A Definite WordPress Themes Guide for Beginners

If you are looking for a well-organized, stylish, and beautifully-architect (CMS) content management system, then there is no doubt that WordPress is perfect for you. WordPress is a personal publishing system that is built on PHP and MySQL, usually used with MySQL or MariaDB database servers; however, it is also an SQLite database engine friendly. It is licensed under GPL and is an official successor of b2/cafelog. It provides you unbelievable features like plugin architecture and a template system making WordPress a favourite among bloggers community as it also supports other forms of web content. This includes more traditional mailing lists and forums, media galleries, and online stores as well.

WordPress powers 26% of the web, it has around 60 million active websites, and that includes 33.6% of the top 10 million sites like Angry Birds, The Obama Foundation, BBC America, Sony Music, etc. as of April 2019.

What are you waiting for? 

If you want to create a website, then say YES to WordPress.

Or you want to build any form of a website, you must first need to decide the theme. The theme is what your site will look like, always remember – a more attractive idea captures more visitors. In WordPress, you have various default themes to choose from, and in this article, we will look at them all.

Points covered in this article       

1. What is the default WordPress theme?
2. Importance of your WordPress Theme
3. Step by step tutorial to create a WordPress theme
4. Progress of Default WordPress Themes
5. How to Install a WordPress Theme?
6. Methods to add custom dashboard logo in WordPress
7. The process to create a Child Theme in WordPress
8. Points to be considered while selecting a perfect WordPress theme
9. Tips to improve WordPress theme security

1. What is the default WordPress theme?

WordPress provides you with some default themes which you can display on the front end of the website. It will be the first theme you will see when you first install WordPress.

Default WordPress themes are made by keeping in mind to display the features of WordPress; that’s what makes it feature-rich as can be used to build a website.

The default WordPress theme is a saver!

If the user’s installed theme gets removed or something else happens with it, then WordPress automatically reverts to the default theme.

# Importance of a WordPress Theme

It has been observed that most people do not consider the theme to be an essential aspect of their WordPress site. It means that they are not aware of the wonders that a theme can do for a website, or it also is possible that they don’t know how to use themes to their best. The following points explain the importance of WordPress theme:

1) Makes Website Attractive

WordPress themes are very beneficial to those who don’t have any knowledge about website designing. Any newbie in this field can use the many WordPress themes available. It provides easy drag and drops options to developing websites. So, you can create an attractive website as you have planned.

A domain bifurcates these themes, and you can select one which suits your business. Here it saves the efforts of customization and design planning.

2) Enhances Functionality

Whenever people rely on WordPress, they always consider the question of how they can manage plugins to make their website more accomplished and responsible. In such cases, the type of plugins you are installing and the way you adjust your website depends entirely on the kind of theme that you are picking. An incorrect selection of themes can mess up the site and its design.

So, themes are considered an essential part of helping you to install a plugin.

3) Supports Multiple Websites

It is easy to get hands-on, such a theme that supports a lot of websites at the same time. This superiority of WordPress theme saves you from overspending to buy different personnel themes when you are ready to get various sites developed.

4) Provides Faster Results

It is a crucial aspect of choosing a WordPress theme because the importance of themes is not only limited to giving user-friendly features or being cheaper, but it also helps you to build your website faster as well. If you need a website on an immediate basis, then the WordPress theme comes as a helps for you. And the good thing is that the themes also come with a demo.

5) Keeps Website Up To the Standards

As we all know that the unexpected changes are happening on the internet, now and then. That’s why WordPress is improving with each passing day, which ensures that significant changes happening all around the world, will not leave you behind.

The WordPress themes keep you alert about updates so that you can upgrade it as the new version releases. It protects you from surviving in the cut-throat competition. With the latest updates, you not only keep your website up to the standards but also add several new useful features.

6) Provides Premium Quality

The WordPress themes do not negotiate on the lack of quality. All the WordPress themes are so well coded, so it is challenging to encounter any error in the code. WordPress themes are always tested by skilful professionals who ensure providing error-free experience to its users.

Moreover, some of the themes come with ordered and SEO optimized code, which permits your site to get observed by search engines quickly.

7) Adds Beneficial Features

The WordPress theme has a lot of paid features, which means that not every user is tech-savvy and can edit the code whenever it required. Therefore, you can select a WordPress theme to build a website from the enormous collection of features and functionalities.

Furthermore, some themes make you free from resource-hogging plugins, as they do most of the things for you. These types of themes save your time from researching, installation, and plugin management to meet the basic needs of your website.

