WordPress is the most widely used Content management system in the world for building self hosted websites.
Installing a new WordPress themes is actually a really important topic and understanding how WordPress themes are being added to websites isn’t that complicated and bogus as it seems irrespective of the method you choose to use.
The most interesting part is that once you are done with installing a theme, you can customize it to sooth your taste, however you want it.
As a beginner you may not be sure on how to add a new theme or where to find better themes but not to worry as this article will show you the different ways a user can install new themes as well as find them.
Where can I find a new WordPress theme?
Notably, the most common and easiest place one can find new WordPress theme is directly from the WordPress Repository.
The WordPress Repository contains over 7400 themes which are designed to extend the design and functionality of a WordPress website.
While there may be nothing wrong with those themes, I don’t recommend you use them on your website, if you’re hoping to create something profitable in the long run.
Themeforest is a popular WordPress resource site, mostly known for providing WordPress site owners with the best WordPress Themes and plugins, you can just type your site’s keyword + theme and you’ll get a whole plethora of standardized custom themes that’ll take your site to a new level.
How to Install a WordPress theme.
In order to install a WordPress theme there are two different methods to go about it. They include:
Installation via WordPress Repository:
As stated before the easiest way to install a WordPress theme is via the WordPress Repository which is accessible from the website’s dashboard
While on the dashboard menu which is located at the left hand side of the screen click on “appearance”
After doing this the next step is to click on “themes” and then “add new”. This action brings down a page filled with all the new available themes for you to choose from.
If in the case you have a specific theme you are looking for, all you have to do is to type in the keyword in the search box provided at the right hand side of the screen.
If you haven’t decided on the theme you want to use from the Repository or maybe you aren’t sure on the way to go for, all you should do is to click on ” details and preview” of that theme. These features help to know more about the theme and also to enable the user to see the theme in action.
Once you have made your choice on the theme you want you can go ahead and click the” Install button”
But before you activate the theme obtained from the WordPress Repository be sure to click on the “live preview” to see how the theme works on your WordPress beginners.
Installing Custom WordPress Themes
Themes downloaded from Themeforest, must be unzipped first, because both the documentation and theme files are enclosed in a single .rar file.
Once you Extract the file from the archive, you’ll get two or three archives inside, the one that is just the name of the theme is what we need and not the Child version.
Notably, the first archive in the image is the theme that we’ll locate from the theme installation page.
Installing Custom Themes through your WordPress dashboard is too easy, you just have to follow the steps in the ‘Installing WordPress Themes via the WordPress repository’ tutorial and then click on the Add New button.
On the next page, click on the Upload Theme button, then click on Choose file, this will open your download folder or your desktop as the case may be, select the custom theme and then install by clicking on Install Now.
It might take a few minutes, but once that is done, you should now click on activate and then you’re done with installing your theme, next steps should be importing demo style and content, then customizing to your taste.
What if you already have a theme installed and you want to install a new theme since you don’t want to use the old theme? follow instructions in this tutorial and you’ll learn how to do just that.
Installation via FTP:
This is actually an advanced method to be used and it is not highly recommended for beginners.
The file transfer protocol (FTP) is the standard network protocol for transferring computer files between a client and a server on a computer network.
This method is mostly used when trying to install a premium or paid theme.
In order to be able to transfer files using FTP the user has to know his or her FTP/ SFTP credentials usually found in the web hosting account. Once this is done you have to put in these credentials into any several FTP clients let’s say for example fileZilla
This will allow you connect to your site servers
The next step to take will be to upload the theme files to the site server. For example on the Filezilla server , the left hand of the screen grants the user access to his or her computer files while the right hand side shows the site files that are stored on the host servers
On the left hand side all you have to do is look for the zip file of the theme you want to install; right click and click on the “upload” button. The speed of this action depends on the speed of the servers.
When the theme is done uploading you will see the theme on the right hand side of the screen.
When this is done you will find out from your “theme section” that the newly uploaded theme is now in your WordPress website waiting for it to be activated.
Conclusion
The best website to get working Custom themes is Themeforest, avoid downloading free themes from all these websites online because they might contain malware and spyware that’ll give them control over your site. Avoid Nulled Themes!
If you have any questions on Installing a WordPress Theme, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you as fast as I can.
