How to Install a Theme on Your WordPress Blog

Posted on October 23rd, 2015

Themes allow you to extensively customize your WordPress blog. There are literally thousands of themes available for the world’s most popular blogging platform, including both paid and free ones, although the vast majority of themes are available for free. You can search for, download and preview themes from your WordPress dashboard, and most themes also provide a range of additional customization options. More advanced users can even edit the source code of some WordPress themes to customize their blog even further. The theme you choose determines the entire look and feel of your blog, including its colour scheme, functionality and the placement of various on-page elements. Themes also have an effect on search engine optimization, with SEO-optimized themes being better suited to business blogs and websites. Installing a WordPress theme is a fairly straightforward process as detailed below.

How to Add New Themes

 

You can add as many themes to your WordPress blog as you want. The only limitation is the space provided by your Web host, although this should be more than enough for installing all of the themes that you’re ever likely to use.

 

1. Log into your WordPress dashboard with your administrator user name and password.

2. Click on the “Appearance” tab in the sidebar to open the Themes page.

 

3. Click “Add New” to search for new themes. Use the feature filters to help narrow down your search and click the “Find Themes” button at the bottom of the page.

4. Scroll down the list and click the “Install Now” link below the thumbnail preview of your chosen theme. This will install the latest version of that theme on your WordPress Blog.

5. Once the download is complete, you can either use the preview feature to see how the theme will look with the content currently on your website or activate it straight away so that the new theme goes live.

 

Updating Themes

It is wise to keep your WordPress themes up-to-date, since new versions often provide new and improved features as well as bug fixes. To update your themes, follow the instructions below:

1. Return to your Themes page.

2. If an update is available, a warning will appear above the thumbnail preview of the theme (see previous screenshot). Click this warning and click the “update now” link to the right. The new theme should be downloaded and installed automatically.

 

3. You will need to re-customize the updated version of the theme, since any previous changes you made to it will be reverted to the default settings. To customize your theme, click on the “Customize” button at the bottom of the thumbnail preview.

 

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