8) Supports Browser Easily

At whatever time you build a website, you need to develop it from the customer’s point of view. Therefore, you need to keep these things in mind that the variation of browsers used by your customers. If you failed to build a website that supports multiple browsers, you would lose a large number of customers. So, to provide a better visitor experience, WordPress themes help to the central extent by supporting a lot of browsers.

At this moment, you must have understood the importance of WordPress themes for your site.

Ready to develop a WordPress theme?

Now let’s have a look at how to develop a WordPress theme.

The WordPress theme permits you to do everything without having the knowledge of code that powers it.

So, let’s get started with the WordPress Themes Development:

1: Make a folder for your theme files

2: Create index.php and style.css in your theme folder

3: Activate your custom theme from the WordPress Dashboard

4: Add code to Output the Post Title and Post Text

5: Attach a link to Each Post

6: Make the Header and Footer to your Custom Theme

7: Add a functions.php file to your theme

8: Add Style to theme

Develop now:

1: Create a folder for your theme files

After downloading WordPress on your device, you can consider making a theme. Whenever we create a theme, we need to know where the files which used to make up a WordPress theme live in a WordPress Installation. The WordPress installation has a root directory named as WordPress, which contains some folders like:-

1. wp-admin

2. wp-content

3. wp-includes

And the others are only files.

Now let’s have a look at the useful one the wp-content folder. 

The wp-content folder includes another folder named as themes. Themes folder holds a lot of themes that you would like to use with your WordPress website. Additionally, there are three folders called twentynineteen, twentyseventeen, and twentysixteen, and these folders contain three default WordPress themes. You can see in the image, and there is also one more folder called customtheme.

Make this folder, too, in your installation, as this is the place where you will create your WordPress theme right from scratch.

2: Create style.css and index.php in your created theme folder

After creating a new folder named customtheme in the themes folder, you only need to make two empty files in the directory. These files are index.php and style.css. As highlighted in the image given below

Add the least necessities to these files to get a fresh theme on WordPress.

style.css

In style.css, you must add some specific information about the theme that you are creating. WordPress reads all the comments mentioned in the style.css file. It also controls the presentation (visual design and layout) of the website pages. This example only provides the Theme Name, the Author, Author URI, and the Version number of the theme.

/*


Theme Name: customtheme


Author: AllsWeb


Author URI: https://allsweb.com


Version: 1.0


 */

index.php

<h1>Custom Theme!</h1>

In this file, you have to output something to the screen to ensure that your custom theme is working correctly.

Hurray!

You have just created your first WordPress theme.

3: Activate your custom theme from the WordPress Dashboard

So now, you can smoothly go to your WordPress Dashboard and on the left-hand side go to Appearance -> Themes, and you can see the new theme that has created.

Now click on the option “Theme Details” on your custom theme and notice if the information that you have entered in the style.css file works or not. Perceive that the theme has a name customtheme with version 1.0.

Click on the Activate on new customtheme and then visit the site.

4: Add code to Output the Post Title and Post Text

After doing all the above steps, when any visitor checks out your site, nonetheless, of the number of posts that are present in the database, then the theme outputs only the Custom Theme on the page.

Now let’s proceed by knowing how to make some data from the database and output it to the required page. Follow the steps provided below to fetch the Post Title and Post Content of all pages, and view them on the homepage. First, see what you have for posts in the WordPress Dashboard.

Extending the WordPress Loop

WordPress Loop helps to keep WordPress running. This will allows you to check for the posts and display them on the page as per your needs. If you have posted in your database, then loop over them, even if there are still posts, else, users will think that there are no posts available.

<?php






if ( have_posts() ) :


               while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>






               <?php endwhile;






else :


               echo '<p>There are no posts!</p>';






endif;






?>

You can use two functions in this loop.

(i) Have posts(): The have post function tells you if there are any posts in the database to loop over. It returns a right or wrong value, where right indicates that there are posts available to loop over. While wrong suggests, there are no posts available to loop over.

(ii) The post(): The post functions are to get WordPress ready to output posts. It does not profit any value. In its place, it retrieves the next post, sets up the post, sets the in_the_loop property to true.

As per the steps explained you still don’t get any output information about the blog, but you can update it now in your index.php file:

Now, you can also use two additional functions.

(i) the_title(): It will output the title of the post to the page.

(ii) the_content(): It will output the body of that post to the page.

On the next loop, these functions can retrieve the following title and content and can output them to the page.

