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A Beginner's Guide to Using the WordPress Theme Customizer

A Beginner’s Guide to Using the WordPress Theme Customizer

Finding a WordPress theme that aligns with your brand identity can be challenging; that’s where WordPress theme customization comes in.

It can turn your basic website into a unique design that reflects your brand, personality, and style. To fit your site into the brand and style it needs, it’s crucial to understand the basic customization of WordPress themes.

After going through this in-depth WordPress theme customization guide, you’ll be able to customize your WordPress theme effectively as well as understand its best practices.

 

Getting Started with the Theme Customizer

The default customizer allows you to make changes to your website’s appearance. Firstly, navigate to your dashboard and then select “Appearance > Customize.” In this way, you can modify your website’s elements, such as color scheme and font style, without any coding knowledge. On the right side, you also get a live preview, where you preview the changes as you make them. This helps you experiment with different looks and styles without affecting the visitors. You can make changes to the website whenever you’re ready. Just click “Save and Publish.”

Some elements can be changed with the theme customizer.

Create a site icon

To add the site icon, make sure the icon is square and that it’s a minimum of 512 x 512 pixels.

  1. First, navigate to the WordPress dashboard, then select Appearance > Customize.
  2. Select site identity
  3. Click the selection button and then the site icon in the middle.
  4. Browse your computer to find your file, and then upload it.
  5. Click the save and publish button at the top of the theme customizer

Colors

  1. On your dashboard, go to Appearance → Editor.
  2. You can click on Styles on the left or click on the Styles icon, which you can see below.
  3. Select Colors.
  4. Choose the Palette option to set your site’s default colors, or select one of the following elements:
  • Text
  • Background
  • Link
  • Captions
  • Button
  • Heading

Menus

If your website uses a block editor (like Gutenberg), you can customize the menu appearance using the Navigation block. Here’s how:

  1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and select “Appearance” followed by “Editor.”
  2. Click anywhere on the preview of your website to activate the editing tools.
  3. In the top-left corner of your screen, locate and click the icon resembling three horizontal lines. This will open the “List View.”
  4. Within the List View, find and click on the “Navigation” section. This will highlight the menu elements you can customize.
  5. The Navigation block provides various options to modify your menu’s visual style. Here are some examples:
    • Text & Background Colors: Change the overall color scheme of your menu, including text and background.
    • Link Styles: Adjust the appearance of individual menu links, including font size, letter spacing, capitalization, and more.
    • Menu Item Spacing: Control the amount of space between menu items for better readability.
    • Mobile Menu Button: Configure the look of the menu button that appears on mobile devices for easy navigation.
  6. Once you’re satisfied with your customizations, click the “Save” button at the top to apply the changes to your live website.

Widgets

Widgets play a vital role in the design of your WordPress theme. To add and manage widgets, navigate to Appearance > Widgets. You’ll see available widgets on the left and designated widget areas on the right. Simply drag and drop widgets to the desired areas and configure their settings to match your design goals.

Backgrounds

To set a background color or image for your website, you can use the highly customizable block editor. Here’s how:

  1. In your dashboard, go to Appearance -> Editor.
  2. Click on Styles in the menu section. Alternatively, you can find the selection icon at the top right corner of your editor.
  3. Click on the Color
  4. Click on the Background
  5. Simply pick the color you want to use from the color picker.
  6. You can save your changes by clicking the “Save” button.

Layout

Accessing layout settings depends on the specific theme you’re using. Some themes might offer a dedicated “Layout” option under Appearance, while others might require using the block editor to adjust sections and layouts. Refer to your theme’s documentation for specific instructions.

Plugins

To add a WordPress plugin to your dashboard:

  1. Navigate to the Plugins section in your website dashboard and select “Add New.”
  2. Search for any plugin you’d like to add using the search bar in the top right corner.
  3. Once you find the plugin you want, you can either click “Install Now” to set it up or click on its name to learn more.
  4. To use a plugin, you have to activate it. Once your installation is complete, click to activate.

