How to install a WordPress theme is a very common question for newcomers. WordPress is a content management system that is utilized by virtually many small businesses. In fact, some studies indicate WordPress commands 20% of the market. This is due to the search engine friendly design that WordPress brings as well as many available plugins to give the platform a turbo boost. By now, there are many responsive WordPress themes available for download. A responsive theme makes your website truly mobile friendly by adjusting to the screen size of a PC, Tablet or Smartphone.

Let’s start with the most basic WordPress install for example. If you host your website using cpanel, then installing WordPress is a breeze with one click. For the bases of this article, we are going to assume you are using cpanel as your backend hosting admin panel.

Firstly, let’s describe what a “theme” is in relation to WordPress. Many novice users am sure would ask that. A WordPress theme is a combination of files that allow the platform to work together. In other words, once you install WordPress, you can then choose a specific theme or template to install. Once you install that specific theme or template, WordPress takes over allowing you to use the specifically installed template as your very own site. It is much like installing an html template on your server and publishing the site live for the whole world to see.

How to install a WordPress theme – Instructions:

Log into your hosting account Under website builders or similar, look for the WordPress icon and click on it to install WordPress Once you install, you will now have WordPress basic display mode. You now want to install a theme. To do this, you log into your WordPress dashboard – yourname.com/wp-admin Click “Appearance” from menu on left hand side- this will take you to the appearance of the section of the site Choose “add new” theme. You will see a selection of free themes to add for use. You can also search for a new theme by clicking “Feature Filter” Once you find the theme you like, click “install” Once it is installed, you click “activate”

Once your new theme has been activated, it will now populate and WordPress will now use your new theme design as your website.

It is important to note that WordPress was created specifically to be used as a blogging platform, however, it has now evolved into a robust system. That being said, it isn’t the easiest to use if you are new to WordPress as a CMS. There are many terms and structural layouts from the admin panel that you must learn and get used to if you are going to be able to manage your site. Everything from the admin side of WordPress is managed dynamically. The way you edit images, header images, footer information, text on the side of the page, even sliders all depend on the layout and the type of plugin you are using. Plugins give WordPress feature rich tools making it one of the better platforms to use. You also have widgets to worry about and some content is contained within widgets that need to be edited as well. With a static HTML site, you only need to go into the code to make the edits, but with WordPress, you need to really learn the terminology and really can’t expect to maintain your site if you have never used WordPress at all. With that being said, WordPress offers greater flexibility and security. It is always important to keep your WordPress version updated and never ever call the user admin “admin”. Change the admin name to something other than admin and make a strong password.

The next time you are looking for a simple way of how to install a WordPress theme, you know just where to go and what to do.