5: Attach a link to Every Post

It is always a better idea to link each post to view all of them on their own instead of just treating them as a part of the homepage. To do this, you need to use another function provided by WordPress, and it is named as the_permalink() in your index.php file

<?php


if ( have_posts() ) :


               while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>


        <h2><a href="<?php <span style="color: #ff0000;">the_permalink()</span> ?>"><?php the_title() ?></a></h2>


                               <?php the_content() ?>


               <?php endwhile;


else :


               echo '<p>There are no posts!</p>';


endif;


?>

Now, you will be able to click on each post title and can reach that page quickly.

6: Add Header and Footer to your Custom Theme

Footer and Header section in your theme is essential, like Title and Post Content, Because these sections contain content which always appears on all pages of the website. Header and Footer sections come above and beneath the post content, respectively. Again if you want to use them, you need to call functions to your theme file on the page as per your needs. Here you have to add it in index.php file these functions are called are :

(i) get_header()

<?php


get_header();


if ( have_posts() ) :


               while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>


        <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title() ?></a></h2>


                               <?php the_content() ?


               <?php endwhile;


else :


               echo '<p>There are no posts!</p>';


endif;


get_footer();


?>

Great job!

You can now make a customized header and footer for your web pages. Both the header.php and footer.php file should be in the customtheme folder. The content that you want to show on this web page will be displayed between these two functions.

# Link site title to the homepage

A lot of the themes allow you to click on the title text of any webpage so that it will redirect to the website. Add the link in header.php

<!DOCTYPE html>


<html <?php language_attributes(); ?>>


<head>


    <meta charset="<?php bloginfo( 'charset' ); ?>">


    <title><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></title>


               <?php wp_head() ?>


</head>


<body <?php body_class(); ?>>


<header class="site-header">


    <h1><span style="color: #ff0000;"><a href="<?php echo home_url(); ?>"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></a></span></h1>


    <h4><?php bloginfo( 'description' ); ?></h4>


</header>

For an example we have used bloginfo() function passing parameters of name bloginfo( ‘name’ ) and description bloginfo( ‘description’ ).

7: Add a functions.php file to your theme

As of now, we have used index.php, style.css, header.php, and footer.php. The following essential data that we will use is functions.php file.

A functions.php file is a place where you keep the code to customize the default behaviour of WordPress. 

There are some main things about this file which are:

1. It does not need any unique Header text.

2. It is kept in the folder which contains your theme files.

3. It can be executed only when it is present in the currently activated theme’s directory.

4. It can be applied only to the current theme.

5. It can call PHP functions, WordPress functions, or custom functions.

To make a better style of the theme, you need to make a function in your functions.php file and comprise it to the style.css file into your theme. 

<?php


function custom_theme_assets() {


               wp_enqueue_style( 'style', get_stylesheet_uri() );


}


add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'custom_theme_assets' );

8: Add Style to theme

After all these efforts, you want your site to look attractive. To do this, let’s give customize the theme by adding wrapping <div> with a class of container. Place opening <div> in the header.php and closing <div> in footer.php. Similarly, you have to wrap the post output in index.php with a <article> tag that has a class of post

So now its complete you just developed a WordPress theme of your wish. For any modification as per your requirements, you can play in style.css file.

<!DOCTYPE html>


<html <?php language_attributes(); ?>>


<head>


    <meta charset="<?php bloginfo( 'charset' ); ?>">


    <title><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></title>


               <?php wp_head() ?>


</head>


<body <?php body_class(); ?>>


<div class="container">


    <header class="site-header">


        <h1><a href="<?php echo home_url(); ?>"><?php bloginfo( 'name' ); ?></a></h1>


        <h4><?php bloginfo( 'description' ); ?></h4>


    </header>

Add closing </div> to the footer.php file :

<footer class="site-footer">


    <p><?php bloginfo( 'name' ) ?></p>


</footer>


</div> <!-- closes <div class=container"> -->


<?php wp_footer() ?>


</body>


</html>

Wrap the post output  with a <article> tag to the index.php file

<?php


get_header();


if ( have_posts() ) :


               while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>


        <article class="post">


            <h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title() ?></a></h2>


                                               <?php the_content() ?>


        </article>


               <?php endwhile;


else :


               echo '<p>There are no posts!</p>';


endif;


get_footer();


?>

Progress of default WordPress themes

WordPress has been around for more than many years, and there is a lot of modifications that have made to its features. Likewise, there’s been a lot of improvisation in WordPress themes since it was first launched in 2003.

Matt Mullenweg launched the first WordPress theme in the year 2003 when WordPress was released. At that time, the users didn’t have access to switch the themes.

After the original theme, then came the WordPress Classic Theme with WordPress 1.2. After the release of the Kubrick theme with WordPress 1.5, users were given access to switch themes. But still, Kubrick ruled as the default WordPress theme, until TwentyTen in WordPress 3.0 took over it.

