Topic
Build and Install a WordPress Theme
How themes work, how to install one from a .zip, and how to make one of your own, with or without code.
Your theme decides how every page of your website looks. Since WordPress 5.9 in January 2022, the recommended kind of theme has been the block theme, which you can edit visually in the Site Editor. These guides explain how themes work and how to get the one you want onto your site.
What this topic covers
- Installing: uploading a theme .zip, and fixing the errors that stop an upload, in how to install a WordPress theme from a .zip.
- Choosing a type: what changed with full site editing, in block themes vs classic themes.
- How they're made: style.css, theme.json, templates, parts and patterns, in what's inside a block theme.
- Safe customising: when you need a child theme, in WordPress child themes explained.
- Making your own: three routes from no-code to hand-built, in how to make your own WordPress theme.
The quickest route of all is our free theme builder, which makes a block theme .zip in your browser.
Guides in this topic
01
Install a theme from a .zip
Upload a theme .zip in a couple of minutes, install it by FTP if the upload fails, and fix the errors that most often…
02
Block vs classic themes
Block themes are edited visually in the Site Editor; classic themes use PHP templates and the Customizer. Here is how…
03
Make your own theme
Three routes to a theme of your own: an online theme builder, designing in the Site Editor and exporting, or writing…
04
Inside a block theme
A tour of the files in a block theme: which two are required, what theme.json does, and how templates, parts and…
05
Child themes explained
A child theme keeps your code changes safe when the parent theme updates. Here is how they work, when you need one and…