WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress that, according to Datanyze, holds a market share of nearly 27.38%. To effectively use WooCommerce, you need a good hosting platform and an awesome cloud environment. But one significant hurdle in the way of launching WooCommerce stores is not knowing how to host WooCommerce on Google Compute Engine.
Google Compute Engine (Google Cloud) empowers a major segment of the Internet products of Google; it won’t be untrue if I say Google Compute Engine (GCE) runs a good part of the internet. 🙂
Here are some reasons why you can trust Google Compute Engine to host your WooCommerce website, as well as two methods (one hard, one easy) to host WooCommerce on GCE.
Why Choose GCE
Uptime
Too many cloud providers fail to maintain good server uptime, which can affect websites’ online presence. A study conducted recently shows the annual downtime of GCE is as low as 3.46 hours, ranking it second among IaaS. This estimates up to 99.99% availability of your WooCommerce website without disruption.
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Speed
According to experts’ reviews on cloud hosting, GCE tops the hosting charts with incredible network performance statistics. An extract from ServerDensity shows how GCE is one of the fastest cloud engines for your WooCommerce website.
Reliability
Google has built an environment of high data reliability that avoids hardware failure irrespective of natural disasters and other incidents. Google Apps has an RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) target of instant failover to zero – meaning the maximum amount of acceptable data lost after recovery, and the maximum amount of time to recover processes is 0
Scalability
Google Cloud Engine is highly scalable, so it can handle traffic spikes quite easily. It can facilitate you as you grow and need more resources for your website or application. Choose the Best Hosting for Your WooCommerce Store
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Choosing Cloudways to Host WooCommerce Website on GCE
Hosting with Google Compute Engine directly for your WooCommerce website is like taking a leap from a plane without a parachute or a backup plan. It will send a user into an endless void of complex coding and network infrastructures. You start spending a lot of money on individual services in order to resolve individual complexities. Before you realize it, you’ve run your bank account dry.
Now, there are 2 practical ways to resolve this issue:
- Either you have to be a top-notch developer with commendable information on Infrastructure Administration (rare!)
- Or, you can host your WooCommerce through a cloud hosting platform like Cloudways (recommended!)
For a person seeking to merchandise products, I believe the second option sounds pretty reassuring. Within a few minutes, you will be able to launch your own Google Cloud server based on WordPress (WooCommerce).
Here are a handful of features that Cloudways has to offer to its customers:
- 24×7 tech support and server management
- Optimized servers with Cloudways’ well-known stack recipe (Nginx, Varnish, Apache, Memcache)
- Dedicated IPs
- 1-click installers (for, e.g. WordPress, Multisite, WooCommerce with advanced caching)
- Easy UI to control servers and applications
- Real-time server performance monitoring
- Unlimited staging URLs and unlimited websites on a single server
- WP-CLI installed by default for command-line WordPress users
- Automated Backups
- Multi-SSL installation on the same IP
- Integrated Git client
- Ability to clone servers and applications
Host WooCommerce on Google Cloud Server Via Native Platform
Google offers various types of servers, and managing the cloud server can be a tedious task. If you are comfortable in running Linux commands then we have already covered a detailed article where I’ve shown how to deploy a LAMP Stack & install WordPress on Google cloud server. You can follow those steps then install WooCommerce plugin on your WordPress site.
Here, I’m going to show you another way to install WooCommerce on a Google Cloud server via the native platform First, I will directly deploy the WordPress application, and then instal thel WooCommerce plugin on it.
Sign up on Google Cloud Platform
First, you need to login to your Gmail account then open GCP’s official site. Then, click on Get Started For Free.
A new window will open to set up the Google Cloud account where you need to select your Country & your Organisation type.
Next, enter your phone number for identity verification. Click Send Code to receive a 6 digit verification code on your number. Simply enter the verification number and click Verify.
In the next step, you need to add the Payment Method (card details) to your account in order to complete the signup process. Once it’s done, click START MY FREE TRIAL.
Deploy a WordPress application on a Google Cloud Server
When you complete the signup process then you can access the Google Cloud Platform. As I mentioned earlier, you can start with an empty VM instance and deploy the LAMP/LEMP stack. You can also directly deploy the WordPress on your Google Cloud Server.
Here, I will directly deploy WordPress from Google Marketplace. So, open your Google Cloud Console > scroll down the right menus and click Marketplace > search WordPress for a variety of WordPress options to start with. I’m selecting the basic WordPress application/ Click to deploy.
When you click on your WordPress app, a new screen will appear where you can see all your pre-installed server packages and versions.
Next, you will need to enable the Required APIs.
After enabling the required APIs, you will see a WordPress application setup screen. Here, you need to fill the required fields: Deployment Name (application name), Zone (server location), Machine Family (type of VM family), Series (type of Google cloud server), Machine Type (size of your Google cloud server).