Applying Custom CSS

Applying custom CSS can truly change the appearance of your website. To use custom CSS:

  1. Go to Appearance > Theme Editor (This section assumes you understand the risks and have a backup before making edits).
  2. Locate the stylesheet file (usually named style.css).
  3. Enter your own custom CSS code at the bottom of the stylesheet to override the default styles of your theme.

Child Theme (Advanced)

We strongly recommend creating a child theme for any complex code alterations. This allows you to make changes without affecting the parent theme. It’s a more advanced technique, so consider using a plugin like “Easy Theme Update” to simplify child theme creation if you’re new to coding.

Code Editing (Limited)

While directly editing theme code is possible, it’s generally not recommended for beginners due to the risk of breaking your website. The WordPress block editor allows you to add custom HTML code to specific content areas. Here’s how:

  1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Posts or Pages to create a new one or edit an existing one.
  2. Click the “+” button to add a new block.
  3. Choose the Custom HTML block after searching for “HTML.”
  4. In the custom HTML block, enter your custom HTML code directly.
  5. After making the changes, you can click publish or update to save them.

Tips and Considerations

Customizing WordPress themes can be a fantastic way to stand out and align with your brand identity. By following the best practices for WordPress customization, you’ll be able to improve your site’s visual appearance and add desired functionality to your user experience.

Choosing the Right Theme

It’s crucial to choose the right theme for your website, as it sets the tone and the visual of your website. To select the perfect theme for your website, you should look for themes that reflect your brand’s color, logo and font, so you can give a wonderful experience to your audience.

Understand your targeted audience

Find out the needs, interests, preferences, and demographics of your target audience by conducting research. You can use websites like Google Analytics to gather data on your website visitors.

Customize visual elements

Make the visual components unique to your brand’s identity. You can customize the colors, typography, and logo from your WordPress dashboard. Understand these customizations properly and use them to input your brand’s colors and fonts, upload your logo, and make design choices that reflect your brand’s aesthetics.

Design a user-friendly layout

When designing a WordPress website, keep these things in mind:

  • Maintain a clean layout by prioritizing simplicity and minimalism.
  • Make sure to provide ample white space for your visitors.
  • Make sure the design is responsive, so that it provides a seamless experience on any device.
  • Place the call-to-action buttons strategically to improve user engagement

 

Optimize for mobile-friendly devices

As mobile user numbers increase day by day, you need to ensure that your website is mobile-responsive. Here are some ways to make sure that your website is mobile friendly.

  • Choose a mobile-friendly theme
  • Check your website’s responsiveness with a Google mobile-friendly test.
  • Optimize images and media for quick loading on mobile devices.
  • Make sure your website’s navigation and buttons are easily clickable on smaller screens
  • Regular reviews and updates

Review your website’s performance and gather feedback from your targeted audience to improve your website’s performance .You can also monitor analytics to track user behavior or track areas for potential improvement on your website accordingly.

Each of the WordPress themes comes with its own unique set of templates, styles and functions; choose the one that fits your brand’s presence the most and customize the themes according to your needs.

To meet your audience, regularly review and update your websites in response to feedback. By customizing the WordPress themes, you can build a WordPress website that not only looks great but also contributes to your website’s overall success.

 

FAQ

How can I customize the layout of my WordPress theme?

Firstly, navigate to the WordPress dashboard, select the appearance section, and then proceed to customize. Here, you can change the layout settings from homepage to header to footer, depending on the theme settings.

Can I switch WordPress themes without losing content?

WordPress allows you to change themes without losing any content (posts, pages, or users); however, theme-specific elements like widgets and custom settings may change.

How do I customize theme code in WordPress?

To customize the theme code, navigate to the appearance section and then select the theme editor. We strongly advise you to exercise caution when directly editing code, as any errors could potentially disrupt your site. Make sure to backup your site before making any changes

Can I modify a free WordPress theme?

While you can modify any WordPress theme, we recommend creating a child theme before making any changes to the parent theme. As a result, you will not lose any changes when the parent theme updates.