How to Start a WordPress Blog with SiteGround

How to Start A WordPress Blog with SiteGround

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Step By Step Guide to Get Your WordPress Blog Started on SiteGround

Before we get started setting up your WordPress blog with SiteGround, make sure to sign up for our newsletter and you can get freebies to help you with your blog!


Decide on a Blogging Niche

First thing is first you need to decide on a blogging niche before you start a WordPress blog with SiteGround.

If you haven’t already decided on one and need some help check out our post How to Choose a Blogging Niche. You can get a worksheet to help you out by signing up for our newsletter.

If you already know what your niche is going to be then continue on.


Picking a Blog and Domain Name

After you have decided on a blog niche now you need to pick out a name for your blog and this will be your domain name too.

You want to pick something that can meet all the following:

  • The name needs to be Brandable
  • It has to be something that you can use forever
  • The name shouldn’t be too long
  • Try to have keywords in your name that describe the niche
  • Make sure it’s available and has no Trademarks
  • Try to keep to a name that has a .com available.

You can check out our post Tips for Choosing Your Blog’s Domain Name for more details on the list above.


Get Your Domain Name

I recommend using Namecheap to purchase domain names. So this guide will have directions on how to purchase that from them.

Go to Namecheap.com and pick a domain name and make sure it’s available.

Once you have the domain that you want available, hit the “Add to cart” button next to the domain name you want to purchase.

Click on the Add to Cart Button on NameCheap

Now click on the View Cart Button.

Click on the View Cart button on Namecheap

Keep you WhoisGuard (this is offered for free by Namecheap) , and pick how many years you want to register your domain for o the drop down and then click “Confirm Order”.

Pick number of years for domain registration and click Confirm order.

Now sign into Namecheap or if you don’t have an account just fill out the info to create your account.

After this just review your purchase info and payment method and press Pay Now


Get Hosting from SiteGround

Head on over to SiteGround and click on the Get Started button under Reliable Web Hosting.

Click Get Started under Reliable Web Hosting on SiteGround

Now the best hosting package to get would be the GrowBig, this way you can have the option to have more than one site. But if you are really really sure you will never ever need more than one site then you can go with the StartUp package. But lets face it, blogs and websites are addicting and just like potato chips you can’t have just one 🙂

So I would recommend going with Grow Big (if you don’t want to go with it that’s ok too, the directions will still work with StartUP)

On the next page you’ve already purchased your domain name so select “I already have a Domain” put in the domain name and click Proceed.

Select "I already have a Domain", put in your domain name, and press Proceed

Now you will be on the Review & Complete page, just fill out your info and select how many years you want to purchase your hosting for (the longer the better for saving money on monthly costs down the road). You can select up to 3 years for the promo price of hosting on SiteGround.

Once you have all the info filled in press Pay Now.

After approval you will see a screen saying “Your account was successfully created!” it will process for a minute or so and then you will see a button that says Proceed to Customer Area. Go on and press that button.

Once Your SiteGround account is created and hosting purchased, press the proceed to customer area button

Once in the customer area, click the Set Up Site button.


Set Up WordPress on Your New SiteGround Hosting.

press the set up site button on SiteGround

On the next screen press Start New Website then press Select under WordPress.

Select Start New Website and WordPress on SiteGround

You will then be prompted by SiteGround at the bottom of the page under Installation Details to pick out a login email address and password for your Admin access to your WordPress blog. Once you have entered that info press Continue.

You will then get a screen to optin to SG Site Scanner, this is personal preference as to if you want to use this or not.

Once you have decided if you want to add it or not press the Finish Button.

Click on the Finish Button on the Add New Website Screen on SiteGround

You will then get a Creating Your Site Screen.

After WordPress is installed on your new SiteGround hosting you will come to a page saying “You are all Set!”

On the lower left hand side you will see an area with the title Point Your Domain, there will be 2 values listed there. These are your name servers for your hosting. Keep this screen open or copy these to a Note.

You have now installed your WordPress Blog in SiteGround, take note of the nameserver information

Pointing Your Domain

Now this is where we point the domain name your got over at Namecheap to your hosting at SiteGround.

So go back to the Namecheap site and log back into your account.

Once you’re logged into your Namecheap account on your Dashboard you should see your new domain listed, click the Manage button beside your new domain name.

On the next screen scroll down until you see Nameservers.

Click on the drop down and select Custom DNS.

This will bring up two fields titled Nameserver 1 and Nameserver 2.

You want to put the 2 values that you had in the Point Your Domain section back on SiteGround into these two fields.

Once you have entered the info there’s a little green check mark to the right of the Nameserver section, press that check mark.

Now we have your new domain name pointing to your new WordPress blog that you installed on SiteGround. This normally doesn’t take long to go into effect, the longest I’ve had to wait is about 15 minutes.


You Now Have a WordPress Blog on SiteGround

After the nameservers have registered and are pointing your domain name to the SiteGround server’s you’re ready to get to blogging!

Just go back to SiteGround and log back in, go to your Websites tab and press on the WordPress Kit button next to your domain name. You can then press Go under WordPress Admin and start setting up your blog the rest of the way!

Don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter to get great freebies for your blog and stay up to date on blogging info!


Up Next:

Pre-Launch Blog Checklist


Step by step guide showing you how to start your blog with Siteground. Get your blog up and running today. Get a WordPress blog started in 2020.