A WordPress theme helps you in designing and customizing the look and feel of your WordPress site or blog. If you’re just starting out, there are some basics you should know about first, check them out here.
You will find many free WordPress themes available right in your WordPress Dashboard. There are premium themes available in the Dashboard as well on other sites on the Internet.
Here are some of the sites which have a great collection of premium WordPress themes: Themeforest, themes, Creative Market, MOJO Marketplace, etc.
If you download a theme right from your Dashboard, there’s a one-click install button available.
On the other hand, if you get a WordPress theme from another site, you will receive a zip file that you can upload for installation.
You can always search themes from WordPress free themes directory using WP dashboard, or you can download any .zip file for the theme and upload it directly using any of the below given two methods.
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Step by step guide to install a WordPress theme using a zip file
Most of the premium themes, even the ones that are in the WordPress dashboard offer zip files.
When you go to the theme of your choice, hit the download button to get the zip file.
Login to your WordPress and go to appearance > themes > upload. On reaching add new, select the zip file from your desktop. Normally, it would be in your Downloads folder.
Click on upload, browse your zip file from your desktop and upload it. After it gets uploaded, you will see an option to activate it.
By clicking on preview, you can see how your site will look like with that theme applied.
Sometimes, the preview might have an issue, in those cases, you can activate and then check out how your site looks.
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Upload a theme using FTP
Installing a WordPress theme through FTP is a manual way of installation. This method comes in handy when your server security doesn’t let you install themes through the Dashboard.
So, lets get started.
First, you need to go to your cPanel as it gives you FTP access. How to do that? There are two ways to go to your websites’ cPanel.
Method#1: Go to the address bar and add ‘:2083’ at the end of your URL. It should look like this,
https://yourwebsite.com:2083
Method#2: Type ‘/cpanel’ at the end of your website’s URL. It should look like this,
https://yourwebsite.com/cpanel.
Apart from FTP, you need to have software like WinRAR to unpack the .zip file. This is because, in the manual FTP method, we upload the theme file unzipped.
Right click on the downloaded zip folder to extract the files on your desktop. The files will be extracted to a new folder by the same name.
You have to upload this folder in your WordPress directory.
Upload the theme to the WordPress themes folder. You can find it under the WP-content folder of your WordPress directory.
How to delete a WordPress theme?
Go to appearance> themes and click on the theme which you want to delete. At the right-bottom, you will see a delete button.
Always remember to not delete a theme which is currently active on your site. First activate a different theme, then delete a theme.
As shown in the above picture, you can browse to Appearance> Themes and click on delete to remove any theme.
I suggest, never delete your live theme directly. Switch to another one first and then deletes existing themes.
You can also log in to your FTP Manager and locate wp-content/Themes and click on the delete button.
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Features to look for in a WordPress theme
Responsive design
You can’t compromise with this one. More and more people are browsing the Internet through their mobile devices.
Over 60% of searches online now come from a mobile device.
If your theme is responsive, you don’t have to worry about how your site looks like on different devices. It will adjust all the elements on its own.
Also, websites which provide a better mobile experience to their readers rank higher than the ones who don’t. With the Google algorithm update, a responsive web design increases visibility on search engines—because it is mobile-friendly.
You can copy the URL of theme’s demo page and paste it in Google’s Mobile Friendly Test page.
Customization
Every theme, irrespective of being paid or free gives you customization options. You have to see up to what extent can it be customized so that your site doesn’t end up looking like every other site which has this theme installed.
How can you customize a WordPress theme? If you’re good at handling codes like CSS, you add additional custom CSS in the theme editor.
If not, you can customize the options provided in the theme editor. With the code, you get the ability to edit much more things on your site.
Some WordPress themes come with plugins that let you customize more intricately. It is easy to get lost customizing your site. Make sure to not go overboard with colors.
I recommend using the Easy Google Fonts plugin to get access to easy-to-read Google fonts for your site.
Steer clear of too many tacky animations. Keep the design professional.
SEO-Friendly
The WordPress theme should coded efficiently to make it SEO-friendly.
Many premium WordPress theme developers will let you know that their pages are optimized for SEO.
When browsing through themes, check the description to see if they have mentioned that the theme is SEO-friendly. The theme should be light-weight so that it loads quick.
Here are some tips on how to make your WordPress site load faster.
When was it last updated?
Check the version and when was the theme last updated in the description. A good reliable theme should get updated from time-to-time so that it remains compatible with the new upcoming features or plugins.
Also, there should be support available so that if you encounter any issue with the theme’s design, you can talk to them about it. Or else you’ll be left stranded.
Having a theme that gets updated periodically enables your website to invariably be compatible with your WordPress website, as WordPress updates regularly.
Easy to understand layout
The layout of the page that displays your blogposts should be simple and easy to scan through.
It should not be too cluttered as it will be overwhelming for the readers. Showcase your content in a minimal manner that is comfortable to read.
The sidebar and the header should be appropriately sized. A sidebar that is too wide can take the focus away from your actual content of the article.
If you want to create your own page templates, you can do so if you are an expert in HTML, CSS, and PHP. It is a long process. You can create a child theme of the theme you are using right now to modify the layout.
