How to Start a WordPress Blog on SiteGround: Step By Step Guide

Do you want to start a WordPress blog on SiteGround? In this step by step tutorial, we are going to show you just that.. This guide has been created keeping the beginners in mind.

If you are a person who wants to start a WordPress blog and make money with it but doesn’t know how or where to get started, this tutorial is the perfect place to start your journey into the world of blogging.

As you may already know, blogging is one of the most effective ways of generating income online. Blogging has emerged as a lucrative business opportunity in recent times. There are thousands of regular folks around the world who earn a full time living from their blogs alone.

Getting started with blogging is relatively simple and also the barrier for entry is pretty low. Even if you don’t have web designing skills you can start a website or blog these days, thanks to the modern WYSIWYG style editors.

Today, with the basic knowledge of computers anyone can create a website or blog. It is that simple. Don’t get us wrong. We are not saying that making money from your blog is easy. We are just saying that starting a blog is easy.  Making money from your blog can take time depending on the niche you choose, content you create and many other factors.

So, for now, let’s first focus on starting a blog on SiteGround. Once you are up and running with a blog, it is easier to explore monetization options than when not having a blog.  Now, let’s see you how to start a WordPress blog on SiteGround hosting within minutes.

Steps Involved In Starting a WordPress Blog

Now let’s have a look at the steps involved in starting a blog on SiteGround or any other hosting company for that matter. Below are the steps most of us follow while starting a new WordPress blog.

Niche Selection

Niche selection or choosing a niche is the process of selecting the main topic for your blog. You need to choose a topic about which you are passionate and knowledgeable. The selected niche should have a large target audience and also be profitable. What use is blogging about a niche that doesn’t have readers and doesn’t generate income?

We have written a detailed article about how to choose a profitable niche for your blog. Read it if you want to know how exactly to choose a niche by brainstorming for new ideas.

Domain Registration

The domain name is the address or the name of your website. It is the URL which your visitors type in the browser to get to your website. You can either register a domain name at a third party domain registrar and connect it to your web hosting account or can register a domain name at your hosting provider itself.

We usually register the domain names at NameCheap and later connect it to our web hosting servers. And that’s what we are going to do in this tutorial. Here is how to choose a domain name and register it at NameCheap. Registering a domain name at SiteGround is an easy process as well, but will cost you more than what you would have spent at NameCheap.

Web Hosting

If we compare your website to a house you are going to build, the domain name is the address of your house and the web hosting is the land on which you are going to build your house.

Web hosting companies provide you with these big computer servers where you can store all the files of your websites and blogs. Web hosting is the platform where your website is hosted.

It is due to these web hosts you can keep your website live 24×7 allowing your visitors to access the content of your website/blog any time of the day from anywhere in the world.

There are many things that need to be considered while choosing the perfect web hosting for a blog.

Whenever choosing the web hosting for our blogs we usually like to look at four essential things. They are the uptime, the speed, the cost and the customer support offered by that particular web hosting company.

There are a lot of good web hosting services in the world right now. But the one we choose for small to medium-sized blogs and websites is SiteGround. They are cost-efficient, fast, user-friendly, feature-packed and have a great customer support team.

WordPress

WordPress is the content management system or the blogging platform that we will be using in this tutorial to start a blog on SiteGround.

Although there are different content management systems available for us to choose from, WordPress is the first and the most popular choice of bloggers and website owners today.

We don’t need to go into the nitty-gritty details of the mechanism behind the working of WordPress and the various methods of incorporating WordPress on our websites and blogs.

We will show you in this article, how to easily install WordPress on your website or blog, with a few clicks of your mouse, without needing any coding expertise or technical skills.

Ok, those were the basic aspects of blogging every beginner should know. Now without further ado, let’s get started.

How To Start A WordPress Blog On SiteGround Hosting?

As mentioned above we will need to register a domain name first. It can be done at any domain registrar or at SiteGround itself. For this tutorial, we will register the domain name at NameCheap and then connect it to the SiteGround hosting.

SiteGround Hosting Offer: For a limited time, SiteGround is offering 3 months of web hosting for only $0.99. This is siteground’s way of helping people during these times of uncertainty and recession. This offer is time-sensitive and is limited for only specific countries. You can have a look at this SiteGround offer from here. This offer isn’t valid at present…

The minimum amount of investment you are going to need to start a WordPress blog on Siteground is $50-60 (a rough estimate), that covers one year of web hosting expenses and yearly domain charges.

The whole process of starting a new WordPress blog can be divided into the following important phases.

Registering the domain name, registering for a web hosting service, connecting the two, and installing WordPress on the domain.

