How to Install a WordPress Theme

When using a WordPress website, it’s very important to design your website’s appearance. You can have two methods: design a website yourself/hire a professional or use a pre-built template. For non-tech users or those who want to save time, using a theme is the best solution. It’s quick, simple, and it can be free or paid. But generally, no matter what kind of user you are, installing a theme is one of the most basic and important steps in using a WordPress website.

There are 3 most common ways to install a WordPress theme

• Installing a theme from by searching bar in WordPress repository
• Installing by uploading a .zip file
• Installing by using FTP

In this post, we will carefully walk you through all of these methods.

1. Install a Theme by Searching on WordPress Repository

All the themes in the WordPress repository are free so you don’t have to worry about paying any money for them. Just choose any theme you want here.

Firstly, in your Admin Dashboard, go to Appearance > Themes.

This place is your Installed Themes directory. Click Add New button to find and add a new WordPress theme in the repository.

Then, do you see the search bar menu? You can use it to find your theme name. But if you haven’t had any theme in mind, a Feature Filter is absolutely helpful. First, click the Feature Filter button, and then tick the feature that you want. Finally, click the Apply Filter button. For example, I want to find a Blog theme or Photography theme with these features:

And here is the result. The authors often give a short description of their theme so you can click on the theme to read it or watch the preview. After making your decision, just click Install.

After you install a theme, it will stay in your Installed Themes directory. In this place, you can also use the search bar to find a theme that you already installed. However, it’s just in used if you continue with the Activate button.

That’s how you install a Theme by the WordPress Search in your Dashboard.

2. Upload a Zip File from Dashboard.

The second method is mainly for a paid theme or your self-design theme. There are many sources to buy premium themes like Themeforest, GretaThemes, … Or you can even find the theme’s author to buy the pro version of the free theme that you tried in the WordPress themes repository.

Staying in the Appearance > Themes > Add new. But instead of searching for a theme on WordPress repository, you have to click Upload Theme.

Then, click Choose File.

After choosing a zip file from your computer, the name of your file appears in this tab, and all you have to do is just clicking Install Now and wait.

It may take a couple of minutes to finish installing a theme. When the process ends, a new page will show you the notification that you have successfully installed the theme and clicking Activate is the rest of your work.

However, if it says that your installation is failed, you have to try it again or check your zip file.

3. Using FTP

This method is a bit more challenging so you should consider it carefully if you are just a beginner. By installing and setting up your FTP (Files Transfer Protocol) program, you can connect to your host by FTP.

As you can see in the image below, I entered my Host ID, User name, Password, and click QuickConnect to connect to my host.

After that, go to the path (/wp-content/themes/) and upload the theme folder (the whole folder, not the zip file only) by dragging and dropping it from your computer. For example, I completed uploading Memory theme folder here.

Now go to the Dashboard and go to the Installed Theme repository (Appearance > Themes) and it looks so familiar for you now if you have mastered the method one and two, right? You will see your theme that you upload by FTP there and just click the Activate button of Memory theme.

Remember that your website will not look exactly like the demo unless you spend time setting up and customizing it. Each theme has its own way to set up, and sometimes, a few themes require you to install some plugins to support its feature. Therefore, you should read the theme documentation carefully.

That’s all for the three WordPress theme installation methods. We really hope that our instructions are detailed, helpful and understandable for everyone.

• How to Install a WordPress Theme
• How to Write and Add a Post in WordPress
• How to Use Tags and Categories Effectively to Organize Your WordPress Website
• Post vs. Page in WordPress: What are the Differences?
• How to Customize WordPress Theme by Customizer
• How to Install and Uninstall a WordPress Plugin
• How to Bulk Deselect a Category for Posts without Plugin