How to design your WordPress Blog using WordPress themes

The Ultimate SEO Guide for WordPress bloggers 2009 - Part II

WordPress theme refers to the design of your weblog. It is sometimes referred to the "skin" of your blog. But a theme is more than just skinning your blog. WordPress themes allow you to control the look and feel of the items on your blog.

A WordPress theme is a compilation of files that work together to produce a unified graphical design for your website. These files are referred to as template files.

WordPress themes are easily available on the net and any theme of your choice can be applied to your blog by following simple steps.

How to get WordPress Themes

WordPress itself provides themes that can skin your blog. Many designers let their designs to be used by bloggers and you can find these designs on websites that provide WordPress themes. Here is a list of websites where you can get WordPress themes:

• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
• http://topwpthemes.com/
• http://www.bestwpthemes.com
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/
• http://wphacks.com/best-premium-wordpress-themes-gallery/

Using WordPress themes

• Download themes of your choice and extract the theme files. You may need to save the directory structure in the archive while extracting it.
• Upload the extracted files from FTP to wp-content/themes directory provided by WordPress. For example, if you are downloading a theme named Health, the path would be wp-content/themes/health.
• Now login to your WordPress account.
• When you click on "Presentation", all the themes downloaded by you will be displayed.
• Once you click on the desired theme, that theme will be activated as your WordPress theme.

Customizing the WordPress theme

WordPress allows you to edit features of your blog theme. To make any changes with your theme, you have to-

• Log in to your WordPress account.
• Click on "Theme Editor" to edit any files you want
• TIP: it is a good practice to save the code before making any changes in the files so that you have the chance to retain the original code if any mistakes are made while making any changes in the files.