Eager to learn how to create a custom WordPress theme without learning HTML, CSS, or Javascript?
This guide is for you.
Designing a unique theme for your web design doesn’t have to be a complex task — and you’re about to see this for yourself.
Keep reading to learn a simple, time-efficient way to create a stunning custom WordPress theme that will blow your potential customers away.
What is a Custom WordPress Theme & Why Does It Matter?
A custom WordPress theme is a theme that’s designed and customized specifically for your WordPress website.
With a custom theme, it’s easier to create an outstanding website that stays at the front of your potential customers’ mind. But you need to make sure your theme is high-quality and designed to provide a stellar user experience.
A great user experience boils down to this: a website your site visitors can find easily, navigate without any problems, and immediately understand what you’re offering.
You also need to make sure that your custom WordPress theme is secure. Any vulnerabilities in your theme can lead to dire consequences for you and your customers – and you don’t want that.
Dive into this step-by-step WordPress tutorial to create the perfect theme for you business – and with the right tools.
How to Manually Design a Custom Theme on Your Own
Creating a custom WordPress theme manually is a bit like tailoring a unique outfit for a website. It involves several steps and requires a few specific folders and files.
First, you'll create a new folder in the WordPress themes directory. You’ll find this in the wp-content in your backend files.
This is where your custom theme will live. Inside this folder, there are several key files and folders you'll need:
style.css: This is the main stylesheet file. It's not just for styling; it also contains comments at the top that WordPress uses to identify your theme.
functions.php file: This file acts like the brain of your theme. It's used to define functions, classes, actions, and filters to be used by other parts of your theme. If you want to add widgets to your site, this is where they’ll be registered.
index.php file: The core file of your theme, used to display the main page of your site.
header.php and footer.php: These files contain the code for the header and footer sections of your theme. They are included in other template files.
sidebar.php (optional): If your theme has a sidebar, this file contains its HTML structure and PHP code.
page.php and single.php: These are template files for individual pages and single post types.
archive.php: Essential for displaying a list of posts in a specific category, tag, author, or date range. It's used for archive pages, like when a visitor clicks on a category or tag.
images folder: This is where you store images used in your theme.
JavaScript folder (optional): If your theme uses custom JavaScript, this folder will contain those files.
Creating a theme also involves writing HTML for structure, CSS for styling, and PHP for functionality. It's like assembling a puzzle; each file has its role, and they work together to create the look and feel of your website.
Remember, this is a simplified overview, and actual theme development can be much more complex, especially for feature-rich or highly customized themes.
How to Create a Custom Theme for Your WordPress Site (The Easy Way)
If you don't have any technical experience, then trying to create your own WordPress theme might feel like a really difficult task.
The thought of trying to understand technical WordPress theme development can be daunting for any user — especially busy business owners who don’t have time to learn how to navigate PHP files and other complicated components.
You’re a busy business owner and need a simple, seamless solution. One that doesn’t need you to have Github open 24/7 to navigate complex code just to create a WooCommerce template for a custom eCommerce theme, for example.
This tutorial includes a simple, no code solution for beginners and advanced users alike, you can use to create your own starter theme without tampering with your theme folder.
1. Install Thrive Theme Builder
You need a custom WordPress theme that makes your website:
Look great
Easy to navigate
Encourages your site visitors to convert
You could browse through hundreds of themes on different online stores, hoping that you find one that’s easy to customize and works well with your WordPress plugins…
Or you can purchase a theme builder that provides you with fully customizable WordPress templates to make it 100 times easier for you to create your unique site design.
If that piqued your interest, then you need to check out Thrive Theme Builder, the best WordPress theme builder available.
Think of this solution as “web development made easy” — because it is.
No need to navigate stylesheets or complex coding.
Thrive Theme Builder is designed to help you:
Build and customize every aspect of your website without typing a single line of code. You'll design a custom header, footer, page layout, sidebar, and more – all with our visual drag-and-drop builder.
Use pre-built SEO-friendly template files to build a clean, conversion-focused website without wasting time creating complicated designs from scratch.
Set up the core elements of your theme in minutes thanks to the Thrive Theme Builder Site Wizard (which you'll learn more about in a second).
Integrate with any other Thrive product, or the most popular marketing tools to enhance your site's functionality.
If you aren’t happy with how your theme looks a few months from now, or just want a change, the Thrive Theme Builder editor lets you customize any aspect of your website in a few clicks (no need to create a child theme or a separate new theme altogether).
