Aurora is a WordPress theme built specifically for bloggers. Multiple header, homepage, archive, single post, footer, author, search, and 404 layouts let you shape the blog without writing code. Setting it up takes about an hour for a polished result if you do it in the right order.

Aurora theme installation screen in WordPress

What Aurora actually is

Aurora is a classic-style WordPress blog theme. It uses the WordPress Customizer, not full site editing, and it’s built specifically for blogs rather than being a general-purpose theme stretched to cover landing pages, stores, or portfolios first. That focus is what lets it ship as many layout options as it does, because every one of them was designed with a blog’s actual content in mind.

It ships with:

  • 8 header layouts.
  • 5 homepage layouts.
  • 10 single post layouts.
  • 13 archive layouts.
  • 5 footer layouts.
  • 4 author page layouts.
  • 3 search results layouts.
  • 5 404 page layouts.

Most of these settings are entirely user-controlled, which means picking the right combination matters more than tweaking individual options later. If you want the full inventory of what each panel controls before you dive in, Aurora’s Customizer overview doc is worth a skim first.

Step 1: Install Aurora

From WordPress admin, go to Appearance, then Themes, then Add New, then upload Aurora’s zip file (or search for it directly if it’s listed in the repository). If your zip came from a marketplace or download page, double-check it isn’t double-wrapped. WordPress needs the actual theme zip, not an outer folder containing it, or the upload will fail with a “missing style.css” error. The official WordPress.org guide to installing themes covers this edge case if you run into it.

Activate the theme once it’s installed. The site immediately reflects Aurora’s default layout, and you can start customizing from there.

Step 2: Open the Customizer

Go to Appearance, then Customize. This is where nearly all of Aurora’s settings live, and it’s worth spending a few minutes clicking through each panel before you commit to changes.

Main sections to know:

  • Site Identity: logo, site title, tagline, favicon.
  • Header: pick header layout, configure menus.
  • Homepage: pick homepage layout.
  • Posts: archive and single post layout choices.
  • Footer: pick footer layout.
  • Colors: all color settings.
  • Typography: font choices and sizes.
  • Socials & Contact: social links and contact info.

Step 3: Set the foundations (logo and colors)

Logo

Go to Site Identity, then Logo, and upload your logo there. Aurora supports both image logos and text-based site titles, so you’re not required to have a graphic ready before you launch.

The footer logo is set separately and defaults to 150px wide. If you want a different logo in the footer than the one in your header, you’ll need to upload it as a separate image in that section.

Colors

The Colors panel controls nearly everything site-wide. Aurora has no fixed colors outside of two documented exceptions, so you’re free to theme the entire site to match your brand.

Key color settings to configure:

  • Header background and text.
  • Body background.
  • Body text.
  • Link color and hover.
  • Button colors.
  • Footer colors.
Tip: Two Aurora elements ignore your color settings by design: the Overlay header’s bottom bar keeps a fixed light background (#f5f5f5), and the Swapped archive layout’s text block keeps a fixed dark background. If either color clashes with your palette, it’s simpler to pick a different header or archive layout than to try to override them with custom CSS.

Typography

Pick a heading font and a body font to start. Aurora also supports per-heading-level font choices, so H1 through H6 can each use a different font if you want that level of distinction between your title and subheadings.

For body text, 18 to 20px is typical on desktop, and 16px is generally treated as the mobile minimum for comfortable reading. Going smaller than that on phones tends to hurt readability more than it saves space.

Step 4: Pick a header layout

Go to Header, then Header Style, to see the choices:

  • Default: straightforward horizontal header. Logo, menu, search.
  • Overlay: two bars. Top bar with socials/logo/CTAs, bottom bar with menu + hamburger.
  • Apex: two bars. Top bar with socials/menu/search, bottom bar with hamburger/logo/CTA.
  • Elegant: two bars. Contact + socials top bar, pill-shaped main nav.
  • Detailed: dense top bar with multiple elements.
  • Thin: vertical sidebar header.
  • Upright: vertical sidebar header (variant).
  • Vanilla: minimal horizontal header with full-height slide-in menu panel.

Pick based on how many menu items you have, since vertical headers handle long menus differently than horizontal ones. Also consider whether you want CTA buttons in the header, what kind of mobile experience you’re after, and the overall aesthetic you’re going for.

