YOU’LL NEED THIS

WORDPRESS SERVER

Any reputable web host will do, or you can host it yourself on your own server.

SO FAR IN THIS SERIES, we’ve helped you set up your own self-hosted WordPress website, populate it with pages and posts, and protect it in the form of added security and automated backups. With these nuts and bolts in place, it’s time to look at your site’s appearance.

Content may be king, but if your site isn’t easy to read or-sad to say-attractive to look at, you’ll put off potential readers. Thankfully, changing the look and feel of your site to match its content is a relatively straightforward task thanks to WordPress’s support for themes.

Each WordPress theme is a customizable template of design elements, spanning everything from your page header and menu-bar navigation system to the order your posts are displayed. WordPress provides easy access to thousands of different themes to cover most people’s needs. You can install more than one theme at a time, allowing you to try out different themes before settling on one. It’s a good idea to read reviews of themes, and look out for themes that are free to install but lock many of their settings behind a paid-for upgrade.

-NICK PEERS