For less than $250, you can use this tool to create the perfect structure for your website or blog.
This is the perfect solution for bootstrap business owners who need an affordable solution, or companies
2. Select a Theme
Thrive Theme Builder comes with several professionally designed companion themes, complete with conversion-focused pages and block theme templates for every part of your website.
All of the themes in Thrive Theme Builder are also suitable for any niche.
For example, if you take a look at Bookwise, our companion theme for indie authors, and decide to use it for your legal consulting business - go right ahead!
You can customize your theme of choice until it matches what you’re looking for – without compromising any part of the design.
And it gets better with our Thrive Theme Builder Setup Wizard...
3. Customize Your Theme with the TTB Wizard
The Thrive Theme Builder Setup Wizard is designed to help you put together your custom WordPress theme, with a seamless template hierarchy — leaving you with the fun part (putting your design together in a couple of clicks).
By the end of the wizard, you’ll have:
Uploaded a dark and light version of your logo so it’s always visible on your website
Selected your main brand color for your theme’s color scheme
Pick a conversion-focused header for your website
Selected a Homepage template
Picked a Single Blog Post template
Chosen a Blog Post List template to showcase your engaging blog posts
Selected a Page template
Chosen a Menu template
Now, you have created a custom WordPress theme that you can use to create an impressive website that generates conversions.
4. Configure Your Site’s Typography
In this step, you’ll establish your site-wide typography settings. This means the fonts you select here will appear on any part of your site, without you needing to manually configure them. Saving you tons of time.
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
H6
Paragraph text
List text
Hyperlink text
Plain text
Blockquote text
Preformatted text
5. Customize Your Core Pages & Templates
Core Page Templates are page designs that you can save as single templates and then apply to other pages of your website.
That way, you won't need to design each page from scratch. For example, let's say you build a standard blog post template.
Whenever you create a new blog post, this pre-designed template will automatically load and all you'll need to do is fill the page with text & media, and publish the page when you're ready.
No need to design each page from scratch -- Thrive Theme Builder takes care of that for you.The initial Core Page Templates you’ll design in Thrive Theme Builder are your:
404 Error Page
Standard Blog Post
Default Page
Blog List Page
Blog Archive Page
You can also create and manage as many extra page templates as you need from the templates area of Thrive Theme Builder.
6. Optimize Your Theme For Speed
Thrive Theme Builder also comes packed with a Site Speed Optimization tool that makes establishing your site's performance settings in one click simple!
You get access to Project Lightspeed, our website asset optimization tool. Simply put, this tool focuses on putting out clean, lean code.
Leaner code = less to load = faster website response times.
This feature is automatically activated on your website, so you don't need to do anything here.
Next, the Site Speed Optimization feature helps you configure your caching settings with either WP Fastest Cache or W3 Total Cache in just a few clicks.
We strongly recommend configuring caching settings for your website because it can help improve your site's speed and performance.
Our site performance optimization tools are simple to understand and straightforward to use, so you can complete this setup in less than a few minutes.
Next Steps: Fill & Customize Your Page Templates with a Page Builder
Now that you've created your custom WordPress theme and set up your site's structure, it's time to tailor your new page and post templates to suit your brand.
The best way to get this done is with a solid page-building plugin that offers you total design flexibility and a wide selection of customization options.
And our recommendation is Thrive Architect, the best front-end page builder for WordPress websites.
This isn't just any visual editor; it's your gateway to creating engaging, conversion-focused content with ease.
Picture yourself crafting beautiful pages with a simple drag-and-drop interface, where every change is visible in real-time, and no coding skills are required — saving you from having to wrangle with Gutenberg (the WordPress Block Editor).
Here are four free resources to get you started:
- Make the Background Images of Your Website Look More Professional in 4 Simple Steps
- How to Post a Podcast on WordPress (Complete Guide)
- 7 Free Tools to Create Amazing Visual Content for Your Website
- How to Collect and Display Testimonials (Simple Guide)
Your theme will catch your visitors' attention, but your content is what will get them to stay on your website and eventually convert.
To create site content that's just as top tier as your custom theme, you need to use the best site-building plugins.
You have two options:
1. Buy an array of plugins from different stores & developers...and risk them clashing and even crashing your website...
2. Thrive Theme Builder and Thrive Architect, the website building duo you need to create a stunning, engaging website that generates conversions.
Don’t hesitate any longer
