How to Install WordPress Themes

WordPress is known to be highly customizable and flexible. To maximize your site’s potential, you can polish it using free or premium WordPress themes.

Not sure how to use it? Worry not! In this article, you are going to learn how to install a WordPress theme in no time.

What is a WordPress Theme?

First, let’s start with the definition. A WordPress theme is a bundle of modifiable template files that gives a consistent design to a WordPress site’s visual interface without altering its core features.

WordPress themes are plentiful to cater to all sorts of user preferences and needs. Hence why each of them comes with a design that is customizable by modifying its code, inserting widgets, or adding plugins – making the possibilities endless.

Regardless of the niche of your website, you will surely find the right choice. WordPress has themes for every site – from ecommerce to food blogs.

Things to Consider Before Installing a WordPress Theme

Having a fitting theme is essential since it isn’t just about the skin-deep elements of your website, but also the way visitors interact with it. Hence why you should take these factors into account:

Choosing the Perfect Fit for Your Site

As there are countless WordPress themes, either official or from third-party providers (e.g., Themify or Astra Theme), selecting it could be tricky. But there are criteria you can consider to weed out your options fast.

For starters, themes are divided into different categories, but they can be broadly identified by popularity and niche. 

The first category speaks volumes about the theme’s reputation and whether it is well-maintained by the developer. Meanwhile, the second one is about the purpose of your websites.

Some themes are made for specific niches (restaurant themes, business themes, etc.), while others are multipurpose. Therefore, the first thing you have to decide is the focus of your website. We suggest picking something that defines its aim the best.

Another aspect you may want to consider is the design, as it concerns elements like colors, layouts, fonts, and whether it is easy to navigate. You can use other blogs as inspiration for starters.

Making Sure It is Compatible

A visually-pleasing theme needs to be compatible with your website so that you won’t run into technical issues later on. Take these factors into account:

• Flexible – choose the one you can easily improve or modify. That way, if you need to add or omit a feature, it won’t be difficult.
• SEO-friendly – themes can affect SEO in many ways. The two most important factors are fast loading time and proper HTML format, which makes using light template design and the correct tags essential.
• Plugin-friendly – make sure your theme can accommodate the extra functionality you add to your website.
• Cross-platform – it should be displayed correctly across different browsers and be optimized for mobile. After all, most people use more than one device to find information these days.

If you need recommendations, check out these best themes of 2019.

4 Ways to Install a WordPress Theme

Now, let’s go to the specifics on how to install a WordPress theme. There are four ways you can go about it:

Choosing from the WordPress Theme Directory

Note that this method is only limited to the free selections in the WordPress Theme Directory. If that is not an issue to you, follow these steps:

1. From your administrator area, hover above Appearance and then click Themes. Next, select Add New. It should display this menu:
   
2. Afterward, click Feature Filter to help you sort out choices.
3. Once you have checked all the boxes of your criteria, press Apply Filter. Hover above your theme of choice and select Install to do so, then Activate. After you’ve done it, you will see “New theme activated” notification. From there, you can opt to Visit site to see its appearance live.
   

Manually Uploading a Theme to WordPress Site

This method will teach you how to upload free or premium themes to WordPress manually. But first, you need to download it as a .zip file from external sources to do these steps:

1. Follow the first step from the previous method, but after you get to the menu, select Upload Theme, and then Choose file.
   
2. Locate the .zip format of your theme. For this tutorial, we’re going to use Hestia from Themeisle. Once the uploading process is finished, click Install Now. Select Live Preview to see its sneak peek or Activate it to finalize the change.
3. Some third-party themes require extra tweaking to function as advertised. You can visit the website of your theme provider to see its documentation or to get technical support.

Uploading a Theme via an FTP Client

File Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short, is an application that facilitates file exchange between computers and servers on a network.

For this method, we’re going to use FileZilla, so make sure to have it downloaded and installed first!

After preparation is ready, do the following:

Connecting FTP Client

For the transfer to work, you have to set up a connection by doing these procedures first:

1. On your hPanel, look up FTP Accounts and click on it.
2. Inside, you will see the credentials needed to establish a client-server connection. You only need the ones marked with red. If you forgot the password or don’t have one yet, make sure to set it using Change account password button.
   
3. Open FileZilla, go to File -> Site Manager. You can also access it by pressing Ctrl+S on your keyboard for Windows and CMD+S for Mac.
4. Select New site on the pop-up to make a new connection. You can change the name if you want.
   
5. Fill in the details with the information you collected in step two, but leave the settings as it is and press Connect.
6. Click OK (recommended for most transfers) if you want the app to remember your password, the second option if otherwise, and the third one to set up a two-way authentication process.
7. Check the box, so this won’t be prompted anymore in the next sessions, and then press OK.

Uploading WordPress Theme via FTP

Wait until the server returns a positive response and continue:

1. Locate wp-content inside your WordPress directory, and open it.
2. Navigate to Themes.
3. Inside the folder, you will see all of your installed WordPress themes listed. Now, let’s locate the template files you want to upload.
4. For illustration, we’re using Alternative from Theme Freesia. Don’t forget to unzip the file first.
5. Drag-and-drop the folder onto the WordPress section, and you’re all set!
6. To see if it works, go to your WordPress site, access Appearance, and then choose Themes from the dropdown.

Changing a Theme via phpMyAdmin

This method is a bit more advanced because you can run into the risk of ruining your website if you don’t do it correctly. However, it’s also an alternative solution to fix incompatible codes in your theme when repairing it via your admin area doesn’t work.

Before making changes to your MySQL database, we suggest you to backup your files first. If unsure about something, don’t hesitate to consult the experts at the WordPress community. Now, without further ado, here’s how to do it using Hostinger panel:

1. The first thing you want to do is to find the name of your WordPress database. To do this, locate the File Manager.
2. Click on the application and then find wp-config.php using the search feature.
3. Double click on the file. Scroll down to find the line “The name of the database for WordPress.” What you’re looking for is in the line below it, specifically the string of numbers beside “DB_NAME.” Save it for later.
4. Now, still within the same installation repository, let’s find the names of your existing WordPress templates. To do this, navigate to the wp-content folder to open the themes sub-folder.
5. Backtrack to your Dashboard to search for phpMyAdmin. Double click on it.
6. Inside, you will find a list of your active databases. Press Enter phpMyAdmin on the one you located in step three.
7. Double click on the wp_options to reveal another table.
8. Scroll down, go to page two by clicking on the single right arrow. Next, locate the Template and Stylesheet.
9. Change the names of both by double-clicking it.
10. That’s it. To see the changes, go to your WordPress site and select Visit Site.
11. You will notice the change immediately.

Switching Your Current WordPress Theme

Switching between the themes you have installed in your library only takes seconds. All you need to do is to follow these procedures:

1. Just like before, go to Appearance -> Themes.
2. Scroll to find something that catches your eye. Once you’ve seen it, click Activate.
3. This one is optional, but you can click Visit site to check how your new theme looks.

Conclusion

Your visitors should be able to tell your website’s intent at first sight. Achieve it by using templates that are aesthetically-relevant, pleasing to the eyes, and easy to navigate.

However, you also have to make sure that it is configurable, responsive, plugin-friendly, and light.

To install a WordPress theme, you can follow either one of these four methods:

• Using WordPress directory (free themes only)
• Manual upload
• FTP upload
• Via phpMyAdmin

Hopefully, this guide is useful next time you want to give your site a sleek makeover!