WordPress is the nearly widely-used Content Direction System in the globe for building cocky-hosted websites. Chances are if y'all're not already, you've decided to use WordPress for your own website. Just do you lot know how to install a WordPress theme?

Understanding how WordPress themes are added to your website is not complicated at all, no affair which method you cull to use — and there are a few! The smashing thing is, one time your theme is installed, y'all're ready to kickoff creating a standout website right away.

In today's mail service, we'll dig deeper into how to install a WordPress theme. Specifically, nosotros'll embrace:

Let's get started!

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Where to Detect WordPress Themes (Both Free and Paid)

Learning how to install a WordPress theme on your website isn't difficult to do. What is hard, though, is choosing the right theme for your needs. Merely earlier we look at what you need to successfully achieve that, allow'south have a quick look at where y'all can observe WordPress themes.

Right now, the WordPress Repository is one of the most common places to find reliable and free plugins and themes to extend the design and functionality of your WordPress website. In fact, there are over 7,400 themes in the WordPress Repository alone.

Adding to that, there are also thousands of complimentary and premium themes available for WordPress users that tin can be found in marketplaces such as MOJO Marketplace, CSS Igniter, and StudioPress. That said, the most famous theme market to date is Themeforest, which currently has over 46,000 WordPress themes to cull from.

How to Choose the Correct WordPress Theme

So, how are you lot supposed to know which WordPress theme is correct for you?

Here are some tips to help:

1. Determine Between a Costless or Premium WordPress Theme

The free vs paid WordPress theme argue has been around for a long time. This makes information technology tough to know whether you lot should salve your money and go for a complimentary theme or invest a modest amount of money for a premium one and reap the benefits. If y'all come across a WordPress site with a theme that you similar, you can utilize our theme detector tool to find out what theme it uses.

It actually does come downwardly to your budget, there are some things to consider before making a final choice:

Pros of Using a Free WordPress Theme

Using a free WordPress theme comes with plenty of advantages:

  • They're free to use, which means if y'all terminate up not liking it and want to change your WordPress theme, you've lost no money for giving it a effort.
  • The free themes in the WordPress Repository are officially canonical after going through a strict review process.
  • Free themes found at WordPress.org volition be uniform with all the free plugins found in the aforementioned place.

That said, free themes do come up with some disadvantages too.

For case, they typically have a limited characteristic set, are used by many people (making information technology hard to create a unique website), and there'due south usually piffling to no prompt support if at that place are issues. Non to mention, free themes establish outside the WordPress Repository may exist poorly coded, which opens your site up to vulnerabilities and attacks.

Pros of Using a Premium WordPress Theme

Just similar using a complimentary theme, premium themes come up with their own set of benefits:

  • You get support for it to assistance you with things like bugs, technical issues, and customization (suggested reading: How to Customize Your WordPress Theme).
  • You'll receive frequent updates, which come up with increased security and features.
  • The characteristic sets range from mild to wild, and so y'all can pattern your site to look and do any yous desire.
  • If from a trusted theme marketplace, company, or developer, you'll know your premium theme is up-to-date with all the latest versions of WordPress, HTML, CSS, and PHP.

Premium themes practise, however, cost money. Some paid themes require a yearly payment, and others require a one-time payment. This means if you buy one, and subsequently decide to change, y'all're out whatsoever coin was spent.

2. Know Your Niche

WordPress caters to all kinds of websites, and then you can wait WordPress themes to do the same. Knowing your niche before you decide on a theme will help y'all find WordPress themes that will have the design and functionality you need.

For example, if you lot're starting a WordPress nutrient blog, you'll want to be on the sentinel for a WordPress blogging theme that caters to food websites. Meliorate yet, if you think you might want to sell products and services to fellow foodies like yourself, you might want to check out some ecommerce themes that come up with the functionality to starting time both an online food business and blog.

To make a skilful decision, think about the type of content you lot want to publish, cardinal features your theme will need, your target audience, and what industry y'all want to be in, so you can narrow your options and make deciding a fiddling easier.

3. Use Apparent Sources

Anyone that can develop a WordPress theme and make a turn a profit off it, will. But the thing is, merely because someone has created a WordPress theme doesn't mean it'due south gratis from bad code, viruses, or even spam links.

