How To Host A Website on Hostinger – Tutorial

What Is Hostinger

Hostinger is an employee-owned web hosting company and domain registrar. It was started in 2004, and now has over 29 million users, in 178 countries. They use cloud-based web hosting technology and provide hosting with MySQL, FTP and PHP.

Hostinger Free Hosting

They don’t have a free trial, but their sister site is 000Webhost, the most popular free hosting service, where you can test out their features for free.

Is is great for practice, but it doesn’t have customer service, it has storage limits and you cannot add an SSL certificate.

They also have a 30-day money back guarantee.

Hostinger Free Domain

If you are serious about your business, you should go for a premium plan – they give you a 1-year free domain with a paid plan. However you need to pay for domain privacy, it costs around $4.

The Hostinger Control Panel

They actually don’t use cPanel, but they have a very similar control panel.

Under Account>Details we have Name server Details:

ns1.hostinger.com
ns2.hostinger.com
ns3.hostinger.com
ns4.hostinger.com

Website Details – URL, Website IP Address, Server Name

E-mail Details, File Upload (FTP) Details

Account>Upgrade

You can upgrade to Business Hosting or VPS.

Business Hosting:

• Easy-to-use: Manage your server like a real pro with a simple control panel that holds all the essential features to create a strong online presence.
• Dedicated Resources: Get a dedicated IP address with a slice of RAM, CPU, and SSD Disk Space. The provided resources are fully dedicated to you and no one else!
• Fully Managed: Sit back and relax while we take care of server uptime, maintenance, and monitoring. Focus on your project and leave the rest to us!
• Business Hosting does not have any limit on the amount of websites you can host. You can add as many as you need as long as you have the resources. And if you ever need more, we got your back!

Account>Change Password

You can change the password for that specific domain

Account>Renew

You can renew your account, the longer time you choose, the better price you get.

Account>Usage Statistics

This section is about account resource usage like CPU, memory, processes, requests.

Email>Email Accounts

This is where you can create, access your domain-based email accounts.

Email>Email Forwarders

You can forward your email to your regular email address.

Email>Catch-all Emails

A catch-all email feature allows you to catch any emails sent to the misspelled email address.

Email>Auto Responders

You can send an automatic reply to emails that come in to this email address.

Email>Edit MX Record

An MX (mail exchanger) entry tells a client which server receives mail sent to a domain name. To get your email delivered to another server edit the current MX record by using this form.

To use Gmail with Google Apps, you must set up your domain’s MX records to direct mailflow to Google mail servers. This will delete your current MX records

Email>Mail Service Control

SMPT: Enable or disable SMTP service for your account. If SMTP will be disabled, Webmail and POP3/IMAP services will also stop working.

Sendmail: Your PHP scripts are using Sendmail service to send email messages. This service can be disabled automatically if mass mail sending will be detected from your account.

Email>G Suite 

G Suite is a popular alternative to our email service. It allows you to have all Gmail features with your domain name. Create professional emails, join them into mail-groups. Easily access your emails from any device or email client any time. 30GB of inbox storage available for your communication.

Additionally, G Suite includes Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, Sites and Hangouts, everything you might need for fast and efficient collaboration.

Domains>Subdomains

You can set up subdomains like wptest.funnelxpert.com.

Domains>Parked Domains

A parked domain shows the same content as the primary domain. The parked domain must be already registered and pointed to Hostinger nameservers.

Domains>Add Websites

An addon website is a fully functional website which has its own control panel and works the same way as your primary account. Think of them as additional hosting accounts you get while ordering main account. You have the choice of

• Your own domain (you must have domain already registered)
• Free subdomain

Domains>Redirects

You can do a redirect of one domain to another.

Domains>Cloudflare

Cloudflare Protection Lifetime costs $7.50

Domains>Domain Management

Renew, update name servers, order privacy protection. update your contact details.

You can also edit your DNS zone, order additional domains.

Website>Website Builder

Access to Zyro Builder

Website>Auto Installer

You can autoinstall WordPress, Joomla, Prestashop, Opencart, etc.

Website>Import Website

Provide a .zip, .tar or .tar.gz archive of all your website files and it will be extracted directly to the public_html folder in 1 click! Please note that depending of the archive size, it can take a very long time to upload. Maximum allowed size: 256MB

Website>Error Pages

You can edit error pages of your website

Files>File Manager

You can access your website’s files without using an FTP client. Upload, rename, download, delete files.

