How to Install a WordPress Theme You Purchased via Third-Party

how to install and activate wordpress theme via ftp and via dashboard.

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If you’ve already purchased a WordPress theme, and saying to yourself, now what do I do? This tutorial will show you how to get that theme on your WordPress site.

WordPress comes with a few free themes but we recommend using a premium WordPress theme. If you’d like to see a list of places where you can purchase custom WordPress themes, we’ll post them at the end of this tutorial.

Install a WordPress Theme via FTP Upload

Method 1: FTP

One method of installing a WordPress theme is via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) upload, using a platform such as Filezilla, which is free. In this instance, you would upload the unzipped theme file to your site’s WP-content > themes folder. Be sure to upload both the parent theme and any child themes you may be using.

Install WordPress Theme via WordPress Admin Dashboard

Method 2: Direct Upload

Second method of installing a WordPress theme is directly from within your WordPress admin dashboard.

Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New and this time select the zipped/.ZIP file of your theme.

2. Now when you go to your WordPress dashboard > appearances > themes, you should see your themes have been added.

How to Activate a WordPress Theme

Now that your WordPress theme or themes are uploaded, you have to activate them. For a theme that is not a child theme, you can go ahead and activate it.

Activating a Parent/Child Theme

However, as in this example, our theme is a child theme. So we had to purchase and upload both Genesis (the framework/parent theme) and Modern Blogger Pro (the child theme). In cases where you have a parent and child theme, you must activate the PARENT FIRST, and the child theme SECOND.

First, hover over the parent theme (in this case “Genesis“) and click “activate”