Table of contents

What you need to know before you start Step 1: Set up your server environment Step 2: Install the LEMP stack Step 3: Download and configure WordPress Step 4: Configure Nginx for WordPress Step 5: Finalize and test the installation Optional configurations for performance and security Troubleshooting common issues Getting started

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WordPress Guide → Development → Install WordPress With Nginx

How to install WordPress with Nginx

Installing WordPress with Nginx gives you more control and performance than a standard Apache-based stack. Let’s walk through everything you need to get WordPress up and running with Nginx on Ubuntu.

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What you need to know before you start

Nginx is a lightweight web server known for speed and scalability. When paired with WordPress, it can outperform traditional LAMP stacks, especially under load. You’ll be using a LEMP stack: Linux, Nginx (“Engine-X”), MySQL, and PHP.

Requirements

An Ubuntu 22.04 VPS or cloud server
Root or sudo privileges
A registered domain name pointing to your server’s IP
Familiarity with the terminal

Step 1: Set up your server environment

Start by updating your system:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install essential tools:

sudo apt install curl wget unzip software-properties-common -y

Optional: set your timezone

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/New_York

Step 2: Install the LEMP stack

Install Nginx

sudo apt install nginx -y
sudo systemctl enable nginx
sudo systemctl start nginx

Install MySQL

sudo apt install mysql-server -y
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Create a WordPress database and user:

sudo mysql

CREATE DATABASE wordpress DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER ‘wpuser’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘strongpassword’;
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.* TO ‘wpuser’@’localhost’;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Install PHP and extensions

sudo apt install php-fpm php-mysql php-xml php-gd php-curl php-mbstring php-zip -y
php -v

Optional but recommended:

sudo apt install php-opcache php-redis redis-server -y

Step 3: Download and configure WordPress

Download WordPress

cd /tmp
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
unzip latest.zip
sudo mv wordpress /var/www/yourdomain.com

Set permissions

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/yourdomain.com
sudo find /var/www/yourdomain.com -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
sudo find /var/www/yourdomain.com -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Create wp-config.php

cd /var/www/yourdomain.com
cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

Edit with your database details:

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress’);
define(‘DB_USER’, ‘wpuser’);
define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘strongpassword’);
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);

Add salts from https://api.wordpress.org/secret-key/1.1/salt/

Step 4: Configure Nginx for WordPress

Create a server block

sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com

Paste:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com;
    root /var/www/yourdomain.com;

    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
    }

    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico|svg)$ {
        expires max;
        log_not_found off;
    }

    location = /favicon.ico { log_not_found off; access_log off; }
    location = /robots.txt { log_not_found off; access_log off; }

    client_max_body_size 100M;
}

Enable the config:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Enable HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y
sudo certbot –nginx -d yourdomain.com -d www.yourdomain.com

Step 5: Finalize and test the installation

Restart all services

sudo systemctl restart nginx php8.1-fpm mysql

Visit your domain

Open http://yourdomain.com in your browser and complete the WordPress setup wizard.

Optional configurations for performance and security

Enable OPcache

Edit /etc/php/8.1/fpm/php.ini:

opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=128
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=8
opcache.max_accelerated_files=10000
opcache.validate_timestamps=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=2

Restart PHP-FPM:

sudo systemctl restart php8.1-fpm

Enable Redis caching

Install plugin like Redis Object Cache and add this to wp-config.php:

define(‘WP_REDIS_HOST’, ‘127.0.0.1’);
define(‘WP_CACHE’, true);

Harden WordPress and Nginx

Install Wordfence or Solid Security plugin
Disable XML-RPC: block /xmlrpc.php in Nginx
Add security headers:
add_header X-Frame-Options “SAMEORIGIN”;
add_header X-XSS-Protection “1; mode=block”;
add_header X-Content-Type-Options “nosniff”;Disable server tokens: server_tokens off;
Disable server tokens: server_tokens off;

Troubleshooting common issues

File permissions

Use chown and chmod to fix permission-related errors

Permalinks not working

Double check try_files line in Nginx config

SSL issues

Run certbot renew –dry-run to test renewals. Use crontab for auto-renewal if needed.

Next steps for installing WordPress with Nginx

Installing WordPress with Nginx gives you better performance and more control over your web server stack. It’s ideal for users running high-traffic sites or developers who want to optimize every layer of the WordPress experience.

From here, consider setting up a WordPress caching plugin, connecting a CDN, and making regular backups. You’ve now got a solid server-level setup that’s ready for serious traffic.

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