Start a WordPress site

WordPress on Headpat Space comes with its own database and HTTPS, so you can go from order to a working site in a few minutes. This guide walks you through ordering the app, creating your admin login, the first settings worth changing, and where plugins, themes and backups live.

What you need

• A Headpat Space account with a verified email address and your billing details filled in.
• Optional: your own domain. Without one, your site runs on an address the panel assigns to it.

1. Order the app

1. Sign in to the panel, open Apps in the sidebar and click Create App.
2. Under Template, choose WordPress. You find it under CMS.
3. Under Package, pick a package and set the resources with the sliders. You can change them later.
4. Under Details, fill in Display name. If a Version field is shown, leave it on Latest (recommended).
5. Want to upload plugins and themes with an SFTP program? Switch on SFTP access if your package includes it.
6. Tick the confirmation box, click Deploy app and pay.

After the payment the panel sets up WordPress and its database on its own. The app is ready when its status shows Running.

2. Create your admin login

The panel does not create a WordPress account for you. You make it yourself in the WordPress installer, the first time you open the site.

1. On the app page, find the Access card. It shows the address of your site. Wait until it says HTTPS active, then click Open.
2. If WordPress asks for a language, choose it and continue.
3. Fill in the site title, a username, a strong password and your email address.
4. Click the button to install WordPress, then log in with the username and password you just chose.

Do this right after ordering. Until the installer has run, anyone who opens the address could run it instead of you.

From now on you reach the WordPress dashboard by adding /wp-admin to your address, for example https://your-address/wp-admin. Save the login in a password manager. The panel cannot show it to you.

3. First settings

These are worth five minutes before you start writing:

• Settings > General: check the site title, tagline and timezone. The two address fields are greyed out. The panel sets the address of your site, and it follows your domain automatically.
• Settings > Permalinks: choose Post name for readable links like /my-first-post.
• Settings > Reading: while you are still building, you can ask search engines not to index the site. Remember to switch that off when you go live.
• Dashboard > Updates: install pending updates for plugins and themes.

4. Plugins and themes

The easy way is inside WordPress: open Plugins or Appearance > Themes, search for what you need, install it and activate it.

Bought a plugin or theme as a .zip file? Upload it on the same pages in WordPress. If WordPress says the file is too large, unpack it on your computer and put the folder in place yourself:

Folder	What goes there
wp-content/plugins	One folder per plugin
wp-content/themes	One folder per theme
wp-content/uploads	Your images and other media

There are two ways to reach these folders:

• File browser: on the app page you can browse the files of your site, click Upload or New folder, and edit text files directly.
• SFTP: if you ordered the app with SFTP, the SFTP Access card shows Host, Port and Username. Click Set a password (at least 12 characters) or Add key, then connect with an SFTP program such as FileZilla or WinSCP.

Leave wp-config.php and the WordPress core folders alone unless you know what you are changing.

5. Backups

The Backups card on the app page lists the backups of your site. The panel makes them automatically on a schedule that depends on your package. Each backup holds both the files and the database, so plugins, themes, uploads and posts go back together.

Click Create backup before you do something risky, such as a big plugin update or a theme switch. With Restore you put a backup back. That overwrites the current state of the site, and the site is offline until the restore is done.

All details are in Back up and restore your app.

6. Put the site on your own domain

1. On the app page, go to the Custom Domains card and click Add domain.
2. Enter your domain, for example www.example.com, and follow the DNS instructions the panel shows.
3. Wait until the domain shows as verified. HTTPS is set up for you.

Your first verified domain becomes the main address of the site. The app restarts briefly, and WordPress then uses the new address for all its links, so you do not have to change anything in the WordPress settings.

The full steps, including the DNS records, are in Connect your own domain to an app. No domain yet? See Register a domain.

If something goes wrong

• A plugin broke the site: rename the folder of that plugin in wp-content/plugins with the file browser. WordPress switches it off, and you can log in again.
• Nothing helps: restore the last backup that worked.