How to Install a WordPress Theme

WordPress allows the use of custom themes for a blog. There are a couple of options for obtaining custom themes to use on your WordPress site:

• Option 1: Search and install a theme via the WordPress Dashboard Themes section.
• Option 2: Download a theme from the internet onto your local computer, upload it via the themes directory, then activate the theme via the WordPress dashboard.

We created this complete tutorial on building a WordPress website, and below, we've queued up the portion about the different methods available to add a theme to your site and some basics on modifying them as well.

Option 1: Search and install a theme via WordPress dashboard

To search and install a theme:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. In the left-side navigation menu, select Appearance, then click Themes. It will display all themes you have installed already.

   

3. Search for a theme using the search box at the top menu beside the Add New button.

   

   You can also click the Add New Theme block at the bottom of the page, then use the quick search options - Popular, Latest, or Favorites - or the search box to the far right to look for themes.

   

4. Hover over a theme's thumbnail, then click Preview to see a preview of the theme, or click Install to install the theme.

   

5. Once the theme is installed, you'll have the option to Activate or do a Live Preview of the theme.
   • Clicking Activate will replace your current theme.
   • Clicking Live Preview will let you see what your site would look like using that theme without making any actual changes to your live website. If you like the theme's look, you can modify it in the editor, then click Activate & Publish to apply the theme to your live site.

Option 2: Downloading and installing a theme

You have the option of purchasing or downloading themes from a third-party website. After downloading a theme, there are two possible ways to install the theme on your WordPress site.

• via WordPress themes installer ⤵
• via Manual install ⤵
  • Step 1: Upload theme into your themes directory
  • Step 2: Activate the uploaded theme

via WordPress themes installer

To install a downloaded theme:

1. Log in to the WordPress dashboard.
2. From the left-side navigation menu, hover over Appearance and click Themes.

   

3. Click the Upload Theme button next to Add Themes. 

   

4. Select and upload your theme by clicking Choose File.

   

   Themes should be uploaded as a .zip file. Do not extract the file before attempting to upload it.
5. Click Install Now.
6. Once the theme is installed, you can Activate, do a Live Preview of the theme, or Return the Themes page.

   

   • Clicking Activate will replace your current theme.
   • Clicking Live Preview will let you see what your site would look like using that theme without making any actual changes to your live website. If you like the theme's look, you can modify it in the editor, then click Activate & Publish to apply the theme to your live site.

via Manual install

If the WordPress themes installer experiences issues, it is possible to manually install a theme by uploading it directly to your server.

Step 1: Upload theme into your themes directory

To manually install a WordPress theme, you need to upload your theme .zip file to your WordPress themes directory:

1. Go to the File Manager in cPanel or connect to your server with an FTP client.
2. Open your website's document root, then go to the themes directory inside the wp-content folder.

   

3. Hit Upload in the top menu, then click the Select File button.

   

4. Upload the .zip file of your theme. Once the file is uploaded, the progress bar will turn green and show 100%.
5. Return to the main File Manager window. Select the file you uploaded and click Extract.

   

6. You will need to add the name of your theme to the end of the directory string. So change /public_html/wp-content/themes to read /public_html/wp-content/themes/nameOfYourTheme and then click Extract File(s).
7. The extraction results will display. Close the pop-up box and refresh your page to see the new theme in the folder.
8. Finally, delete the zip file or move it to another folder; otherwise, you may have a file show up as a theme in the WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Activate the uploaded theme

After successfully extracting your theme into the WordPress themes folder, you can activate it using the following steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Hover over Appearance, then select Themes from the left-hand side menu. You should see the theme you just uploaded in Step 1.

   

3. Hover over the theme you uploaded. You will have the options Activate and Live Preview.
   • Clicking Activate will replace your current theme.
   • Clicking Live Preview will let you see what your site would look like using that theme without making any actual changes to your live website. If you like the theme's look, you can modify it in the editor, then click Activate & Publish to apply the theme to your live site.

Refresh your website. Your website should now show the new theme.

More Info!

You may also visit our What is WordPress? article and click the tabs for specific information about the different functions of WordPress.

Better yet, you may watch our "Building your First WordPress Website" video series for an in-depth tutorial on how to build a WordPress site!

If blank pages are encountered after installing a new theme, please refer to the WordPress Blog Blank Pages article for additional details.