WordPress themes: the complete guide

If you use WordPress, you need to understand the concept of WordPress themes the WordPress themes are an essential part of your website and you won't be able to get the most out of WordPress if you don't know what the WordPress themes and how they work.

In this beginners guide, we're going to share everything you need to know about WordPress themes.

If you're a seasoned WordPress user, you probably already know a lot of this information. But if you are new to WordPress, this post is for you so that you can not only understand what WordPress themes are, but also learn how you can use and customize them to create a website which looks exactly like what you want.

What is a WordPress theme?

Your WordPress theme controls the layout of what your WordPress website offers to -front-end- users. A good analogy is to think of your WordPress theme as a "garment" for your website:

When you change clothes, you change the way the world looks at you. When you change your WordPress theme, you change the way your website presents itself to visitors.Every WordPress website needs a WordPress theme - this is a basic platform requirement.

If we were to continue with the clothes analogy, not having a theme would be like going out in public without any clothes on. In fact, your website won't work if you don't have a theme installed, which is why WordPress comes with a default WordPress theme to help you get started.

The important thing to understand is that WordPress themes don't change your content (just like changing clothes doesn't change who you are) - they don't change the content on your website.

For example, if you have already published some blog posts, changing your WordPress theme will not remove or edit any content from those blog posts. Instead, it's just going to change the look of that content.

WordPress themes vs plugins

WordPress themes and plugins have very different functions and it is important to remember this:

Themes control design or appearance
Plugins control functionality

It is actually bad practice for a theme to include built-in functionality within the theme itself. Instead, a theme developer should leave the design to the theme and include all the necessary functionality in a separate plugin.

For example, suppose you want create a website which lists events. You should:

Use a plugin for add event calendar functionality
Use a theme to control the appearance of the functionality of this event calendar

By separating design from functionality, it makes it easy to change your theme. However, if your theme also offers the feature, you would essentially be "stuck" using that theme forever because changing themes would also mean you lose the functionality you need.

How to choose a WordPress theme

Because your WordPress theme controls the design of your website, it plays a vital role in the success of your website. Your WordPress theme will affect several areas such as:

User experience
Performances
Customization
etc ...

For this reason, you need to put some thought into selecting the perfect WordPress theme. In this section, we're going to share some tips on how you can do this, as well as where to find free or premium themes (and whether there's a difference between free and premium themes).

Tips for choosing quality WordPress themes

If you are not a developer, it can be difficult to determine whether or not a WordPress theme is "premium". Developers have the option of looking directly at the code to understand a WordPress theme, but non-developers don't have that luxury.

Here are some tips to help you choose a WordPress theme, even if you can't parse the code:

Read comments - most topic directories have user comment sections. Using the wisdom of the crowds is a great way to quickly assess the quality of a WordPress theme.
Check the last updated date: Most directories also show the last updated date. Make sure the theme always receives regular maintenance from the developer. Ideally, your WordPress theme should have received an update within the past six months.
Watch the demo on different devices - nowadays most internet traffic is on mobile devices. So when you watch a WordPress theme demo, don't just check out the desktop version. You will also need to open the demo on your smartphone and make sure you like the way both versions look.
Consider customization options - if you're not a developer, you should look for easy to use customization options so that you can make the WordPress theme your own. We'll cover how to customize a WordPress theme later, which will help you better understand how it works.
Test performance - it is essential that you choose a theme that will make your website load quickly. Unfortunately, this is the most difficult to assess as a non-developer. Ideally, you will need to install the theme on a test website and analyze it with a tool like GTmetrix. Or, you can also analyze the WordPress theme demo site.

Free vs premium WordPress themes

If you read other topics on choosing a WordPress theme, you might come across the idea that premium themes are inherently better than free WordPress themes.

You might see people saying things like this:

Premium WordPress themes are better coded than free ones.
Premium WordPress themes have better designs than free ones.
Premium themes are more SEO friendly than free ones.
Premium themes are more secure than free themes.
Etc ...

None of these statements are true. They can certainly be true for individual WordPress themes, but there are no inherent differences between the free theme and the premium themes that apply on the same basis.

Free WordPress themes are just code and premium themes are just code:

You can have well coded / optimized free themes and poorly coded / design / optimized free themes.
You can have well coded / optimized premium themes and poorly coded / optimized premium themes.

Also, many WordPress themes run on a 'freemium' model, which means the basic WordPress theme itself is free, but you can pay to add more features. It's exactly the same basic WordPress theme between the free and premium versions, so you certainly can't say that one is better than the other.

All that to say, if you find a free WordPress theme that you like and it does everything you need to do, that's absolutely fine. Don't feel like you have a premium theme to have a successful website. For example, the WordPress Hello theme is 100% free and used by over 300 websites.

