How To Install & Customize WordPress Themes & Plugins

Here’s how to install/customize/delete any WordPress Theme or Plugin.

The first step is to acquire the theme/plugin file, once you purchase one, you’re usually sent a .zip file from the source.

Usually you can just upload the .zip file into WordPress directly, but sometimes there’s additional steps, which will be outlined below.

By the way, if you’re interested in buying premium WordPress Themes & Plugins, I sell over 100+ GPL licensed themes & plugins on Etsy, for just $1.99 each - these are legit plugins of which I have a lifetime pass.

Before you install any theme, I HIGHLY suggest you back up your site, so that in the unlikely event that a theme/plugin reacts badly with your site - you can easily just restore the last working version.

I suggest using the UpDraft plugin to do so.

Before we get into the details of installing/customizing WordPress Themes & Plugins, make sure you’re subscribed to SERP Insider to access all my exclusive takes, guides & strategy breakdowns.

How to install WordPress Themes

Once you buy a WordPress Theme, you should be sent/given a file to download, which needs to be uploaded to WordPress.

This is a pretty straight-forward thing, but if you’re worried about breaking your site, you can hire me to do this for you.

Log into WordPress & head over to Appearances > Themes..

Next, click Add New..

Then “Upload Theme”..

Here, try to upload the file that you downloaded first, if it works, you should see a success message like this:

If not, you’ll see an Error that says “Theme has not been installed successfully”, and if so, don’t panic, there’s often a very simple fix.

The issue is, sometimes there’s more than one file in the .zip you download, so if you get this error after uploading, here’s what you’ll need to do.

Find the file you downloaded and unzip it.

Inside that folder, you’ll find another .zip which usually contains the actual folder you need to upload, once you find that, upload it to WordPress.

If that also failed, then:

• The theme file is damaged/broken (less likely)

• The theme is actually a plugin (very common)

So before you throw a fit, try this, go to WordPress > Plugins > Add New

Upload that .zip there, and if that worked, buy me a coffee.

If that didn’t work, it’s very likely something is wrong with your file, in which case, reach out to whoever you purchased it from, and have them help ya out.

How to install WordPress Plugins

Again with this process, I HIGHLY suggest you back up your site, because in very rare occasions, plugins can react with your site, and it can break.

While it can easily be fixed in most cases, you always want to adhere to the side of caution, and back up your site anyway.

I suggest using the UpDraft plugin to back up your site.

The process is somewhat the same when it comes to installing plugins.

Download the .zip and try to upload it by going to WordPress > Plugins > Add New - and upload.

If this doesn’t work with the file you originally downloaded, follow the same steps we did for the themes:

Find the file you downloaded and unzip it.

Inside that folder, you’ll find another .zip which usually contains the actual folder you need to upload, once you find that, upload it to WordPress.

Unlike Themes though, if this doesn’t work, reach out to the seller, because it can mean that something is wrong with the files provided.

If things have gone smoothly, you should - by now, have an installed WordPress Theme/Plugin, but how do you customize them?

How to customize WordPress Themes

Now that you have your WordPress theme installed, the first step is to activate it, and if you’re still on your “installation” page, you should be able to just click “Activate” and be done with it.

If you haven’t, simply go to WordPress > Appearance > Theme 

Here you’ll be able to see and modify all the themes you have installed.

If you want to start customizing the theme, click on Customize (above), or go to your homepage and click on Customize

How to customize WordPress Plugins

In most cases, after you’ve successfully installed a WordPress Plugin, it will appear in your admin sidebar.

However, if they don’t, you can simply go to Plugins > Installed Plugins, here you can access the settings pages of every plugin individually.

How to delete WordPress Themes

Deleting WordPress themes is easy, but dangerous if you’re not careful.

First of all, you should always back up your website, so that, in the case that something happens, you can always restore the last working version of your site.

I suggest using the UpDraft plugin to back up your site.

To delete a WordPress Theme, go to Appearance > Themes, and hover over the theme you’re trying to delete, and click on Theme Details.

From here, you can delete your theme by clicking the Delete button on the bottom right, note that you can’t delete an active theme, so make sure to use another theme before you delete your current one.

Again, I HIGHLY suggest you back up your site before doing this, just in case you make mistakes.

I suggest using the UpDraft plugin to back up your site.

Once you do that, your theme will be deleted, so good job, loser.

How to delete WordPress Plugins

Deleting plugins is simple but can also have dire consequences, especially if your theme/website is tied to them.

Again, this goes without saying, back up your fucking site so that if something goes wrong, you can just restore it.

Now that you’ve backed up your site, go to WordPress > Plugins > Installed Plugins, and either manually deactivate (then delete)..

To delete multiple plugins, you need to have them all deactivated, so select/deactivate the ones you want to delete, then Bulk Actions > Delete.

Good job scrub, you’ve now delete a theme or plugin.

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If you can’t find the theme/plugin you’re looking for, just ask me and I’ll add it for you and give you a 50% discount!