Files>Backup

You get automatic weekly backups, or you can upgrade for daily backups for around $2 per month.

Files>FTP

Databases>MySQL Databases

Create, delete, change password

Databases>phpMyAdmin

Access your database and edit, export it, etc.

Databases>Remote MySQL

If you wish to connect to the MySQL server from your computer or from some other server use this section to add remote IP addresses that will connect to Hostinger MySQL server.

Advanced>DNS Zone Editor

Edit your DNS zone, add and remove various DNS record types

Advanced>PHP Configuration

Set PHP version (up to 7.2), extensions, etc.

Advanced>Cron Jobs

A cron job is a scheduled task which takes place at predefined times on the server

Advanced>SSH Access

Enable or disable SSH access on your hosting account. SSH allows secure file transfer and remote logins over the internet. Your connection via SSH is encrypted allowing the secure connection.

Advanced>PHP Info

See all information about currently installed PHP Version

Advanced>Cache Manager

Get superior performance and improve SEO for your website by using the cache.

Cache works by storing static content of websites on extremely high-speed cache servers. This allows to bypass PHP requests and render every page as fast as possible.

You can delete the cache or purge a sepcific URL.

Advanced>GIT

Deploy application directly from public Git repository. Enter your public repository http URL, branch name and install path. Install path can be left empty, application will be deployed directly to public_html directory.

Advanced>SSL

Install SSL, enable, disable, force https.

Other>Password Protect Directories

Set a password to limit access to your website (or parts of it)

Other>IP Manager

Manage specific IP addresses to access your website.

Block an IP Address: This feature will allow you to block a range of IP addresses to prevent them from accessing your site.

Other>Hotlink Protection

Block other websites from directly linking to files and pictures on your website

Other>Folder Index Manager

Allows you to customize the way a directory will be viewed

Other>Fix File Ownership

If you have any problems with editing, deleting files or you have accidentally deleted the public_html folder, run this tool.

Other>Activity Log

This is a complete history of your hosting account, like adding domains.

Other>Reload Account

A fresh account with default settings will be re-created. This can help you remove all default files created by Website Builder or Autoinstaller, so you will be able to install new scripts without any errors afterward.

Please note, that this function will erase all your files and drop all MySQL databases. It will also delete all email accounts, parked domains and subdomains.

This action cannot be undone, so be please careful, all files will be permanently deleted.

Other>Deactivate Account

Permanently delete your hosting account. You have two options:

• Deactivate this account only
• Deactivate all related accounts

Sidebar

This is how the sidebar is:

• Domain
  funnelxpert.com
• SSL
  Active
• IP Address
  185.224.137.75
• Username
  u441900259
• Activated
  11/23/2017
• Email Accounts
  1
• Subdomains
  1
• Parked Domains
  0
• FTP Accounts
  0
• MySQL Databases
  2
•  Server
  server143.hostinger.com
• Server IP
  185.224.137.7
• Inodes
  15259/200000
• Disk Usage
  317.58 / ∞ MB
• Home Root
  /home/u441900259
• PHP Version
  7.1
• Apache Version
  Apache/2.4
• MariaDB Version
  10.2
• Billing
• Due Date
  11/25/2019
• Hosting Plan
  Premium
  

How To Build A Website on Hostinger

Connecting Your Domain And Your Host

First you need a domain. You can get a free domain with any premium Hostinger plan. You should also get WhoIs protection, otherwise your email and phone number will get spammed.

If you buy your domain from Hostinger, it will already be connected, you won’t need to do anything else.

If you already have a domain somewhere else, like NameSilo, which is the cheapest host there is (check out their price list), you need to point your domain to your host.

This is really simple, log in to your domain registrar account, click on your domains. Now click on the Name Servers Icon and change them to the ones given by Hostinger. It will take about 24-48 hours for the change to take place.

Setting Up Your SSL Certificate

Before you do anything, set up your SSL certificate. It is a lot easier to do it now than having to switch over later on.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. Essentially, SSL establishes an encrypted link between your web server and your visitor’s web browser. This ensures that all data passed between the two remains private and secure.

With an unsecured HTTP connection, third-parties can snoop on any traffic passing between your reader’s browser and your web server. Obviously, this is a huge issue if you’re passing sensitive information like credit card numbers, but even if you need to log into your own site, your user name and password can be stolen.