Registering Domain

Domain Registration Video

To get started, head on to NameCheap to register the domain name. Click this link to get started. You will be taken to a page that looks similar to this.

Enter your desired domain name in the search box. If it is available for purchase, the result will be displayed as shown in the image below, along with the cost of that particular domain name.

Once you are happy with the domain name click the add to cart button. Now at this stage NameCheap will display a few add-ons, which you needn’t bother right now.

Even the SSL is provided by SiteGround for free, so don’t choose any of the addons at present and continue with the domain purchase.

Click on the ‘view cart’ button to continue.

Now choose the number of years for which you want to register your domain name. Also, keep the WhoIs protection on (It is a free service offered by NameCheap).

This allows you to hide your identity and other personal details from online stalkers. Once everything is done click on the ‘confirm order’ button.

Now on the next page, you will need to create an account. Enter the basic details like username, password, your first and last name, and the email address and click the ‘create account and continue button’.

On the next page add your card details and make the payment. You can also use PayPal to pay the domain registration fee.

And that’s about it.

Once your payment is completed successfully the domain details will be sent to your email address almost instantly.

You will receive another email from NameCheap asking you to verify the email address. Until you verify your email address the domain will not be activated.

Click on the verification link to verify your email address.

Now let’s move on to the second phase.

Registering for SiteGround Web Hosting Account

To register for the SiteGround web hosting account, click the link below. SiteGround has recently made some changes to their pricing. You can visit their website to find out more.

Signing Up for SiteGround Web Hosting (Video)

Once you are on the Siteground page, click on the ‘get started’ button under the ‘web hosting tab’ as shown in the image below.

Now on the next page, choose the ‘Grow Big’ plan and click on the ‘get plan’ button.

Now, on the next page, you need to enter the domain name that you registered earlier on NameCheap. You can even choose to get a new domain name here, which may cost you an extra $15. 

On the next page, you need to fill in some basic details such as your email address, first and last name, phone number, address, etc. You also need to create a unique password for your account.

Once that’s done enter your payment details. You can also choose your desired data centre and the billing cycle period here.

We suggest you choose at least 12-24 month billing period to avail a huge discount on your hosting fee. You can get the Siteground Grow Big plan for $71.40 if you decide to sign up for a minimum of 12 months.

Fill in all the required details, agree to the terms and conditions and click on the ‘pay’ tab.

Congratulations, you have completed the registration of SiteGround web hosting service.

Now within a few minutes, you will receive emails from SiteGround containing your purchase receipt and the account access details.

Use your credentials to log in to your SiteGround account. Once you login to your account, another email containing your nameserver details will be sent to your inbox.

Connecting NameCheap to SiteGround

To connect your domain at NameCheap to the SiteGround hosting, login to your NameCheap account and click on the ‘Manage’ tab in front of your domain name.

Connecting NameCheap Domain to SiteGround Hosting (Video)

Now go to the DNS section and choose ‘custom DNS’. Enter the SiteGround nameserver details here which you got through the email.

Enter the details and click on the ‘tick mark’ as shown in the image above.

Now you have successfully redirected your NameCheap domain to your SiteGround hosting account.

The change in NameServers may take from a few minutes to many hours depending on various factors.

So to continue further with installing WordPress on your domain name, you will have to wait for the NameServer changes to happen.

If you see a coming soon page or any other random page related to SiteGround when you type your domain name in the web browser, it indicates that your domain name is pointing to the Siteground hosting.

If you are still seeing the NameCheap page, you will have to wait a bit more for the DNS propagation to take place.

Installing WordPress on Your Domain Name

Attention please: The present method of installing WordPress on your domain name using SiteGround may be slightly different than the one mentioned below. This is due to the constant improvement happening inside SiteGround’s dashboard with regards to the design and UI.

But nothing to worry. We have given below the updated video tutorial that shows you how to install WordPress using the modern SiteGround interface. Watch the video below and follow along.

WordPress Installation Video

We assume that your site is already pointing to your SiteGround web hosting account now. To install WordPress on your domain name, go to the SiteGround dashboard and access the ‘App Manager’.

Choose ‘WordPress’ from the applications list.

Enter your desired login details and email address and then click ‘install’.

And that’s it. You have successfully installed WordPress on your website on SiteGround web hosting account.

Once the installation is complete, you can access your website admin dashboard by typing yourdomainname/wp-admin

You can now enter your username and password details to go inside your WordPress dashboard.

And that’s how to start a WordPress blog on Siteground.

Yes, definitely. There are many ways to make money from your blog. We are doing it and we are sure you can do it too. You can read this article about how to make money from your blog for more information.