# WordPress Optimization: Setting Up a Web Server

> Part 3 of the WordPress optimization series covering nginx, PHP-FPM installation and configuration.

- Canonical URL: https://webofmike.com/wordpress-optimization-setting-web-server/
- Author: Mike Moore (https://webofmike.com/about/)
- Published: 2015-02-03
- Last modified: 2015-02-03
- Tags: Tutorials, Code
- Cite as: Mike Moore, "WordPress Optimization: Setting Up a Web Server", Web of Mike (webofmike.com), 2015-02-03. https://webofmike.com/wordpress-optimization-setting-web-server/


Welcome to part 3 of an 8-part series on WordPress optimization focusing on web server configuration. This guide assumes completion of the previous installation steps for virtual server setup.

## Why Nginx?

We're in this for performance and nginx is an open source web server written to address some of the performance and scalability issues associated with Apache.

## Installation Steps

### Nginx Installation

Basic installation requires one command to deploy nginx with extras.

### PHP-FPM Setup

Installation and configuration of PHP-FPM for handling PHP execution, including pool settings for performance optimization with specific parameters for child processes and request handling.

### PHP Modules

Install additional PHP modules including CLI, dev tools, XML-RPC, curl, GD, APC, and others for WordPress functionality.

## Configuration Files

Three configuration files are needed:
- Common configuration for standard settings
- WordPress-specific rewrite rules
- Core nginx configuration

## Website Configuration

Final step involves creating site-specific configuration files in `/etc/nginx/sites-enabled/` with domain-specific settings.