Step-by-Step Instructions to Install and Configure WordPress with Better Security*
When I went looking for a blogging software, I checked user ratings, server requirements, amount of documentation, available CSS templates and plugins, and did a test install of a few blogs. In the end I chose to go with WordPress because it was one of the easiest to install (it worked on the first try), it had built-in CMS (content management) capability, it had the best documentation, the most plugins, and lots of freely available CSS templates.
I installed and configured WordPress as CMS and blog for my existing website. I put WordPress in a subdirectory of my site's root directory because this is more secure and did not overwrite my existing web documents and applications. The install went smoothly and afterwards, I was delighted to find that the URLs for my other web documents** and applications continued to work seamlessly, without interference from WordPress.
Below are instructions to install your own copy of WordPress on a new or existing site, with improved security. These instructions assume that WordPress will manage your host domain/subdomain, not a subdirectory of that domain/subdomain (ie. www.mysite.com or subdomain.mysite.com, NOT www.mysite.com/blog/). It assumes that you are familiar with a FTP software to upload files to your ISP, that you can create a MySQL database on your ISP account, and that you can edit a plain text file using a text editor like Notepad or VIM. These instructions can also be used to “upgrade” an existing copy of Wordpress to make it more secure.
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