That being said, there are a few reasons you might choose a premium theme:

Customer Support - In general, free WordPress themes do not offer customer support or it is limited. With a premium WordPress theme, you usually get support directly from the developer.
More Features - Although it's not a hard rule, premium WordPress themes usually have more features because the developer is able to invest more time on them (since they're premium).
More demos / templates - this follows the same reasoning as “more features” above.
Longevity - with a free WordPress theme, you have a higher than average chance of developers giving up on it because it's not a source of income. With premium WordPress themes, the developer has a financial incentive to continue to maintain it.

Where to find free WordPress themes

The best place to find Free WordPress Themes is the official theme directory at WordPress.org.

As of August 2020, the official directory has over 7 free WordPress themes, all required to meet basic coding standards.

Where to find premium WordPress themes

Unlike free WordPress themes, there is no official directory to find premium WordPress themes.

The biggest market for premium WordPress themes is the Marketplace ThemeForest from Envato, which has over 11 premium WordPress themes as of August 000. Prices vary by theme, but you typically pay ~ $ 2020 for a WordPress theme from ThemeForest.

Also check out the list of the best premium plugins for Elementor

Many developers also sell through their own websites. You can find these independent sellers through Google or word of mouth.

WordPress themes vs Page Builder vs templates

Now, we're going to go into some comparisons to help you understand some terms you might come across around “WordPress Themes”.

Theme WordPress vs. Theme Builder

If you feel limited by the idea of using a WordPress theme, you may prefer a theme builder (also known as a Page Builder).

A theme generator essentially allows you to "create" part or all of your WordPress theme using some type of editor (no code required). For example, Elementor Theme Builder allows you to design your WordPress theme using a visual, drag and drop interface.

You can use the theme generator to 100% design your WordPress theme. Or, you can just use it surgically to replace parts of your WordPress theme. For example, you can use a theme builder to design a custom header for your theme, but still use your theme to control other parts of the design (like how your blog posts are displayed).

Even if you are using a theme generator, you will still need to have a WordPress theme installed (again, this is a basic WordPress requirement, even if you are replacing the design of this WordPress theme altogether). In this scenario, you should choose a very light "base theme", such as the WordPress Hello theme.

WordPress Theme vs Templates vs Template Kit

Templates are another tool you can use to control theappearance of your website.

It can get a little confusing because "templates" can mean other things in some situations. different.

Discover Purekit the best template kit for Elementor

In the context of a WordPress theme, some WordPress themes come with different templates that you can use when creating content. For example, you can get a "full width template" as well as a " width narrowWhich includes a sidebar.

Under the hood, WordPress themes are also made up of different templates that all fit together through something called the WordPress template hierarchy. However, understanding the model hierarchy is an advanced topic and something only developers really need to learn.

In the context of a tool like Elementor Theme Builder, a "template" is a specific part of your theme. For example, you have separate templates on your website. It is :

Header
blog layout
the layout of the blog post list
the Footer
Etc

You can then assemble these templates into a complete website, much like legos. To save time, Elementor even offers a feature called Template Kits which gives you pre-built sets of all the templates you might need to create a cohesive design.

How to use WordPress themes

Now, we are going to go into some step by step tutorials that show you how to actually use WordPress themes in your daily life. We will cover the following parts:

Installing a WordPress theme
Editing a WordPress theme
Customizing a WordPress theme
Updating a WordPress theme
Deleting a WordPress theme
How to install a WordPress theme

WordPress also offers a built-in tool to help you install new WordPress themes through your WordPress dashboard.

Also discover the best template kit to create a hospital website with Elementor

You'll use slightly different methods to find a free WordPress theme at WordPress.org or if you have found a premium WordPress theme purchased from the developer or from a Marketplace like ThemeForest.

Free WordPress.org Theme

To install a free theme from WordPress.org:

Go to Appearance → Themes In your WordPress dashboard.
Click on the button Add new.
Search for your theme by name.
Hover over the theme and click Install.
Once the installation process is complete, the Install button will change to Activate. Click on it to define it as the theme of your web suite.

Premium Theme (or any WordPress theme in a zip file)

If you purchased a premium WordPress theme, you received a Zip file that contains it. If you don't have this file yet, you should be able to download it from where you purchased your WordPress theme.

Once you have the Zip file, here's how to install it:

Go to Appearance → Themes In your WordPress dashboard.
Click on the button Add new.
Click on the button Upload a theme.
Use the button Choose File to select the Zip file on your local computer.
Click on install now.

Once the installation process is complete, you can click the button Enable to configure your default WordPress theme on your website.

How to change a WordPress theme

If you ever want to change things up, you can also change your WordPress theme anytime you want. Again, you won't lose any of your content when you change a WordPress theme - all of your blog posts and pages will still be there.

The only exception where you might lose some content is if you added the content directly in the WordPress theme settings. For example, some WordPress themes offer you a theme-specific tool to customize your home page.

In such a scenario, you might lose your homepage content after the migration, but you wouldn't lose any core WordPress content.

Usually, you don't need to worry about this. However, because there is a small chance, we recommend that you back up your WordPress website if you are changing the WordPress theme on an existing website.

You can follow our guide on how to backup WordPress .