Next, choose the administrator email and scroll down your screen to Deploy your WordPress application.
Once you click Deploy, your packages will start installing on your Google Virtual Machine and it will take a few seconds to complete the process.
On the right side, you will see your site URL, WP Admin URL, and other details as well. Now, open your WP admin URL and enter the credentials to login to your WP dashboard.
Install WooCommerce Plugin on your Deployed WordPress Application
Now, it’s time to install WooCommerce on your deployed WP application. Go to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > search for WooCommerce > click Install Now & Activate it.
Next, add the store information like Address, Country, Zip Code, more, and click Continue.
In the Industry section, simply choose the type of your WooCommerce store.
Then, choose the type of products that you want to sell on the WooCommerce store.
After that, add the business details like the number of products you want to display (a rough number) and are currently selling on any platform.
This is the last step where you can choose a WooCommerce theme for your online store. I’m going to install the StoreFront (Free) theme for my WC store.
Ta-da! You have successfully installed the WooCommerce store on Google Cloud hosting,
Host WooCommerce on a Google Cloud Hosting Server Through Cloudways
Hosting a Google Cloud server through Cloudways is easy. You don’t require any command lines to launch a server to host your WooCommerce online shopping website. Cloudways enables the customer to launch a server and host a website with a few numbers of clicks.
Here are the steps involved in installing WordPress on GCE.
Host your WooCommerce Store on Google Cloud with Ease
Migrate to Google Cloud via Cloudways for performance, security, reliability & uptime.
Step 1: Sign up for Free Account
Cloudways offers a free 3-day trial period to its customers hosting WooCommerce websites through Google Cloud, which offers them a chance to familiarize themselves with the interactive UI and Cloudways user-friendly console. Signing up on Cloudways is pretty easy. You just need to follow a few steps to get acquainted with the platform.
You will get a verification link in your email inbox. Now verify your email to complete the signup process.
After you’ve successfully signed up, you will get a welcome message on your screen. Now, click the Launch button to initiate the server launch process.
Step 2: Select Application (WordPress With WooCommerce)
The Application panel offers you a number of Applications in accordance with your merchandising requirements but for initial setup, we will recommend you to start with WordPress (WooCommerce) due to its reliable name in the market. Select ” WooCommerce”.
WooCommerce on WordPress offers an online store that is compatible with “Varnish“, a cache reverse proxy. You don’t need to get into those details just capture the idea that your online store architecture is going to optimize itself to be super fast.
Step 3: Select Cloud Provider (GCE)
Log in to Cloudways. Click the “Application Console” button on the top of the page. This will direct you to a page to fill your requirements for launching your WooCommerce website.
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Select Google Compute Engine (GCE) as your Cloud Provider.
Step 4: Select Server Size
Select your server size depending on the network traffic on your website. If you aren’t aware of what server size would suit you best, you can always set the amount of traffic on your website and hit “Recommend”. Watch the magic happen as Cloudways handles the decision-making for you.
Step 5: Select Bandwidth & Storage
Bandwidth is the amount of data transacted between your website and its users. Depending on the amount of data transmitted and received by your website, you can select the most economical bandwidth possible to meet your requirement.
Then select Application disk size and server disk size for your database and application files.
Step 6: Select Location
Provide your location in the Location drop-down menu. Cloudways will help you find the data center closest to your business location.
Step 7: Launch WooCommerce on Google Cloud
Check the total amount assembled at the pricing panel located at the end of the page, make up your mind, and hit “Launch”. Wait for seven minutes and ta-da! Your server for WooCommerce is now launched :)!
That’s it! In a few minutes, your GCE server will be ready.
Step 9: Access WooCommerce
Once the server is launched, you will see the two tabs on your platform. The first one is a server management tab and the second is an application management tab. Click the Applications tab.
Next, go to Application Management → Access Details → Admin Panel to get your WordPress dashboard login credentials.
Choose What’s Right for You
With today’s technological advancement and IT governance in the networking sectors, choosing the right platform service for your website is not just a need but a necessity. So choose what’s right for you! Cloudways is a cloud hosting platform, which best suits your WooCommerce hosting needs.
Make your WooCommerce website interactive and desirable for users and customers through WordPress. Let Cloudways manage your hosting inconveniences with perfection. Even Google believes in us.
So sit back and relax! You have conquered a difficult challenge: how to host WooCommerce on Google Compute Engine. Launch WooCommerce on Google Cloud for High-Performing Stores
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Saud Razzak
Saud is the WordPress Community Manager at Cloudways - A Managed WooCommerce Hosting Platform. Saud is responsible for creating buzz, spread knowledge, and educate the people about WordPress in the Community around the globe. In his free time, he likes to play cricket and learn new things on the Internet. You can email him at [email protected]