If y'all've decided to use a free WordPress theme, the all-time place to look is the WordPress Repository. If you need a premium theme or want to use a costless i from a 3rd-political party theme company, cheque for the following:

  • Author reputation
  • Frequency of updates
  • Positive customer reviews
  • Number of sales

In the cease, it doesn't matter what blazon of WordPress theme you demand. What really matters is that you avoid using nulled WordPress themes, so yous don't have problems in the future with site security, downtime, and lost site visitors.

4. Keep Information technology Elementary

Information technology'southward easy to get caught up in the appeal of pop multipurpose WordPress themes such as Avada or X. And while these themes may accept the features and pattern some people need, the truth is, simple is often better.

This is especially truthful for those only starting out. Sometimes multipurpose themes come with too many features, have a high learning curve, and impact your site's speed and functioning.

It's all-time to utilise a theme that has just what yous need and nothing more.

v. Await for Responsive Pattern

Not to be confused with mobile-friendly design, responsive pattern is necessary for giving your mobile site visitors exceptional user feel.

Having a mobile-friendly WordPress theme means that no matter what device your site visitor accesses your website from, it will appear the aforementioned. The site company will be able to encounter all your site'southward content, navigate the site easily, and click the CTA buttons yous want them to. That said, none of the elements on your website will modify, no thing the device or screen size accessing your site.

To check for mobile-friendliness, use Google'south Mobile-Friendly test.

Google mobile-friendly test
Google mobile-friendly test

On the other manus, having a WordPress theme with responsive blueprint means that when your site visitors click on your website using a mobile device, your website will adapt according to the screen size. Elements on your website volition change to render seamlessly for site visitors then they can access your site content with ease.

To cheque for responsive design, utilize the free Responsive Checker tool:

Responsive Checker tool
Responsive Checker

The great thing about this online tool is that you can evaluate your website using multiple device types, including laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. In addition, you can navigate the site as if you were actually accessing information technology using a mobile device to make certain your site looks and functions the style you want information technology to for site visitors.

half-dozen. Evaluate the Theme Support

There may come up a time when you need support while using your WordPress theme. That's why being able to get in touch on with the theme developer or their support team is crucial.

Find out what kind of support is offered before deciding on a WordPress theme. And remember, most gratis WordPress themes come with very picayune back up, if whatsoever at all.

7. Consider the Features

Lastly, you should definitely consider the features your WordPress theme comes with. Here are some of the best things to await for in whatever theme y'all choose, whether information technology's free or premium:

  • Social media sharing
  • Congenital-in SEO optimization
  • Cross-browser compatibility
  • Inclusive WordPress folio builders for easier site creation
  • Popular WordPress plugin compatibility
  • Multilingual and translation prepare
  • Ecommerce support

Of course, every person needs different things for their website. Withal, the above-mentioned considerations will assist point you in the right management and help y'all make a decision.

Now, allow'south have a await at how to install a WordPress theme onto your website after you've chosen the perfect one.

How to Install a Free WordPress Theme

If you want to utilize a theme found in the WordPress Repository on your website, the easiest way to do this is on the backend of your website.

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To start, log into your WordPress website and go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress dashboard and click Add New.

How to install a new WordPress theme
Calculation a new WordPress theme

From at that place, you can filter the results based on:

  • Featured
  • Pop
  • Latest
  • Favorites
Filter theme results
Filter theme results

Or, you can use the Characteristic Filter button to filter the theme results based on specific features.

Feature filter
Characteristic filter

Lastly, you lot can search for a specific WordPress theme if y'all know the name of it by entering the theme's proper noun into the search bar:

Searching for a specific WordPress theme in WordPress

Once you lot find a theme you might want to use, y'all can click Details and Preview to see more information near the theme, Preview to see a preview of the theme in action, or Install to install the theme onto your WordPress site:

Preview or install a WordPress theme
Preview or install a WordPress theme

When yous make up one's mind yous want to use a theme found in the WordPress Repository, click Install.

Then, click on Live Preview first to see how your site will look using the theme. This makes it easier to decide if the theme you're interested in is the ane for yous or not. When yous've made the conclusion, click Activate to finish adding it to your website.

Your WordPress theme is now installed on your website and you tin can starting time publishing content right abroad.

How to Install a Premium WordPress Theme

If yous've purchased a premium WordPress theme, you'll need to utilise the upload method from your WordPress dashboard to install your theme.

To start, download the theme you purchased from the theme market or visitor you bought information technology from. Save the downloaded zippo file to your computer.

