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How to set up a Website with Hostgator Full Guide 2020

Hi everyone!

Registering your Domain Name and choosing your Web Host is the first step when it comes to build your website.

In this article, I am going to show you, How to Start Setting Up Your Website with Hostgator. We will go through all the steps to set up your website.

When it comes to web hosting providers, there are different options you can choose from. You will have to choose the right one for You.

And finally, I will show you how easy it is set up WordPress or any other platform available in the pre-built Hostgator options.

1 - Signing up for an account with Hostgator

Let’s get started. The first thing you want to do to start your website with Hostgator is click that link and go to “Hotsgator Web Hosting” on the Menu Bar.

2 - Choosing a hosting package

You’ll now see three different web hosting plans.

The hatchling.
Baby.
Business plan.

The Hatchling Plan is a great plan if you are going to have one site.

If you are going to have more than one site, then you would want to select the Baby Plan. This plan offers unlimited sites.

The Business Plan comes with unlimited sites and includes a free dedicated IP, Hostgator’s SEO tools start add-on and a free upgrade to a Positive SSL Certificate.

I recommend going with the hatchling or baby plan when starting out and then you can always upgrade to the business plan as your site traffic and revenue grows. You can upgrade or downgrade to any of the plans at any time.

Next, click the Buy Now button on the plan you want to select.

You will see the choose a domain section. This is where you can search for a domain for your site or enter a domain name if you already own one.

You’ll see the search field where you can type in a domain name that you want. Over to the right, you can select the domain extension, for example, .com, .net, .org and so on.

The “.com” option is the most popular domain extension. Well, I recommend you going with a .com if you can. This is completely up to you.

3 - Registering a domain name

Type in the search field a domain name that you want and just click off to the side or anywhere off of the search field and it’ll let you know if it’s available or not. If it’s unavailable it’ll say sorry this domain is unavailable underneath.

In the case that the chosen domain is available, it will have it selected.

Supposing that you already have a domain name, just click on the “I already own this domain” and put in your domain name.

If you did choose your domain name, you will see domain privacy protection. You can select or unselect domain privacy. Completely up to you. I do recommend domain privacy as it will keep your personal information private. The spammers and telemarketers won’t be flooding your email or phone with offers related to your business.

If you select domain privacy, it’ll show Hostgator’s default contact information specifically for this. I highly recommend this. Once you do that, scroll down to the choose a hosting plan section. Choose your billing cycle. You can choose the length of time you want to purchase hosting for. The longer engagement, cheaper will be your plan.

4 - Set your Details on Options

Next, you want to enter your username. Pick anything you would like. Just enter a 4-digit pin that you’d like to use.

Make sure to remember this as this is one of the ways that Hostgator verifies your account if you need to talk to their customer support team.

Then, enter your billing information. Over on the right-hand side, you will see where you can put in your card information or you can pay via a PayPal account. After you do that scroll down to the add additional services section where you can add any Hostgator add-ons that you would like. All of these add-ons are completely optional.

You’ll see the SSL Certificate add-on. Hostgator comes with a free SSL Certificate for your site so this add-on isn’t necessary unless you want to upgrade to a Positive SSL Certificate which will allow you to show a site security badge. You will see Site lock monitoring as the next add-on. This add-on checks your website daily and will notify you immediately if your site has been hacked into and malicious code has been placed into it.

Your Hostgator account already comes with email addresses that you can create.

The next add-on is site back up. It will backup your site daily and you can restore your site to a previous back up with a click of a button with their one-click restore. This add-on can be a good one because if your site gets hacked into or you mess something while creating it. You can restore it to the version right before whatever happened took place and everything will be back to normal. I do recommend this option as you never know when you might need it.

The following add-on is Hostgator SEO Tools. It will provide you with reports, insights, and analytics regarding your site the SEO. It will recommend things to do to improve the SEO of your site.

Now, just scroll down and accept the terms and conditions and click the checkout now button. You will now be directed to a “Thank You” page. Hostgator will now email you your Hostgator receipt and your Hostgator billing and cPanel login credentials so you can begin in creating your site.

5 - Installing and setting up your website with WordPress

Let's Set Up

Once you get the email just click the link to be taken to the Hostgator cPanel login page. Enter your credentials to be logged into the Hostgator CPanel.

This is what the Hostgator cPanel looks like once logged in.

You will see at the top of the cPanel the popular links section. Find WordPress Installer in the Softaculous Apps Installer and click on it. Next, we want to select the domain for the WordPress installation at the bottom.

WordPress Installation

Start Installing WordPress by clicking on the “Install Button”.

Click on and select your domain and choose the domain name that you will be using for your blog. Leave the directory field blank. Hit the next button.

Fill out what the Site Name you want to be.

Next, enter the admin username, password, first and last name, and the admin email address. You will see the automatically create a new database being checked.

Select that you agree to the terms and conditions. Once you do that click the “install now” button. You will now be redirected to an installation complete page that lists out your WordPress login credentials.

Hostgator will now email you a login link to WordPress. The easiest and quickest way to login to the WordPress dashboard to create or make edits to your blog with Hostgator is just enter your domain name at the top of the search engine and put a /wp-admin. Just like you see here.

This will take you to the WordPress login page for your site. I recommend you bookmark this login page so you can easily access it in the future. Once you log in you will be in the WordPress dashboard where you can begin in creating your site.

6 - Step by Step video

Voilà ! Hope that you have learnt something useful. You are now ready to move forward by setting up your website. Next step, the creation.

As you could see, I personally use Hostgator as Web Hosting. I strongly recommend it. Great customer service ! You could also read this article about “Why choosing Hostgator?”.

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