Starting in January 2017, Google marked “HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards as non-secure.” That means your WordPress login page is marked as non-secure if you’re not using HTTPS.

You have two options.

• Use “SSL For Free” to get a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate

1. Go to SSLforFree.com, you will see the following:

2. Enter your website both without www and with www, like this, then press the green button:

funnelxpert.com www.funnelxpert.com

3. On the next screen, click on “Manual Verification”, then on “Manually Verify Domain”.

4. Download File #1 and File#2.

5. Go to your Hostinger File Manager, you should be in the folder public_html.

6. Create the new folder .well-known (make sure it starts with a dot), then inside that create another folder acme-challenge.

7. Upload the two files there.

8. Click on the “Download SSL Certificate” button. Download the file onto your computer.

9. The certificate is valid for 90 days. Create an SSL for Free account, so that you get a notification a week before expiry.

10. You will get 3 files.

• The certificate
• The Private key
• The Certificate Authority bundle.

11. Open Advenced>SSL and paste them into the appropriate slots.

12. Press Install.

13. At the top of the same screen press “Force https”.

If you run into any trouble, use the chat icon to contact support. They answer in a minute or two.

The above is a long procedure and you need to renew your SSL certificate every 3 months.

A better option is to buy one from Hostinger, you can get a lifetime SSL for about $15. It will renew automatically.

How To Use WordPress With Hostinger

Now it is time to set up WordPress as an https domain.

Click on Website>Autoinstaller

Click on the WordPress icon.

Click Next.

Provide the following data:

Don’t use “Admin” as your user name, because bots are trained to hack websites by using that user name.

Press Install.

They also have a detailed knowledge base, like this post that explains how to use the REST API.

Setting Up Email on Hostinger

If you want a professional business, you will need to set up an e-mail address that matches your domain, such as support@yourdomain.com, joe@yourdomain.com or sales@yourdomain.com. It would be cheesy to use a Gmail or other free account, and also most email providers like Google would send your emails straight into the spam folder of the recipients.

What you need to do is go to Email in your cPanel. You have two options. You can click on “Forwarders” and forward sales@yourdomain.com to your Gmail address or you can click on Email Accounts and set up an email address that you can answer right there in its Webmail or any similar program.

Hostinger also has business email for a monthly fee, but probably you won’t need it.

Setting A Static Home Page

After this, you can go over to http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin and log into your blog admin panel.

First go to Settings>General and make sure your WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) are both set to the https version of your site.

Per the default setting, on the home page you see your recent blog posts. This is however not the best for conversion. Therefore it is recommended that you change your home page settings to “Static home page”.

To understand this better, click on this link to go to the home page of this site (it will open in a new tab). See how the home page is its own static entity. Then click on “Blog” and see how the Blog page contains the latest posts. Without changing this setting, your Blog page would be your home page.

First go to “Pages” in your WP admin panel, click “New” and create a blank page. On the right side under “Page Attributes” you will see a “Template” pull down box. Change “Default Setting” to “Home Page”. Then click on “Publish”. Then click on “New” again, and create another page called “Blog” or something similar. This is where your blog posts will live.

Now go back to Appearance>Customize, find “Static Front Page”. Find “Front page displays” and pick “A static page” instead of “Your latest posts”. From the “Front page” roll down box click the name of the home page you just created. Then for the “Posts page” roll down box select the name of the blog page you just made, press “Publish” and you are all set.

Picking Your Theme

There a multitude of themes, which will make this subject confusing. Here are a few basic facts.

Make sure you pick a mobile-friendly theme. Unfortunately not all themes are built that way. It should say “mobile-friendly” or “responsive” in the description. Always check on mobile for yourself.

Best to have a theme where you can instantly convert your visitors into subscribers. If they don’t instantly subscribe, they can still continue reading your site. For this you need a front page where you have an opt-in box (unfortunately I haven’t found any free themes that would do this).

I am using Thrive Themes for my blogs, because they are built with the help of experienced bloggers and internet marketers and are set up for conversion. You can read my full review on it or check out the different themes demos.

Recommended Plugins

I recommend that you add the following plugins. You shouldn’t add too many plugins as that will slow your website down.

All In One SEO Pack

Use All in One SEO Pack to optimize your WordPress site for SEO. It’s easy and works out of the box for beginners. It has useful features:

• XML Sitemap support – submit your sitemap to Google and Bing and improve your SEO
• Google Analytics support
• Automatically optimizes your titles for Google and other search engines
• For beginners, you don’t even have to look at the options, it works out-of-the-box. Just install.

