How to Install a WordPress Theme

Creating a website from scratch can be rewarding as you are able to really design your website layout and how it will flow. However, not everyone has that kind of time or really that kind of ability. That is where WordPress themes come in. Read on to learn how to install WordPress Theme.

How to install WordPress Theme.

Step 1: Once you have logged into your site, look at the left-hand menu and click on “Appearance”. This will take you directly to the themes page or you can click themes on the sub-menu that pops up when you hover over appearance.  

Step 2: Here is where all of the loaded themes are shown. Click the “Add New” button to start the process of loading a new theme.

Step 3: Here you have two options for loading a new theme. You can click on one of the images below to choose a free theme that is offered as featured themes from WordPress. The other option is if you have the zip file for the theme you downloaded from another source. For this post we are going with the second option as we have our own theme file. For this click “Upload Theme”.

Step 4: Click “Choose File”.  A pop-up window will appear and allow you to choose your file from your computer. Once you have chosen your theme file, click “Install Now” to load the file to your website.

Step 5: Once the file has finished installing you should see the below screen stating the install was successful.  If you are sure this is the theme you are going to use, click “Activate”. If not then click on “Return to Themes Page” which will go back to the themes listing page of all loaded themes.  Since the site we are demonstrating on has a custom theme, we are not going to activate at this time and will click “Return to Themes Page.”

Step 6: We are back at the loaded themes page and the theme we just loaded is now showing in the list. You may take this time to load more themes or choose which theme is going to be your active theme.

That’s it.  Installing a new theme is simple and fairly straight forward.  It will save you time and give you a great framework for your website.  Check back with us next week as we go over exactly what a theme is and go into more detail of why they are so useful.