You’ll first need to sign up for a Google Cloud account. At the time of this writing, first-time users will get a $300 credit toward their hosting services. However, you’ll need to use this credit within the first 90 days, or it will expire.
The one-click WordPress deployment is one of the most straightforward options when launching a site on Google Cloud. Google recommends using this approach if you have a blog or simple website with low to medium traffic.
Note: Google Cloud also has to host options for dynamic sites, different server types, and various operating systems. However, we’ll be focusing on typical WordPress websites for this tutorial.
Step 1: Start a New Project
To begin, you’ll need to start a new project from your Google Cloud console. To do this, find the Select from… drop-down menu at the top of the dashboard (1) and choose NEW PROJECT (2):
You’ll need to give your project a name (1), choose the associated organization (2), and select a location (3). Then hit CREATE:
Google Cloud will now create a project for your WordPress site. Whenever you navigate to the Google Cloud console, it will direct you straight to this project.
Step 2: Deploy WordPress
Next, navigate to Marketplace in the left-hand menu:
Type “WordPress” into the search bar (1) and hit your Enter key. Then choose one of the deployment options from the populated list (2). We’ll be using the most simple “WordPress” option, but there are also multi-site and alternate server configurations:
You’ll now see an overview of this installation option. Later on, you can customize your deployment configuration. For now, press the LAUNCH button:
You’ll then be asked to enable various APIs so that Google Cloud can launch your WordPress site. Hit ENABLE and wait for a few minutes:
You’ll see a success screen when the APIs have finished installing, and you can click through to start customizing your deployment.
Step 3: Customize Your WordPress Deployment
On the next screen, you can customize your Google Cloud hosting deployment. For example, you can select your geographical zone (1), Virtual Machine (VM) series (2), and machine type (3):
We recommend choosing the closest geographical location so that Google Cloud can serve your content faster. You might also want to check out different machine series and types to see which ones fall within your budget. Sometimes having a more powerful server architecture can scale better for a minimal increased cost.
As you change your settings, the price will increase and decrease on the right side of the screen. Further down the page, we recommend ticking the boxes next to Install phpMyAdmin (1) and HTTPS Enabled (2). These settings can help you manage your databases more easily and secure your site with HTTPS:
Furthermore, you can customize your boot disk and type, network interfaces, and firewall settings. Once you’re happy with all your choices, accept the terms and conditions, and click the DEPLOY button:
After a few moments, your WordPress website should finish deploying. You can now see your site’s data on the right side, and access it by clicking on LOG INTO THE ADMIN PANEL:
That’s it! Your WordPress site is now running on Google Cloud web hosting. If you have any issues with your admin panel not loading, give it a few minutes. It should be ready to go relatively quickly.