In the year 2010, the WordPress team comes out with a stunning new default theme that is named after the year. TwentyTwenty is the most recent one.

Now, let’s take a look at the all default WordPress themes, their features, and how they all have developed.

Let’s begin!

The default WordPress themes:  

As of now, 2019, there are a total of 11 default WordPress themes released, So let’s have a look at each of them according to their releases:

1) Classic – 

It was a default theme, before the release of WordPress 1.5. At the time of the first year of WordPress, this theme was used by bloggers as it had versed style and functionalities.

At that time, WordPress was not a full-fledged Content Management System as compared to now, and the design was utterly intended for the blogging solution. For instance, on the sidebar, it had a feature that would stick around for many years (and themes) to come. The sidebar had a blogroll maintained with the Links Manager, which made all the recent posts easily accessible for the readers, which ultimately helped bloggers to promote their content. Classic also allowed the use of sticky posts so that bloggers could highlight the critical content on their site.

Brief about Classic Theme:

1. Features in this theme: The theme had a sidebar, link manager, sticky posts, and blogroll.

2. Primary agenda of a theme: To enhance the blogging experience and make it very easy to promote content through sidebar blogroll.

3. Customizable Features: No customizable features. But, it can be done manually with the coding.

4. Mobile Support: No mobile support.

2) Default – known as the Original WordPress theme

Michael Heilemann created this default theme, and it was declared as a default theme in 2005. It was popularly known as Kubrick and also considered as the first official default theme that features an excellent and traditional design.

As of now, clean and clear text on the website is considered as a first priority, and default provided the same, with its open sidebar and streamlined nature. It is Sans Serif typography ruled as an appealing design element even after ten years of its release.

The default theme brought the choice of visual information for its users for the first time. Users could also use templates, which can be broken up into sections that could be altered independently. Users were happy to get customized features like headers, footers, and sidebars.

Brief about Default theme –

1. In WordPress version: 1.5 by default

 2. New in this theme: features like Template tags, plugin integration, full widget support (WordPress 2.2)

 3. Primary agenda of the theme: To showcase the new system design and to implement more user-friendly designs.

4. Customizable Features: Template files that allowed to customize headers, footers, and sidebars.

 4. Mobile Support: No mobile support.

3) Twenty Ten – launched on June 17, 2010

It cames with WordPress 3.0. Twenty Ten theme was the first to allow executing some of the design features on the front and back ends, which are now very operatable among the users of WordPress.

At that time, due to the tremendous demand, WordPress was shifting its focus from only blogging to become a real CMS. This distinction can be seen between the Default WordPress theme and Twenty Ten. For instance, a now-familiar black menu bar was added, which stimulate the use of several pages, as opposed to just a simple blog collection. The modified features also helped users to create any type of website as per their needs, rather than attracting them towards blogging.

Besides, the introduction of visual editor made it easy for all skill level users to create a site that will work for them. It allowed WordPress users to view how the front end of their website would look and can simultaneously edit the content.

Brief about Twenty Ten theme –

1. In WordPress version:  3.0 by default
2. New in this theme: Features like custom backgrounds and headers, multiple widget areas, featured images, post formats (WordPress 3.1), and the visual editor.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The primary program is to convert WordPress from a blogging platform to a full CMS and also to expand the user’s customization capabilities without knowledge of coding.
4. Mobile Support: There is no mobile support.
5. Customizable Features:  Backgrounds, Six widget areas, headers, footers, menus, sidebars, images (including header images).

4) Twenty Eleven – launched on July 4, 2011

Twenty Eleven came into existence one year after its predecessor, which started the trend of a new release every year. Instead of trying to introduce original design features, it focused mainly on improvising the features already added in Twenty Ten and helped to expand WordPress’ modification capabilities.

Twenty Eleven retained its grip on the black menu bar and increased its style with a large, clean, Sans Serif font. 

Sample of Twenty-Eleven page:

Brief about Twenty Eleven theme –

1. In WordPress version: 3.2 by default.
2. New in this theme: Features like customization of colour and randomized headers.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to enhance the features introduced in Twenty Ten.
4. Customizable Features: Randomized headers and customized colours.
5. Mobile Support:  It can be adaptable for mobiles, but was not recommended as-is.

5) Twenty Twelve – launched on December 11, 2012

The default WordPress theme that replicates correctly to the increase in the usability of the internet. Twenty Twelve was the first default WordPress theme, which has the underlying mobile responsiveness as a central feature.