To modify your WordPress theme, go to Appearance → Themes.

There you will see a list of all the themes that you have installed on your website (if you don't see your WordPress theme yet, you can install it via the methods above). Your current WordPress theme will be marked as active.

To switch to a new WordPress theme, hover over it and click Activate:

How to customize a WordPress theme

Once you have chosen your theme WordPress active, you need to customize it to make it your own. Here are some ways to customize your WordPress theme.

The WordPress Customizer

Most WordPress themes come with their personalization settings which allow you to customize it to make it your own. The exact options depend on the theme - some WordPress themes give you a wide range of options while others give you a very limited selection.

In 2020, most modern WordPress themes place these customization options in a dashboard tool called the WordPress Customizer. In the WordPress Customizer, you will see a real-time preview of your website on the right and a set of options in one lateral bar bottom left

When you change these options, you will see them instantly update the preview of your website. This allows you to see how your settings affect your website.

To open the WordPress Customizer, you must go to Appearance → Customize :

Note - some themes use their own settings area instead of the native WordPress Customizer. However, in 2020 this is quite rare and most modern WordPress themes should use the WordPress Customizer. If your theme does not use the Customizer, you should consult the latter's documentation for more help.

Custom CSS

If you know some CSS, you can also manually customize a theme using your custom CSS.

Also read our guide on How to add custom CSS to your WordPress blog

The safest place to add this custom CSS code is the area CSS Additional in the WordPress Customizer.

Elementor

At this point, you might be wondering, "What if I want to customize my theme beyond its default settings and you don't know about custom CSS?" "

In this case, if you just want to find an easier way to customize your WordPress theme, you have to use Elementor Theme Builder.

Elementor Theme Builder gives you a visual, drag and drop interface that you can use to customize 100% of your WordPress theme. With this theme generator, you can design "templates" for different parts of your website. For example, you can design a template to replace your header or the layout of your blog post.

Unlike WordPress' customization options, which are limited, Elementor Theme Builder gives you full control over the design and layout of each element.

Child themes

If you want to make even more detailed changes and have some development knowledge, you can also edit your WordPress theme code.

However, if you want to make these changes, you need to use what's called a child theme. A child theme gives you a safe space to make edits so that those changes aren't overwritten when you update your parent theme.

To find out more see our guide: How to create and customize a child theme on WordPress

If you're not a developer (or even if you are), Elementor Theme Builder offers a much simpler, no-code method for customizing your WordPress theme templates.

How to update a WordPress theme

Please note: : Although updating your WordPress theme doesn't cause any problems, we always recommend that you back up your website before applying any type of WordPress update.

To update a theme, go to Appearance → Themes. If a theme has an update, a prompt will say " New version available ». Update now »

To update the theme, just click on the link Update now - WordPress will take care of the rest.

To go more, check out our full guide on how securely update all parts of WordPress.

How to delete a WordPress theme

In general, it's a good practice to always delete unused WordPress themes (and plugins). This cuts down on the space your website takes up on your server and also removes unnecessary code from your servers, which is always a good thing.

To delete an unused WordPress theme:

Go on Appearance → Themes.
Click on the theme to delete to open the popup Theme details.
Click on the button Remove.

Please note: : we recommend that you leave the default WordPress theme installed, even if you are not using it. This is useful to have it as a troubleshooting step if your website is having errors. In almost all WordPress troubleshooting articles, you will see "switch to default theme" as one of the steps. Ideally, this means that you will only have two themes installed:

Your active theme
The default theme (eg Twenty Twenty)

How to create a WordPress theme

If you want to create your own WordPress theme, you need a solid understanding of web design as well as coding languages, such as HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript.

The very simplified process is to:

Use PHP, HTML and JavaScript to create the various files and features of the templates for your website. For example, a template for your header, another for your blog posts, another for your footer, etc ...
Use CSS to control the appearance of all of these templates.

Unfortunately, if you are not an experienced developer, you will not be able to code your WordPress theme from scratch.

See also our list of 35 WordPress themes to create a website

However, that doesn't mean you can't create a custom design. As we covered, Elementor Theme Builder lets you design 100% of your theme using a visual, drag and drop (and no code) interface.

You can use the Hello theme to create a light blank canvas. Then you can design everything from scratch with Elementor theme builder.

Get started with WordPress themes today

If you want to use WordPress, you need to understand what WordPress themes are and how they work.

If you have read to the end of this post, it means you now have the knowledge.

You may also like The best Elementor template kits

You can find a free or premium WordPress theme that meets your needs and install and customize it on your website. And if you ever feel limited when working with a theme, you can use Elementor Theme Builder to basically design your own WordPress theme from scratch. Or, you can also just use it to surgically enhance specific parts of your WordPress theme.

Get Elementor Pro Now!

Conclusion

Here is ! That's it for this complete guide to WordPress themes. If you still have any questions about working with WordPress themes, let us know in the comments.

However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.

But meanwhile, share this article on your different social networks.

...