There are innumerable WordPress themes available for the website users and if you want, you can easily revamp your website with a new theme.
When it comes to WordPress themes, there are two types of themes available – free and premium. The free themes, as the name suggests are free to use but you have to pay for using the premium themes for your website.
If you are new to WordPress and wondering you can change the theme of your WordPress website or how a new theme can be installed, then here’s the step by step guide to help you with WordPress theme installation.
Installing A WordPress Theme
If you want to install a free theme on your website, all you need to do is find out the best theme from the “WordPress.org theme directory” and choose the one that ideally suits your needs.
The WordPress Admin Theme Search functionality can be used to install the theme.
Before Installing The Theme
Before you install the theme, it’s important to understand that a theme might change how the contents of your website look and how your website’s elements function. So, if you are installing a fresh theme on your website, you can go ahead. But, if you are changing the theme, then it’s important to go through the checklist of the things which need to be done before you change your WordPress theme.
Step By Step Guide For Installing The Theme From The Admin Panel
- Login to your WordPress’s Admin account and navigate to “Appearance” in its left menu. Now click “Themes“.
- Now click “Add New” button
- You will now be able to check a list of the theme categories to make it easier for you to search an apt theme for your WordPress website.
- You find an apt theme to install, click on “Install” button.
- You can see the installation in progress
- Once the theme is installed, click on “Activate“. If you want to check how your website would look after the theme is activated with it, you can click on “Preview“.
Depending on the theme which you have installed, there may be additional settings options which might be needed to be done in order to customize the new theme as per your requirements.
Step By Step Guide For Installing The Theme By Using The Upload Method
While the free themes can be browsed directly from the Admin panel of WordPress, but, the commercial/premium themes are required to be first downloaded before you can install them on your WordPress website.
Here are the steps which you need to follow:
- First of all, download the theme (in the .zip format)
- Login to your WordPress’s Admin account and navigate to “Appearance” in its left menu. Now click “Themes“.
- Now click “Add New” button
- Click on “Upload Theme” button
- Now you will be prompted to navigate the file on your local computer which you want to upload. Here, you can choose the .zip file that you downloaded for the theme. After uploading the file, click “Install Now“.
- Now you would be able to see the installation in progress. Once the theme is completely installed, click “Activate“
- If you want to check how your website would look after the theme is activated with it, you can click on “Preview“.
Depending on the theme which you have installed, there may be additional settings options which might be needed to be done in order to customize the new theme as per your requirements.
Step By Step Guide For Installing The Theme By Using The FTP Method
The themes can also be installed through the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) method, but this is one of the rarely used theme installation methods.
Moreover, I would advise that beginners should not use this method as it is little complicated to execute.
For FTP based theme installation, you first need to setup your FTP program so that you can connect to the host through FTP.
Download the theme and save it as the .zip file. Now, navigate to the path /wp-themes/themes/. Once you reach the path, the theme’s folder is needed to be uploaded.
Ensure that the folders are unzipped before the theme is uploaded using FTP.
These are the three most prominent methods for uploading, installing and activating a new theme on your WordPress website.
Importing SEO Features to The New Theme
One of the vital things which you need to consider while changing the theme of your WordPress website is that switching the theme requires importing SEO features as well.
You can activate the SEO features on the new theme manually or can use a plugin to do it automatically. There are several plugins like “WordPress SEO” which can be used to import the SEO settings from the current WordPress theme.
Removing Unused WordPress Themes
When you keep on changing your WordPress themes, there comes a time when your admin panel contains an array of unused WordPress themes. So, just like the installation of the WordPress themes, you have to carry out the removal of the unused WordPress themes as well.
To delete a theme from the admin panel, login to your WordPress’s Admin account and navigate to “Appearance” in its left menu. Now click “Themes“.
Now click on “Delete” to remove the unused themes, but, don’t delete the live theme. It may impact your website and you may end up losing the contents of your website. If you want to remove the live theme, switch to another theme and then delete the existing themes.