Twenty Twelve was launched by scaling the design that made it easier to use the theme on cell phones. It also offers Sans Serif typography and minimalist design. In Twenty Ten and Twenty Eleven, the first image was showing fantastic performance. But, this is an optional feature in Twenty Twelve, with the default settings turned off.

Also, this theme took the next step towards improving WordPress as a CMS. To do this, it indulged a static home page template that attracts its users from blog posts towards a more traditional website setup. The sidebar, once considered a vital WordPress design feature, was made optional, and blogrolls were hidden by default.

The customizer was also released in 2012, which made it easy for users to create unique sites. Users were now able to preview color schemes, custom headers and backgrounds, and other features before making changes live.

Brief about Twenty Twelve theme –

1. In WordPress version: 3.5 by default
2. New in this theme: There are features like mobile responsiveness, Customizer, and homepage template.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to introduce mobile responsiveness to WordPress default theme, and improvisation in converting WordPress as CMS.
4. Customizable Features: You can remove the sidebar and a static homepage template.
5. Mobile Support: Yes, it can support mobile.

6) Twenty Thirteen – launched on August 1, 2013

Twenty Thirteen came with the new zeal that replaced the cleanliness of all the old themes with a default Serif font and a more sophisticated colour scheme. It gave the theme a more fun, vibrant Appearance, which was something new compared to the other WordPress themes. This theme provides extensive customization options for users to enjoy more flexibility when building their sites. The location of the first widget has also been shifted from the sidebar to the footer section.

Twenty Twelve didn’t add any enhanced feature instead of being accessible on mobile devices. But, Twenty Thirteen offered managed customization options without sacrificing its mobile accountability feature.

Even after these significant advancements in the designs, Twenty Thirteen returned to WordPress’ roots and brought blogging back into the limelight. Post format integration had a considerable focus on the new theme.

Brief about Twenty Thirteen theme –

1. In WordPress version: 3.6 by default
2. New in this theme: It Improved post formats feature.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to bring blogging back in focus and improve the post format integration.
4. Customizable Features: Additional post formats.
5. Mobile Support: Yes, it can support mobile.

7) Twenty Fourteen – launched on December 12, 2013

WordPress first advertised itself as something different and more than a generic with the Twenty Fourteen blog theme. It is a ‘magazine-style’ layout that focused mainly on featured images and also provided additional display options with grids and sliders. The blog has evolved into a multi-author platform.

Twenty Fourteen’s typography and colour scheme’s main objective is readability and the ease of browsing. Besides, it has optional sidebar widgets that offer easy to find the latest posts, blog posts archives, recent comments, and post categories, recalling WordPress’ original sidebar.

Brief about Twenty Fourteen theme –

1. In WordPress version: 3.8 by default.
2. New in this theme: There are some features like content grids and sliders, collapsible menus, and movable sidebars for mobile, author’s widget, featured content, and contributors page template.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to create general advancements and provide additional features and to demonstrate WordPress’ capability as a multi-author platform.
4. Customizable Features: An author’s widget, featured content, accent colours, a contributor’s page.
5. Mobile Support: Yes, it supports mobile.

8) Twenty Fifteen – launched on December 18, 2014

Takashi Irie developed twenty Fifteen by keeping simplicity in mind, returning to the simple style of the earlier default WordPress themes. It offered various colour scheme options that are easily reachable for users through the Customizer.

Has Twenty Fifteen’s simple design made it an ugly subject? 

Not at all.

Instead, it offers provides a default font that brings in slightly more design themes than the Sans Serif font of Twenty Fourteen. The theme allowed visual interest to be added to the clean layout, and it is well suited to any alphabet, improving the translation capabilities of the theme.

Twenty fifteen themes also enrich the social media relationship for blogs and other sites. It allows its users to add social media icons to their menus, which made it simpler to link different aspects of their brands together.

Brief about Twenty Fifteen theme –

1. In WordPress version: 4.1 by default
2. New in this theme:  There are Social icons/ redirecting to social media accounts.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to improve WordPress globally (internationalization), to increase main customization capabilities, and to provide a mobile-first design.
4. Customizable Features: Social icons and colour scheme options.
5. Mobile Support: Yes, it supports mobile.

9) Twenty Sixteen – launched on December 8, 2015

It came with some improvised features that were mainly important for bloggers and other site owners as well. Twenty Sixteen provides additional navigation for those who require. In this theme, users can easily add social icons to pages and posts. For the users who focused on content, it permits the stripping down of theme to the basics by removing the sidebar is quick and easy.

