Bluehost Web Hosting Help

WordPress Theme Installation

How to Use Our Theme Auto Installer

  1. Open My Sites from the side navigation menu to the left.
  2. Hover over a site, then click the Manage Site button that appears.
  3. On the Overview tab, click the Manage button under Themes.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the page; you’ll see a Purchased Premium Themes section with your purchased themes.
  5. Click the Install Theme button. You will be prompted to install the theme.

How to Manually Install a Theme in 5 Steps

  1. Download your WordPress theme from Bluehost or wherever you got your theme.
  2. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
  3. Upload your theme .zip file to WordPress.
  4. Preview and Activate your WordPress theme.

If you need extra help customizing your theme and/or site, consider a Blue Sky support subscription.

How to Download your WordPress Theme

  1. After purchasing your WordPress theme from Bluehost, log in to your Bluehost.com account.
  2. Navigate to My Sites in the side navigation menu to the left.
  3. Hover over a site, then click the Manage Site button that appears.
  4. On the Overview tab click the Manage button under Themes.
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the page; you’ll see a Purchased Premium Themes section with your purchased themes.
  6. Open the ellipses menu for the theme you wish to download, then Download Main File. You’ll start downloading your theme .zip file. You will upload this .zip to your WordPress site in the next steps.

How to Install a Theme in WordPress

  1. Log In to Your WordPress Admin Dashboard and access the Theme Menu
    From My Sites, click Log in to WordPress. Next, access the Appearance tab from the left-hand sidebar in the dashboard. Choose Themes, and your dashboard will display all themes currently installed on your site.

  2. Upload Your Theme .zip to WordPress
    Next, you’ll need to access the theme .zip file you downloaded from Bluehost. This is typically located in your downloads folder. Take note of its location, then click Upload Theme or Add 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.

  3. 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 publish it live.
    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.
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