Next, log into your WordPress website and go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress dashboard and click Add together New:

How to install a new WordPress theme
Adding a new WordPress theme

Next, click Upload Theme to upload the zero file of your premium WordPress theme to your website from your computer:

Upload theme feature in WordPress
Upload theme feature in WordPress

Click Browse to select the zip file from your computer.

Upload your zip file
Upload your zero file

Then, click Install Now to add together the theme to your website.

Install a premium WordPress theme
Install a premium WordPress theme

WordPress will install your premium theme on your website. If y'all want to see how your website will look using the uploaded theme, click Live Preview.

Lastly, click Activate to brand the theme set up to get on your website.

The upload method will work for any premium WordPress theme you have saved as a zip file. It will also work when y'all need to import a theme from ThemeForest. Only download the zip file that's saved on your computer and follow the aforementioned steps in a higher place.

How to Install a WordPress Theme Using FTP

The final method nosotros're going to show y'all is using FTP (file transfer protocol), which is the standard network protocol used for transferring computer files between a customer and server on a reckoner network. In other words, an FTP helps y'all upload files between yous and your website'southward servers.

There are several FTP clients you can use, but we're going to employ FileZilla, which is hands downloaded on your computer. It's free to use and has a simple interface. Keep in mind, still, this is an advanced way of installing a WordPress theme on your website and is not recommended for beginners.

Stride i: Secure FTP/SFTP Credentials

To go started, you'll need to get your FTP or SFTP credentials to enter into FileZilla then it tin connect to your site'due south servers (learn the difference between FTP and SFTP). This data is usually establish in your web hosting business relationship. If you lot have trouble finding it, reach out to your host and have them help you.

If you use Kinsta hosting, first log into your MyKinsta business relationship and click on Sites in the dashboard and and so on the Info to get the credentials needed:

When you do this, you should see your credentials under SFTP/SSH. Yous'll need your username, password, and port:

Step two: Enter Credentials into FileZilla

Subsequently you've found your FTP/SFTP credentials, open FileZilla.

Here is the information you lot're going to need to enter:

  • Host: from your MyKinsta dashboard (or your site's IP address preceded by "sftp://" for other hosting providers)
  • Username: from your MyKinsta dashboard
  • Countersign: from your MyKinsta dashboard
  • Port: from your MyKinsta dashboard

This is what it will look like at the top of the FileZilla screen:

Using SFTP in FileZilla
Using SFTP in FileZilla

After you've entered your credentials, click Quickconnect. FileZilla will then connect to your site's servers.

Step 3: Upload WordPress Theme Files

Later you lot're connected to your FTP, it's fourth dimension to install a WordPress theme on your website. Go along in mind that the left side of FileZilla is how you'll access your estimator files, and the right side of FileZilla is how you'll access your site's files that are stored on your host'due south servers.

To open up your site'south files, click on the folders in the right-side console until you find the one labeled Themes:

WordPress themes folder
WordPress themes folder

When yous exercise, any WordPress themes already installed on your website will announced underneath the file folders.

Next, go to the left-side panel in FileZilla and search for the naught file of the WordPress theme you want to install. When you find it, right-click on information technology and select Upload:

Uploading WordPress theme via FTP
Uploading WordPress theme via FTP

When the files are washed uploading to your site's servers (this may take a while depending on the size of the file), you'll come across the files on the right-side panel in FileZilla.

files uploading to a site's servers in FileZilla

Lastly, log into your WordPress website and get to Appearance > Themes. You'll notice your newly uploaded theme is right in that location, waiting for you lot to activate and use on your website.

Appearance, Themes in WordPress

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Summary

If yous're going to use WordPress as your Content Management System, yous're going to need to know how to install a WordPress theme. And chances are, you'll go through a few WordPress themes until you find the 1 you like and has everything you need.

Luckily for you lot, in that location are not only several methods to choose from for installing WordPress themes, but all‌ ‌of‌ ‌them‌ ‌are besides relatively easy, even for novice website owners:

  1. You can install a theme through the Advent>Themes > Add New option directly from within WordPress.
  2. You tin can install a theme past uploading information technology as a zip file via the Upload Theme feature.
  3. Y'all tin install a theme Using an FTP client.

So, perform a little research and find the perfect WordPress theme for your weblog, online business organisation, or ecommerce store. Then, install information technology on your WordPress site so you can brainstorm building a unique website that represents your brand.


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