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WPBeginner» Blog» Beginners Guide» Beginners Guide: How to Install a WordPress Theme

Beginners Guide: How to Install a WordPress Theme

Last updated on April 5th, 2018 by Editorial Staff
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Beginners Guide: How to Install a WordPress Theme

Are you looking to install a WordPress theme? As a beginner, you probably have heard about tons of available free and paid WordPress themes. As you’re starting out, you may want to try out a few themes on your site until you find the right one that meet your needs. In this beginner’s guide, we will provide you with detailed step by step instructions on how to install a WordPress theme for beginners. We will cover three different ways to install a WordPress theme.

Before You Install a WordPress Theme

Installing a WordPress theme is easy. But keep in mind that if you activate a new theme, then it will change how your website looks and function. If you’re switching from an existing theme, then you may want to look at our checklist of things you need to do before changing WordPress themes.

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If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Install a Theme using WordPress Admin Theme Search

If you’re looking to install a free WordPress theme from the WordPress.org themes directory, then the easiest way is by using the WordPress admin theme search functionality.

First thing you need to do is login to your WordPress admin area. Next, click on Appearance » Themes.

Click on Appearance Themes

Once you are on the themes page, click on the Add New button at the top.

Add New Themes in WordPress

On the next screen, you will have the ability to select from: Featured WordPress themes, Popular WordPress themes, Latest WordPress themes, search for a specific theme, or search for themes with specific features.

Search for WordPress Theme

Based on your search, you will see a single theme or a list of themes that met your criteria. In our case, we searched for the blogging theme Slipstream.

When you see the theme that you want to install, simply bring your mouse on top of the image. This will reveal the install button, preview button, and details button. Go ahead and click on the install button.

Install a WordPress Theme

WordPress will now install your theme and show you a success message along with the link to activate or live preview.

Activate a WordPress Theme

Click on the activate button, and you’ve successfully installed and activated your WordPress theme.

Note: Depending on the theme, it may add additional settings options that you may need to configure either through the theme customizer or through a separate options panel.

Install a Theme by using Upload Method from WordPress Admin

The first method that we covered only allows you to install free themes that are available in the WordPress.org theme’s directory. But what if you want to install a commercial “premium” WordPress theme from companies like ThemeLab, StudioPress, iThemes, etc.

Or what if you want to install a custom theme? Well in this case, you would need to install the theme using the upload method from your WordPress admin.

Start by downloading the .zip file of the theme that you purchased from a marketplace or a commercial theme provider.

Next login to your WordPress admin area and click on Appearance » Themes.

Click on Appearance Themes

Once you are on the themes page, click on the Add New button at the top.

Add New Themes in WordPress

On the next screen, click on the Upload Theme button at the top.

WordPress Theme Install Upload Theme

You will be prompted to choose the zip file that you downloaded earlier. Select the file and click Install Now.

Upload the Theme File in WordPress

Once your theme is installed, you will see a success message along with the link to activate and preview the theme.

Activate a WordPress Theme

Click on the activate button, and you’ve successfully installed and activated your WordPress theme. Depending on the theme, it may add additional settings options that you may need to configure either through the theme customizer or through a separate options panel.

Note: The theme upload functionality is only available for self-hosted WordPress.org users. If you’re using WordPress.com, then you will not see this option because it limits you. In order to use custom theme upload feature, you would need to use self-hosted WordPress.org (See this article that explains the difference between Self Hosted WordPress.org vs WordPress.com). If you want to switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, then read our tutorial on how to properly move from WordPress.com to WordPress.org.

Installing a WordPress Theme using FTP

If you’re feeling adventurous and want take it to the next level, then you can learn about installing WordPress themes using FTP. Remember, this is not for true beginners because it is a little bit more advanced.

First start by reading this article about how to use FTP (Video Included).

Now that you have read the article above and installed and setup your FTP program, connect to your host using FTP. You would need to go to the path (/wp-content/themes/). Once you’re there, simply upload your theme’s folder there.

Remember you must unzip the folders before you upload a theme using FTP. Once you have uploaded the theme, you would need to go to your admin area and click on Appearance » Themes.

You should see the theme that you uploaded listed there. Bring your mouse on top of that theme and click on the activate button.

We hope this step by step guide helped you install a WordPress theme on your site. This article was created using the screenshots of version WordPress 3.9. Since WordPress is constantly evolving, we will try our best to keep this guide up to date. If you notice that there is something missing, then feel free to let us know.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also catch us on Twitter and Google+.

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92 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. zainul says:
    Dec 2, 2019 at 9:59 am

    amazing information

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 4, 2019 at 10:18 am

      Thank you :)

      Reply
  2. Will says:
    Nov 4, 2019 at 2:09 pm

    When i download my themes for some reason it seems I am missing something. For instance the last them i downloaded and installed had a graphic next to the page title and that wasn’t there, there was a graphic on the side bad, again not there…. as well as the background color. Which was sorta lavender and as well that was not their either.. What am i doing wrong?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 5, 2019 at 10:23 am

      Not all themes have their demo content as their defaults. If you reach out to your theme’s support they can let you know if they offer their demo content.

      Reply
      • Will says:
        Nov 5, 2019 at 10:48 am

        Ok. The themes that are with WordPress should have all the demo content there right? or is that also just for demo

        Reply
        • WPBeginner Support says:
          Nov 6, 2019 at 9:17 am

          You would need to reach out to each theme for if their demo content is available.

  3. Stephen Newdell says:
    Oct 16, 2019 at 12:33 am

    I want to know how to open a theme on my desktop so I can work with it here as a “Local Server” and then either copy/paste a page to my WordPress site or upload with FTP. I have the theme in a zipped folder on my desk now but how do I open it and put it to work learning my way around it?

    Please help: Advanced Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 16, 2019 at 10:15 am

      Modifying a theme would require some coding knowledge, for a starting point you may want to take a look at our child theme article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-themes/how-to-create-a-wordpress-child-theme-video/

      Reply
  4. Ahmad says:
    Apr 20, 2019 at 5:42 pm

    Hello,

    I followed the instructions to upload my custom theme, however, there isn’t an “Add New” button. Any ideas?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 22, 2019 at 11:58 am

      Is your site on WordPress.com? We have an article explaining the differences here:
      https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/self-hosted-wordpress-org-vs-free-wordpress-com-infograph/

      Reply
  5. Dogood says:
    Feb 21, 2019 at 8:32 am

    How do I maintain the graphics that comes with a theme? Themes will look very beautiful on vendor’s site but after installation, it’ll be looking boring. I’m sure there’s something I’m not doing correctly.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 21, 2019 at 10:53 am

      You would want to reach out to the theme’s support for if they have a method to replicate their demo content for how much of the demo content is available

      Reply
  6. Emmanuel Kileo says:
    Feb 2, 2019 at 6:23 am

    Not Found

    The requested URL /index.php was not found on this server.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
    Please I need some help guys

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 4, 2019 at 2:25 pm

      You may want to recreate your htaccess file using the steps in: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-troubleshooting-wordpress-errors-step-by-step/

      Reply
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