Jetpack by WordPress.com

Most of Jetpack’s features and services are free. Jetpack also provides advanced security and backup services, video hosting, site monetization, priority support, and more SEO tools in three simple and affordable plans. Jetpack includes:

[free] Site stats and analytics
[free] Automatic sharing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Reddit, and WhatsApp
[free] Related posts
[paid] Search engine optimization tools for Google, Bing, Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress.com
[paid] Advertising program that includes the best of AdSense, Facebook Ads, AOL, Amazon, Google AdX, and Yahoo
[free] Brute force attack protection
[free] Downtime and uptime monitoring
[free] Secured logins and two-factor authentication
[free] Comment login with Facebook, Twitter, and Google
[free] Fully-customizable contact forms
[free] Infinite scroll for your posts

Akismet Anti-Spam

Akismet is a WordPress plugin which comes with the automatic installation of WordPress. In order to activate it and start using it, you need to add an API key. When you click on “Get your key”, you will be directed to Akismet’s website where you will get lost looking for the non-existent “free” option. Here is the way out:

• Click on “Get your key.” (You will need to log into your WordPress.com account or set one up if you don’t have one.)
• Under the “Personal Contribution” plan, select ” Basic : Use Akismet for Free on a personal site”.
• On the next page, move the slider all the way to thoue left under the column which says “What is Akismet worth to you?”
• Get your API key, and add it onto your Akismet configuration page. Once you have added the API key, Akismet will start protecting your blog from spam comments.

Really Simple CAPTCHA

Protects your blog from bot spam.

Cache

Hostinger has a built-in cache, therefore you won’t need a cache plugin.

Pretty Links

An easy-to-use plugin for managing your affiliate links. You will definitely need it if you want to make money with your blog.

WP Optimize

Your WordPress site gets pretty cluttered up with old copies of your posts, etc. and this will slow down your site. You will need to run this plugin now and then to clean it up.

That’s it. You may need other plugins for other functionality, but the above is enough to set up your blog.

Thrive Leads & Thrive Architect

With Thrive Leads you can easily place opt-in forms onto your website, with Thrive Architect you can build landing pages and modify your home page.

Hostinger Uptime and DDos Protection

No matter where you go, all hosting providers have downtime. Hostinger is not an exception.

This may shock you, but the worst downtime I had with FunnelXpert was several hours.

This is extremely rare, but some evil hackers picked the IP address that hosted my website and carried out a full-blown DDos attack. What Hostinger does in this case is null route your IP until the attack is over so that no loss of data occurs.

You will always get downtime when you update your site, but that isn’t the error of the hosting service.

Hostinger E-commerce

If you want to host an e-commerce store, you can either use the WooCommerce plugin, or install the Prestashop WordPress plugin.

VPS & Cloud Hosting

After a while your website will outgrow shared hosting or you want higher loading speed (and better ranking in the search engines) you will need to upgrade.

You have two options for this.

VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a service I don’t recommend if you have no idea about running servers.

You would have to manually install the operating system, the database and WordPress using commands like this:

sudo apt install mysql-server

mysql> CREATE DATABASE WordPress CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;

I recommend Cloud Hosting instead. Cloud hosting is the type of web hosting that is located on multiple virtual servers. This means, all users data is being kept on several servers, so even if one server goes down, another one keeps your website up. Cloud hosting helps to ensure maximum uptime and improve website’s speed.

Cloud hosting servers run on isolated virtual instances. Thus, you’ll have total control of all resources and limits.

It’s fully managed, which means you don’t need to bother with the stuff I just mentioned. It has full support and 3X speed.

The most basic plan is

• 3 GB RAM
• 40 GB SSD storage
• 2 CPU cores
• Free Dedicated IP
• Free SSL Certificate
• 1-Click App Installer
• Daily Backups
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee

Pricing works like this:

If you are ready to buy your hosting for the next 4 years, you only pay $7.45/month.

If you do one year, it’s $12.95. (EU VAT not included.)

With other hosting providers you would pay over $20 for such a service (the only exception is Scala Hosting’s new generation cloud server.)

Conclusion

Hostinger is a stable platform, a good deal for your money.

It’s not perfect, however no shared hosting is. Their customer service is awesome and will help you with any issues that arise.