Hosting WordPress

How to Add a WordPress Site on Kinsta Hosting

Updated

Written by

Dave Warfel

Reading Time

5 minutes

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I just set up a new WordPress site on Kinsta Hosting, and I’ve documented the process to help you out. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through a new site setup on Kinsta’s WordPress hosting platform.

Kinsta is a managed WordPress hosting company founded in December 2013. They consistently receive high marks for performance & support from independent, third-party reviewers, and are one of our top recommended hosts.

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Add New WordPress Site on Kinsta Hosting

Login to your Kinsta Dashboard at my.kinsta.com. If this is your first site, you’ll see a giant button that says Add Your First Site Now. You can also click Sites in the left navigation and choose Add New Site. Both options will take you through the site creation process.

TIP: Creating a Kinsta account is absolutely free. You can preview their dashboard before deciding to purchase a plan.

Choose Datacenter

You’ll be asked to choose which datacenter you want to use for the site. Choose the datacenter closest to the majority of your expected site visitors.

Kinsta data centers
Kinsta’s available data centers, as of November 2017

Site Name

For your site name, choose something that accurately describes your site. Preferably, this will closely resemble the domain name you’re going to use.

Kinsta add new site modal
Adding a new site on Kinsta’s WordPress hosting

Install WordPress

Kinsta Hosting WordPress install dropdownBecause you’re planning on using WordPress (great choice!), you’ll want to switch the dropdown to Add a brand new WordPress install.

Now you’re presented with a few WordPress-specific options:

Site Title

This is the actual website title that WordPress will display on your site. You can change this later, or replace it with a logo using the Customizer. For now, just choose an appropriate title.

WordPress Admin Account

  • Admin Username: This is the username you can use to login to your WordPress site.
  • Admin Password: The password you’ll use to login to the WordPress admin area. Make sure it’s something hard to guess.
  • Admin Email: The main email you want to associate with your new site.

Language

Choose the language that you’ll be using for your site. The default is English (US).

WordPress Options

You have three more options you can choose when setting up your new site:

Kinsta Hosting WordPress plugin options
Additional plugin options
  • Use WordPress Multisite
  • Install WooCommerce
  • Install Yoast SEO

Most users will not be using multisite, so you can leave that unchecked, unless you have very specific needs and know what you’re doing.

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that turns your site into an ecommerce platform, and allows you to sell products through your website.

Yoast SEO is another plugin that provides a variety of additional features to help improve your site’s SEO.

For most sites, Yoast SEO is the only option here that I’d recommend.

When you’re finished entering this information, click the ADD button.

This process typically takes 1-2 minutes. You’ll see a message that says “Creating…” until the process has completed.

Manage Your New WordPress Site on Kinsta

Once your new site has been created, you’ll see it listed under Sites in the left navigation.

Kinsta Hosting panel's list of sites
Use the “Manage” button to set up your WordPress site.

In order to finish setting up your new site with Kinsta, you’ll need to click on the Manage button.

You’ll land on a page that looks like this:

Kinsta Hosting site overview
Overview of a site’s settings in the Kinsta dashboard.

On the left-hand side, click on Domains.

By default, Kinsta hosts your site on a sub-domain of kinsta.com. However, you want to use your own domain.

Add Your Domain

Look for Additional Domains, and click the Add Domain button. This will allow you to enter the domain name you’re going to use for the site.

Kinsta Hosting add additional domain button

Type in your domain name, and then click Add Domain.

Now you will see your domain in the Additional Domains list at the bottom of the page.

Kinsta Hosting list of additional domains
Kinsta Hosting’s list of additional domains in the dashboard.

Before we make this your primary domain, which I’ll cover in just a second, you’ll need to make some DNS changes in order to point your domain name to Kinsta’s hosting. You have two options (instructions here):

  1. Point your nameservers to use Kinsta’s Premium DNS (powered by Amazon Route 53)
  2. Create an A record and point your domain to Kinsta’s IP address

If you don’t already use a premium DNS service, I would recommend option 1. However, if you’re already using a service like Cloudflare, or another premium DNS provider, then choose option 2.

Confused? Read What is DNS?

It could take a few hours for your DNS changes to take effect. Please be patient.

Change Primary Domain

Once your DNS changes have taken effect, it’s time to change your domain from yoursite.kinsta.com to yoursite.com.

Back in your Kinsta dashboard, navigate back to Sites > Your Site > Domains, and find your domain name under Additional Domains.

Click the Make Primary button next to your domain.

Now your domain is moved to the top under Primary Domain.

Kinsta Hosting's primary domain area
You’ll see your primary domain listed here, in the grey box on the left.

Update WordPress URLs in General Settings

The final step for adding your WordPress site with Kinsta hosting is to update your WordPress site URLs.

Login to your site’s admin area. You might still need to go through yoursite.kinsta.com/wp-admin/, but that’s OK.

WordPress navigation to General Settings

Navigate to Settings > General. Now update BOTH of the following to your desired domain name:

WordPress URLs in General Settings
Update both URLs to your domain name.
  • WordPress Address (URL)
  • Site Address (URL)

You will be logged out of your site and asked to login again. This is normal. Your username & password has not changed.


Your new WordPress site should now be live on Kinsta’s hosting platform.

If you have any trouble setting up your new site, Kinsta’s help is fantastic. Or feel free to chime in here and I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction.

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Dave Warfel

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Dave has been working with WordPress since 2011. He's built 100s of client sites and almost a dozen of his own. He's tested almost every plugin you can think of, hosted with at least 10 different companies, and gone down every SEO rabbit hole you can imagine. When's he's not tinkering with new software, you'll find him in the mountains of Colorado, trail running, summiting peaks, and rippin' downhills on his mountain bike. 🏔️🏃🚴🤸

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