordPress” button once it’s complete.

Once you click the “Install WordPress” button you’ll be shown the screen below. Select your native language and/or the language you want to use with WordPress (or if your site will be multilingual, the default language), then press “Continue”.

Next, you’ll fill out a form with the base information of your site. First, the site title, which is the main title of the site. Then, a username and password. This is the username and password for the administrator account of the website and should both complex and unique to this site. It’s not recommended to use the same username and password for multiple sites.

We won’t use this account to create content on the front-end, so don’t worry about how it’s displayed. I prefer to use a random set of letters and numbers for both the username and password. If you need help generating a strong password and/or keeping track of usernames and passwords, consider using a password manager like LastPass.

Then enter in your e-mail address that you’d like to use for the administrator account.

Finally – and this is very important – check the box next to “Discourage search engines from indexing this site”. You should do this on all staging sites you create. We’ll change this setting before we bring our website live – but we don’t want search engines finding our staging site and indexing it before we’re ready.

Once this is done, click “Install WordPress”. 

Once installation is complete, you’ll see a dialogue box confirming your username. Once you’ve clicked continue you’ll be brought to the login screen shown below. Login and you’ll be brought to your WordPress dashboard.

This screen is your WordPress administration dashboard and it’s where we’ll begin your training. Once you see this screen, leave the tab open and continue on to the next series of tutorials, “WordPress Basics”. 

Back in your Pantheon Dashboard – you’ll see a confirmation message WordPress is installed. Click the button below to move on to the WordPress basics tutorial series.

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