WORDPRESS THEMES

How to install a WordPress Theme: Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Last Updated: 4 mins By: Sanjip Shah

Welcome to the Chapter 3 of our Ultimate WordPress Guide on Creating a WordPress website.

So you got yourself a WordPress website, a perfect domain name, suitable hosting service provider, what is missing now? Of course, a beautiful theme to match it all. As a beginner, you might have had trouble finding and installing a theme that is perfect for you.

You might have heard about the free and premium themes that WordPress has available for you. There are hundreds and thousands of free and premium themes, each boasting their functionality. Looking for the best platform to search for the templates best suited for you?

You can check out the official WordPress site where you can find standard themes and templates that you might like. For more variations, you can also check specific third parties WordPress development company websites like- ThemeGrill and ThemeIsle. These companies either submit their templates to WordPress or they provide them on their websites.

Keep in Mind!

While installing a new WordPress theme, make sure to check how your website will look and function. Make sure to backup of your current existing theme so that you can switch back if anything goes wrong or you don’t like the new theme. Be sure to turn on the maintenance mode while making the change of templates so that any of your visitor doesn’t see a broken site.

Installing theme in WordPress is an easy process as easy as a breeze once you get the hang of it. To help you through any confusions that you may have, we have prepared a beginner’s guide going through two different ways that you can install and/or change a WordPress theme or a template.

Watch Video Tutorial

Continue reading the post for the text tutorial.

Installing a FREE theme Using the WordPress Theme Search

Login to your WordPress admin account. Click on the appearance option and then on themes.

You will be redirected to the themes page. On the top of the screen, you will see the ‘Add New’ button. Click on it and you will see a new screen.

add-new-wordpress-theme-free

You will see the options of free WordPress themes that you can choose from in the next page. You can search for a specific WordPress theme or you can search for one with specific features.

Based on your search you will see an array of free themes that you can choose from. Select the one that you want to change to and simply bring your mouse to the selection.You will reveal a menu with install, preview and details button. Click on install button and start the installation.

install-free-wordpress-theme

After completing the installation, you will see a success message and a link to view the preview of the newly installed theme.

Installing a theme using the Upload Method

With the first method, it only allows you to choose templates made available by the official WordPress.org theme’s gallery. But if you wish to install a premium WordPress themes by Third Party companies like- ThemeGrill and Themeisle, or even a custom theme, then you will require uploading the theme. To upload the theme and install it to your WordPress account, follow the steps below.

  • Download the .zip file of the theme that you would like to install on your WordPress site after purchasing it.
  • Login to you admin WordPress account and click on the Appearance option, and then on Themes.
  • Once you are redirected to the next page, you can see the Add New button on the top. Click it.
  • You can then see the option of Upload Theme at the top, click on it.
  • Next, choose the .zip file that you downloaded earlier and click Install Now.

upload-install-premium-theme

Your theme will be installed and you will receive the success message shortly.

Once your theme is installed, click on the Activate the button to activate your template.

Wrapping Up

The two methods will help you set up and install WordPress theme for your website in no time. Hope this beginners guide to template installation helped you out! Be sure to check our other articles for more of thoroughly explained beginner WordPress guides!

Thanks for reading the chapter 3 of our ultimate WordPress guide on creating a WordPress site.

Read the previous and the next article: 

Chapter 2How to Find WordPress Login URL: Beginner’s Guide

Chapter 4: Installing Plugins: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Scroll to top

Pin It on Pinterest