How to Change WordPress Themes?

Step 1: Back up Your Site

Before you do anything else, make sure you have a full site backup in place. This is absolutely vital, mainly because if something goes wrong, you’ll have a clean restore point to work from.

We’d advise you to work through whichever technique is more convenient for you before moving onto the second step.

Step 2: Navigate to Your WordPress Themes Section

Now you’re ready to change your theme. To get started, head to Appearance > Themes within WordPress:

How To Change WordPress Themes

Here, you’ll see a list of all your currently-installed themes. Your active theme will be clearly highlighted:

change wordpress theme

What you do next depends on whether your new theme can be found in the WordPress Theme Directory, or whether you’ve bought a premium theme elsewhere. Regardless, click the Add New button, and move on to the next phase.

Step 3: Install Your WordPress Theme

To choose from the thousands of free themes that are available, simply search for one using the drop-down menus on the Add Themes page:

install wordpress theme

If you’ve bought a premium theme, on the other hand, you’ll be provided with a ZIP file. This can be installed by using the Upload Theme link on the same page, and then using the Choose File dialog to locate the file:

changing wordpress themes

Either way, once you’ve found or uploaded your desired theme, you’ll just need to click on the relevant Install button. WordPress will work its magic, and you’re almost done!

Step 4: Activate Your New WordPress Theme

The final step is to activate your theme. For premium themes, you’ll usually see an activation link on a confirmation screen, after the installation process is complete.

If not, you can view all of your currently installed themes by heading back to the Appearance > Themes screen. To apply a new one, simply hover over it and click on the Activate button:

activate wordpress theme

Once that’s finished, you can check out your new theme on the front end of your site. It should be up and running, and looking pretty good.

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