Twenty Sixteen provides ‘Content Bottom’ widget areas and pulls quotes. Also, users can add supplementary content to their posts.

Brief about Twenty Sixteen theme –

1. In WordPress version: 4.4 by default
2. New in this theme: Features like content-bottom widget areas, post intros (known as ‘Excerpts’), pull quotes.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to improve and modernize the traditional blog site and post design.
4. Customizable Features: Pull quotes, excerpts, and content-bottom widget areas.
5. Mobile Support: Yes, it supports mobile.

10) Twenty Seventeen – launched on December 6, 2016

WordPress launched a default theme in late 2016 that focused on sites that were not the blogs. Even though other default WordPress themes provide flexibility in layout and can be adapted for many purposes, content creation has always been the primary focus.

But, In Twenty Seventeen was embossed as a business site theme. It has layout and features that entirely focuses on business site requirements, which still displays content amazingly. It makes it clear that the theme has other priorities.

Let’s start with its stand out features, and it is impossible to ignore header images for optimal site branding. Users can also replace those images with the videos to get better engagement and to attract visitors. Additionally, even by adding a video and a picture, you still can guarantee that desktop and mobile users can view your media.

Twenty Seventeen has a front-page that gives its users to put a summary of their brand just by collecting content from different pages on the website. 

Like Twenty Fifteen, the theme also has typography that offers various font options that are available in different languages; This is an essential development for commercial sites. Due to the multi-language support, Twenty Seventeen gained attention to the international market, ensuring all business owners that their website is readable to all visitors and customers, regardless of location.

Brief about Twenty Seventeen theme –

1. In WordPress version:  4.7 by default.
2. New in this theme: There is a feature like videos in the header, site logo, improved child theme functionality, and business-focused layouts.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to optimize usage beyond blogging, and to show that WordPress is moving towards CMS.
4. Customizable Features: Header image and video options, personalized logo, etc.
5. Mobile Support: Yes, it supports mobile.

11) Twenty Nineteen – launched on December 6, 2018

Twenty Nineteen is the newest default WordPress theme. With the introduction of the new block editor, it is seen that WordPress again turned to minimalism and also focused on content creation.

The main focus of this theme is flexibility. Twenty Nineteen includes full Block Editor Integration and also offers more customization options than ever before. Nevertheless, the primary focus remained on providing streamlined typography, and the new editor enables users to make their sites. Besides, Twenty Nineteen has profited from many other features that were created for WordPress default themes over the years, including social media icons, widgets, and multi-language support. When the theme is combined with Block Editor, it can be used with any website. 

Brief about Twenty Nineteen theme –

1. In WordPress version: 5.0 by default
2. New in this theme: Block Editor integration.
3. Primary agenda of the theme: The main objective is to work smoothly with Block Editor to create a highly visual publishing experience.
4. Customizable Features: Custom default blocks
5. Mobile Support: Yes, it supports mobile.

Have you chosen your favourite theme? Include it now.

# How to install a WordPress theme?

Here we will show how to install and activate themes on your WordPress site.

1. Log in to WordPress.
2. Click on Appearance.
3. Now, Click on Themes.

There are all the themes appear which you have already installed in your application. If you want to add another one, click on Add New button.

There are two ways to add new themes.

(i) Search from the WordPress.org theme directory.

(ii) Upload a theme from a local list.

The simplest way to install themes to your WordPress site is to look if they are already listed in the official themes directory. It enables you to search for the theme that matches your requirements directly from your site admin page. Each theme present in the official list needs to have Tags that define its functionality, allowing you to search for the right theme easily.

You can search a theme by your blog category.

Remembering the tags is not the only case theme. You can also use the Feature Filter to get your favorite theme. For instance, for a theme, you can specify its attributes like Two columns and a Flexible header. Just click the checkbox in front of those tags and click Apply Filter.

Now, all the selected themes float the pointer on any of them, and you can see two options – a preview of the theme or install it. Once you know which theme you want to use for your site, click OK, install button.

WordPress application will download and install the theme for you.

Well Done.

Now, check out its new look.

# Steps to upload a theme that you have already downloaded

If you have found another theme that is not listed in WordPress.org, you can install it in your Themes-> Themes section in WordPress.

Perform this by simply clicking the Upload Theme button at the top of the page.

Now, click on the Browse button, select your theme’s collection from your computer and then click on the Install Now button.

Within seconds, WordPress will upload and remove the Theme Archive for you. After that, you need to click on the active link under the message to enable the theme on your website.

Well Done.
Now check out the newly activated look of your site.

# Methods to add a custom dashboard logo in WordPress :

Mostly, people replace the WordPress logo with a custom logo for branding. It is the best way to advertise on your site.

