Congrats!
You’ve just purchased or downloaded a new WordPress theme, and you want to get started. As you start creating your website, we’re here to help with our WordPress support, tutorials, and services. Whatever your website project entails, we’ll help you make the most of it! But first, let’s go through the steps to install your WordPress theme.
How to Install a WordPress Theme – 5 Steps
1. Download your WordPress theme from MOJO Marketplace or wherever you got your theme.
2. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
3. Upload your theme .zip file to WordPress.
1. Download Your WordPress Theme
After purchasing your new WordPress theme, visit your MOJO Marketplace account and click log in next to the cart icon. Or if you got your theme elsewhere, make sure you download the files and save them to your desktop for the next step.
Once you login to your MOJO account, you can access your dashboard by clicking on your user icon. In the dashboard you can access your purchases as shown here.
Next, you have two options.
1. You can click install and have one of our web pros do it for you! Choose install and activate for $49, or have us install, activate, and configure your theme to look like the demo for just $149! If you choose this option, you can skip the rest of the article.
2. Do it yourself! Just click the download button to the right and choose main file. You’ll start downloading your theme .zip, which you’ll upload to WordPress in the next couple steps.
2. Log In to Your WordPress Admin Dashboard and Access the Theme Menu
Your theme file in hand, you’re ready to start this thing up!
Head to your WordPress admin dashboard by typing in your domain name with /wp-admin added to the end. For example: yourdomain.com/wp-admin. Just note that if you’re WordPress installation is located in a sub-folder (like yourdomain.com/wordpress), you’ll need to add /wp-admin to the end of that.
(Contact your hosting provider if you have trouble finding your WordPress admin page).
Once you’re there, login with the credentials you set up upon installing WordPress on your site. Here’s what to do if you can’t log in.
Next, access the appearance tab from the left-hand sidebar in the dashboard. Choose themes and your dashboard will display all the themes installed on your site.
Note: just because a WordPress template is installed on your site doesn’t mean it’s active. For example, your installation of WordPress usually comes with a few free themes installed.
It’s super easy to swap out themes with WordPress, and you can do it all from this panel.
3. Upload Your Theme .zip to WordPress
Next, you’ll need to access the theme .zip file you downloaded from MOJO Marketplace. This should be located in your downloads folder.
Take note of where it’s located, click upload theme, choose file, locate the .zip and choose open as shown below.
The file will upload and when it’s done you can click install. This won’t activate the theme on your site yet, it just installs the files and makes the theme available for your WordPress site.
Wait until you see “theme installed successfully” displayed above the links. If you run into trouble, please contact our support team and we’ll help you figure it out. 😀
4. Preview and Activate Your New WordPress Theme
With the links at the bottom of the installation status, you can preview or activate the premium theme you just installed.
A theme preview allows you to see what your content looks like before activating it. That means you get a demo of the theme with your content plugged in before you push it live.
If you are switching themes, and want to really test out the configuration before you say go, try the Theme Test Drive plugin. Using this plugin lets you “activate” a theme on the backend while your original site remains in place at your url for everyone else.
When you click live preview, the theme is loaded with default settings and all your existing content in place. You can customize it visually using the sidebar.
If you like what you see, you can click save & activate to make it live.
If you click activate without checking the preview, the theme will go live on your site with default settings. You can customize it by accessing appearance > customize from the WordPress admin dashboard.
5. Get Help with WordPress When it Counts
Your first WordPress site build comes will come with a lot of questions. If you want to fast track the learning curve, consider trying WP Live.
WP Live gives you access to WordPress experts via chat, email, and over the phone, starting at $29/month. When you get stuck, give us a call at 855-464-5345.
