WordPress Themes | WordPress 101

Welcome back to WordPress 101 series. If you are new to WordPress, follow our series WordPress 101 from the beginning to learn WordPress basics in detail. This article will discuss how to find, install, and set up perfect WordPress themes for your site.

WordPress themes

Several WordPress features make it the most popular CMS, and among those are its themes. By default, the latest WordPress (5.6) ships with three themes, namely Twenty Nineteen, Twenty Twenty, and Twenty Twenty-One.

To find the installed themes, go to Appearance > Themes.

As you can guess by the name of the themes, WordPress releases one theme each year with major new features or improvements. Currently, the latest theme is Twenty Twenty-One, and here is how it looks like when activated –

All default themes are simple-looking but extremely fast. If you prefer website performance overlook, the default theme is what you can stick to. Otherwise, there are thousands of free & premium WordPress themes available in the market.

It does not matter what category of the website you want to build; there are themes available.

Currently, the WordPress repository has over 8000+ themes. Most of these themes are free for basic usage, but one may need to buy a premium version to enjoy all features.

Installing themes from the WordPress repository is extremely simple. Click Appearance > Themes > Add New.

Find specific themes by using the Feature Filter.

But WordPress repository is not all. Envato is one of the biggest WordPress themes markets on the Internet. Currently, Envato has over 50,000+ WordPress themes available.

You can buy eCommerce themes, blog themes, marketing themes, and a lot more. Envato is probably the biggest themes market in the industry. There are many more such markets where you can get your desired themes.

WordPress does not run out of choice. With the new Gutenberg editor, WordPress provides new blocks in each update that improves website design. With each theme, you get a set of options to help you configure the website as you wish.

Best WordPress theme

With these many themes, one might find it difficult to choose the best one. Well, it ought to be. First of all, you must know the type of website you want to build. There are many WordPress multi-purposes themes, but those are heavy, and one may not use most of its features ever.

It is best to go with a specific theme that’s specialized in serving what you want. For example, if you want to create a blog, go with the Blog themes category, and it’ll show you all the themes for blogs. If you dig deeper into the blog category, there are many more blog themes, such as one-column themes, two-columns, or even three-column themes.

When it comes to selecting the best WordPress theme, there isn’t any tool. Go through your website niche, needs, and preferences to find the best one.

All you need to remember, the theme you choose, regardless of how it looks, its category, and how many columns it has; it must be responsive, support AMP, SEO-friendly, and should provide frequent updates.

To know how frequent the updates are for a specific theme, read the updates history. Popular themes such as Jannah provide multiple updates monthly. If a theme provides updates monthly, it’s considered excellent support.

How to install WordPress theme?

Installing a new WordPress theme is as simple as installing a game from the play store. If you want to install a theme from the WordPress repository, select the theme, click ‘Install’ and ‘Activate.’

You should have received a theme’s zip file if you have purchased a theme from Envato or any other third-party market. Download the .zip file and open the WordPress dashboard. Go to Appearance > Add New > Upload Theme.

Click the ‘Upload Theme‘ button and upload the .zip file.

Once done, the new theme should be available on the themes page. Now click the ‘Activate‘ button to activate your newly installed theme.

How to customize WordPress themes?

Just activating a theme will not configure itself. Most themes require manual configuration, such as designing the homepage, creating/activating new menus, header, footer, blog page, and so on. Almost all premium themes have their own setup page where each setting can be toggled on/off. You can even import demos (if your theme provides) to set up a website quickly and easily.

Basic theme’s settings reside under Appearance > Customize.

If you have purchased a theme, it has its own setting page.

Talking about plugins, WordPress plugins is another feature of why WordPress is the most popular CMS. If you have installed a free theme, mostly Customizer, you have to set up your theme or install additional plugins to use additional features. In the next article, we’ll learn about WordPress plugins. Until then, goodbye and stay safe.