WordPress is an excellent web development tool and still remains the most popular content management system. If you have chosen to build your website with WordPress, that is great. After your installation, you will definitely be concerned about the look and feel of your website. This may require you to install and setup a premium WordPress theme or do some configuration if you are good at that. The easy way will surely be to premium theme that suits your purpose and implement on your website. This post takes you through how you can install a premium theme and the basic configuration you need on your premium theme after installation.
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WordPress isn’t only easy to use for blogging, it also offer tons of fantastic options for design. Most notably, thousands of awesome free and premium themes you can use to customize the look of your website, with just a few clicks of your mouse.
This article will show you how you can easily install a WordPress theme on your existing website. We’ll also be highlighting some of the most common errors folks run into when installing a theme for the first time.
Common errors with WordPress Theme Installation
Before we go further, let us note that it is not possible to install WordPress premium themes from third party developers on WordPress.com.. So if your WordPress installation is on WordPress.com, this guide will not be helpful to you. WordPress.com doesn’t allow you to upload your own themes, you have limit yourself to what is available for free or in their marketplace. So this guide will be useful to you if your WordPress is hosted on a different platform like Todhost Web Hosting.
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Getting Started
So, to get started, you need an active web hosting account linked to your domain name. Todhost Web Hosting offers affordable hosting options with 1- click WordPress installation. Todhost offers a Managed WordPress hosting where we manage your server side settings for you.
Now, let's get down to WordPress theme installation on host WordPress website.
Option 1: Install your theme through WordPress
If you’ve purchased your premium theme from our preferred developer, you will need to download the theme file before you try and install it.
Common error: Downloading the wrong theme zip file.
There will be certainly a problem if you download all files instead of the theme only. If you download a quickstart or self installer file, what it means is that you will have to install it lie a full WordPress install..
Common error: Zip file won’t download
It’s possible that you have your computer setup to automatically unzip files when you download them. You cannot install a regular folder in WordPress. If this is the case remember to right click and “Compress” your theme before moving onto the next step and installing it.
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Backup Your WordPress website
Before you actually get started with installing your premium theme, mae sure your website is backed up to keep it safe, just in-case anything goes wrong and you want to return to the functional state your website was before your installation..
Next: Log into your WordPress installation and before you do anything else make sure WordPress is up to date. Okay – this might not effect the installation of your WordPress theme but it’s an important security step.
Now that you’re sure you’re running the latest version of WordPress, navigate to Appearance > Themes and click the “Add New” button at the top of the window. Then click the “Upload Theme” button.
Click the “Browse…” button and select the zip file you previously downloaded. Click “Install Now” and then wait a minute while WordPress completes the installation. Once the theme files have been completely uploaded just click the “Activate” button.
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Common error: Stylesheet is missing
If after clicking “Install Now” you see an error that “The package could not be installed. The theme is missing the style.css stylesheet,” this happens if you probably didn’t follow our instructions from step 1. You more than likely downloaded all the files or quickstart files instead of the the theme. Go back and double check that you’ve downloaded the correct file.
Common error: Are you sure you want to do this?
After browsing for your theme and clicking the “Install Now” button, it’s possible your WordPress installation will ask “Are you sure you want to do this?” This could be due to the fact that you are trying to install the wrong zip file (remember – you have to instal the theme file only”) or it’s possible the upload limit on your server isn’t large enough for the installation to go on successfully.
If it’s the latter, you’ll need to contact your hosting company to have them increase it, or do it yourself by accessing your PHP.INI file via FTP or using the cPPanel filemanager and increasing the upload_max_filesize value.
Common error: White screen
If you attempt to install your theme, and end up on a white screen of death (you know, the WordPress version of the Windows blue screen of death) you probably need to make a tweak to your server. The most common cause of this error is that your server’s memory limit to PHP is too low. To solve this either: Contact your hosting provider to have them increase your memory limit. Todhost customer suport will always do this for you or, access your hosting cPanel to increase your memory limit.
Increase your memory limit yourself via FTP or in cPanel filemanager by adding the following code to the bottom of your wp-config file (right before “That’s all, stop editing!”): define( ‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘256M’ );
Option 2: Install your theme via FTP/SFTP
You can also install your theme via FTP/SFTP.. It's pretty simple and you just follow these simple instructions.
First, you need to install a FTP (file transfer protocol) solution – we like WS-FtpPro by Ipswitch or FileZilla (they are both free). Once you’ve got it installed, open up your app to connect to your server. You will also need to be logged into your hosting account to gather the following information:
Name: Give your server a nickname that you’ll remember (especially if you plan on connecting to multiple sites)
Where: Choose a location for your server (favorites just happens to be my default FTP/SFTP folder).
Protocol: This will depend on which options your host provides for you to connect to your server. Go to your hosting account and locate your FTP/SFTP settings. This will vary based on your host. These information are contained in the information you received when your web hosting account was created. You can still retrieve them fromyour Todhost client area or contact customer support.
Server: Enter your domain name (the server url address) here.
Username & Password: This will either be provide by your host in the FTP/SFTP settings or you’ll have the option to create your own new ones. Copy and paste them over.
Port: Be sure you’re set to use the same port as specified by your host – you may not need to change this.
Once you’ve added all the required information, save your server, then click to open it and browse to your wp-content/themesfolder.
Next you’ll need to download your WordPress theme which we covered in detail up above in the “installing your WordPress theme via WordPress” section. Please make sure you’re downloading the “theme file only.”
With FTP/SFTP you’ll need to unzip the that file you just downloaded (it should look like an open folder icon). Then upload the extracted theme file.
Now log into your WordPress installation and navigate to Appearance > Themes and click to activate your theme.
Common error: Wrong theme file/folder
When installing via FTP, it’s very important to be sure you upload only the theme file onto your server. A zipped file won’t work this time! Check that you’ve remembered to unzip your download. And, also double check that you’re uploading the correct theme only folder. You may have accidentally downloaded the full WordPress installation package and anything else.
That’s all. You now know how to install a premium WordPress theme for your website. At this point, you ma proceed to customize and make some required security changes.