Method 1: Add a custom dashboard logo in WordPress using a plugin.

It is a straightforward method and is favourite among non-coders. That’s why it is highly used.

Firstly, you have to install and activate the White Label CMS plugin.

After activating, go to Settings-> White Label CMS page and clicks on the Branding tab to expand it.

Now, Upload to insert your custom logo. Click on the Save Changes button to store your desired settings.

That’s it!

Your custom logo has been added.

Method 2: Manually add custom dashboard logos to the code snippet

This method is very comfortable for users who can easily paste code snippets in WordPress.

Firstly, you have to save your logo as a custom-logo.png file on your computer. The logo size must be 16 x 16 pixels.

When your custom logo is ready, then you have to upload it to /wp-content/themes/your-theme/images folder using the FTP. If your theme doesn’t contain any images folder, then you will need to make an image folder.

Once a custom logo image is uploaded, add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpb_custom_logo() {


echo '


<style type="text/css">


#wpadminbar #wp-admin-bar-wp-logo > .ab-item .ab-icon:before {


background-image: url(' . get_bloginfo('stylesheet_directory') . '/images/custom-logo.png) !important;


background-position: 0 0;


color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);


}


#wpadminbar #wp-admin-bar-wp-logo.hover > .ab-item .ab-icon {


background-position: 0 0;


}


</style>


';


}


//hook into the administrative header output


add_action('wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'wpb_custom_logo');

This code will add CSS that is required to display your custom logo in the WordPress admin bar.

By this stage, you can easily create a complete business website. But, as they say, you need to update your site according to the new requirements so that it does not look like a dead website.

New features, customized plans need to create a site as per the needs, and to do so, you don’t have to create a new website again and follow all this process back. So to deal with such a situation, you should have a child theme.

A child theme in WordPress is a sub-theme that inherits all the features, and style from its parent theme. Child themes are a secure way to modify a WordPress theme without actually making changes to the parent theme’s file.

# Method to make a Child Theme in WordPress

To create a child theme, you need WordPress admin area and access to File Manager or FTP.

First, you will need to make a directory for the child theme in the existing wp-content/themes directory. To identify it quickly, you can add -child at the end of the parent theme’s name. You can use either an FTP client or File Manager to make a new directory.

In the following example, we are going to use File Manager to create a child theme based on the Twenty Nineteen theme; So, the full path to the child theme folder will be wp-content/themes/twentynineteen-child.

1) Log in to the control panel and.

2) Click on File Manager

3) Identify your WordPress installation directory (also known as public_html) and open the wp-content -> themes folder.

4) Now click on create a new folder icon, enter your child theme name, and click on Create.

5) Access your newly created child theme’s folder.

6) Click on New File, and enter stlye.css as the file name, and then click on Create.

7) Add the following code to the file:

/*


Theme Name: My Twenty Nineteen Child Theme


Theme URI: https://example.com


Description: A child theme for Twenty Nineteen.


Author: Your Name


Author URI: https://example.com/


Template: twentynineteen


Version: 1.0


License: GNU General Public License v2 or later


License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html


*/

8) Now create a name to your new theme and change all other values to match your theme and domain name. Here the most crucial field in the Template field because it tells WordPress which parent theme your child theme is based. After doing all the changes, click on save.

9) Add a new functions.php file to the same folder, but do not copy-paste the code from the original theme file, as it needs to be kept separate from any modifications made to the child theme. To do this, you can create a blank file or add any new .php functions required for your child theme.

10) From WordPress admin account, go to Appearance -> Themes and you can see your newly created child theme, click Activate.

11) Now visit your website, and you can see the theme. There will be some apparent issues because the functions.php file hasn’t yet loaded the CSS from the parent theme.

12) To fix the problem, go to the WordPress admin area, navigate to Appearance -> Theme Editor, and select functions.php.

<?php


add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'enqueue_parent_styles' );






function enqueue_parent_styles() {


   wp_enqueue_style( 'parent-style', get_template_directory_uri().'/style.css' );


}


?>

13) In WordPress, you can load CSS from the native theme using a function. To do this, copy and paste the following code to the child theme’s function.php file:

14) Now, click on Update.

15) Visit your site, and you can notice that the CSS is loaded, and your child theme looks the same as the parent theme.

Are you worried about creating a WordPress site?

WordPress themes make it easy for you if you follow all the steps mentioned above correctly.

Want to get started?

Let’s hop on the points to consider when selecting a WordPress theme.

As we have seen, WordPress provides you with amazing themes, but you need to choose the best one. Take a quick look at the following points to know your ‘Best Suit’ theme.

1) Make it Simple:

Many WordPress themes come with lots of complexes, colour layouts, eye-catching animations, and more. Well, it is not mandatory to use all these features forcefully, instead use them only according to your need.

Find a topic that helps you reach the goal of your website. Yes, a website should look good without restricting its usability and simplicity. 

Make sure the style of your theme is not complicated, and users can easily navigate through it. Visitors should get the information they are looking for, as this will help you to achieve your site’s goal. If the website looks amazing but doesn’t get so many visitors or subscribers, then it cannot be counted as a good site, and this tells that you need to improve your website.

2) Pick a Responsive Theme:

The reason for choosing a responsive theme is that the themes adjust their layout to the different screen sizes and devices on their own.

Nowadays, a lot of visitors come from mobile phones and other handy devices. Even Google shows mobile-friendly websites at the top of its search results. The topic and demographics of your site do not matter. If you have a website, then it should be readily available on mobile phones.

Therefore, to test a website performance of mobile phones, you should check the sections, layout, colour, logo adjustment properly.

The best way to check whether the theme is is responsive or not, you must resize your browser screen. By doing so, you will notice that the theme’s layout adjusts itself to the screen size. 

3) Browser Testing:

You have no idea that which browser is used by your users. So, it is right for you to make the theme suitable for all browsers. It is not possible that a theme looking perfect on your browser can perform similarly on other browsers also. Therefore, it is your task to make sure that the browser tests rigorously before taking the site in front of visitors. Browser’s compatibility with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc. are they must check.

4) SEO Friendly:

WordPress theme plays an essential role in the site’s SEO performance. A good looking website can not always be an SEO’s favourite, and if it’s HTML code is poor, it may not perform well on search engines. Similarly, the website has complex layouts that confuse visitors; then it can increase a bounce rate, which affects the performance of the site.

5) Multilingual Benefits:

Most of the sites are in the English language. But, you can build a website in many other languages to connect more easily with the visitors. You should go for a website that supports your local language, and this is the best way to build a relationship with the local market, which builds trust. So make sure that the theme you choose supports the multilingual WordPress plugins or is ready for language translation.

6) Supports Plugins:

There is a lot of plugin in WordPress, and each plugin has some beneficial features. These plugins help you to make your WordPress theme perform amazingly. Therefore, you must have to ensure that your WordPress theme supports all popular plugins.

7) Supports Page Builder:

It allows you to create a page layout using simple tricks, drag and drops user interface. A lot of the premium WordPress themes come with pre-installed Page Builder, but if the theme you choose doesn’t have it, then you need to install it. Before using any Page Builder, make sure that it is already used by many of the WordPress users. This is why the theme needs to support a page builder that enables you to create landing pages.

8) Don’t use too many Google Fonts:

Not all themes provide limited options to customize site design; Some of them also allow you to adjust your font with the use of CSS. Having different modification options is good, but that doesn’t mean you shall use all of them. Use hardly two fonts on your site that can differentiate important information and features. 

Some tips to improve WordPress theme security –

1) Disable unnecessary Themes and Plugins:

We all know that configuring themes and plugins is a very convenient option in your WordPress theme, but too much of anything always causes risk. The theme editor which is built-in WordPress website dashboard is a bit risky because it can be accessed malicious code without access to cPanel. Most importantly to be safe from such situation, all you have to do is go to your wp-config.php file, and enter the following code:

// disallow file edit

Define ('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT,' true);

2) Keep a boundary to the access of the plugins directory:

Hackers can discover any vulnerability in your plugins if they have access to your plugins. If you restrict access to the plugin directory, it becomes difficult for hackers to find your website. For this, you need to upload a blank index.html file to your root WordPress directory or open your .htaccess file in your root folder and add Options -Indexes at the starting of the file.

3) Use of WordPress Firewall for Security:

Generally plugins become hacking prone because of a zero-day vulnerability. If you have recently installed the plugin or new updates, nothing can work for you. But if hackers find such vulnerability, then they can easily access your site. Therefore, to get rid of such attacks on your site and you need to use a WordPress firewall. The firewall helps you to keep all the threats away from your site.

 Conclusion:

WordPress has become a preferred CMS for many website developers, and its usage is increasing daily. So in this way, there is increasing competition and malicious activities in it so it becomes your responsibility to choose the right subject and protect it from hackers. I hope this article will help you to identify the best theme for your WordPress site and increase productivity through it.

Also, read our previous blog- Best WordPress Security Tips Without and With The Use Of Plugins