For most blogs, Default, Apex, or Elegant are reliable starting points. Vertical headers like Thin and Upright suit more minimalist sites where you don’t want a horizontal bar competing with the content for attention. For a full side-by-side breakdown of all eight, see our Aurora header layouts comparison, or check Aurora’s own header features documentation for the complete element list per layout.

Aurora Customizer showing the header layout selection panel with multiple options

Step 5: Pick a homepage layout

Go to Homepage, then Homepage Style, for these choices:

  • Default: chronological post feed with featured-post section. 8 sections.
  • Bold: hero-led, magazine-style. 8 sections.
  • Crisp: clean, content-forward. 9 sections.
  • Laid: relaxed, image-heavy. 7 sections.
  • Rich: dense, multi-column. 7 sections.

Each layout uses different section types, including featured blocks, hero sliders, dual-column arrangements, newspaper-style grids, and swap sections.

Pick based on what you actually publish. News-style content tends to suit Bold or Rich, while essay-style content usually reads better under Laid or Crisp. Default is the safest choice if you’re unsure, and it works well for most general-interest blogs. Our full homepage layouts comparison goes deeper on section composition and publishing cadence if you want more detail before deciding.

Step 6: Pick a single post layout

Go to Posts, then Single Post Style, for 10 choices covering various sidebar positions, full-width options, hero-image variations, and minimal layouts.

For most blogs, long-form essays tend to work best full-width or minimal, how-to and tutorial content benefits from a sidebar layout that supports a table of contents or related posts, and photo-heavy posts read better in a hero-image-led layout.

Step 7: Pick an archive layout

Go to Posts, then Archive Style, for 13 choices.

Common picks:

  • Default / Cards: grid of posts with featured images.
  • Masonry: Pinterest-style irregular grid.
  • List: compact list of posts.
  • Magazine / Board: magazine-style with featured posts emphasized.

Several layouts, including Board, Cards, Default, Detailed, Minimal, and Overlay, also support a masonry display mode. If archives are where a lot of your traffic will land, our archive layouts comparison walks through all 13 options in more depth, and Aurora’s archive settings documentation covers the per-layout options like excerpts, dates, and load-more.

Step 8: Pick a footer layout

Go to Footer, then Footer Style, for 5 layouts ranging from minimal to multi-column.

Footer columns in Aurora are menu locations (Footer Menu 1, 2, 3), not widget areas. You’ll need to build the menus under Appearance, then Menus, and assign them to the footer locations for content to appear there.

The default footer logo is 150px; adjust it under the footer settings if your logo needs more or less room.

Step 9: Configure socials and contact

Go to Customize, then Socials & Contact, and add your social network URLs (X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, and others) along with contact info like phone, email, and address, which is used by header layouts that display contact details.

Author social links, the ones shown on individual posts, come from each user’s WordPress profile rather than the Customizer. Aurora adds six social fields to user profiles: X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest, and Reddit.

Step 10: Build your menus

Go to Appearance, then Menus, and build out a primary menu for the main header, a secondary menu if your chosen header supports one (Apex and Overlay both do), and Footer Menu 1, 2, and 3 for your footer columns.

Assign each menu to its corresponding location once it’s built, or it won’t show up anywhere on the live site.

Step 11: Create essential pages

  • About.
  • Contact.
  • Privacy Policy.
  • Affiliate Disclosure (if applicable).

Add these to your primary or footer menu as appropriate so readers and search engines can find them easily. If you’re not sure what your Privacy Policy and disclosure pages actually need to cover, our post on disclosure, privacy, and legal pages every blog needs lays out the essentials.

Step 12: Configure homepage

If you’re using one of Aurora’s homepage layouts, go to Settings, then Reading, and choose either “Your latest posts” or a static front page depending on your setup. For homepage layouts that pull featured posts automatically, you’ll also want to configure which posts get featured so the homepage doesn’t default to whatever happens to be newest. While you’re in there, each section also has an optional Section Title field if you want a heading like “Latest Posts” or “Editor’s Picks” to appear above it. Aurora’s guide to setting up posts in homepage sections covers this and every other per-section setting in more detail.

Step 13: Test responsiveness

Open the site on desktop, on a tablet using your browser’s responsive mode, and on an actual phone if you can, since emulators don’t always catch real touch and rendering quirks.

Check that headers collapse to a hamburger menu correctly, archive grids look right at narrower widths, the single post layout stays comfortable to read, and the footer doesn’t break or overlap. Google has indexed mobile-first for years now, so how your site behaves on a phone directly affects how it’s evaluated for search, not just how it looks.

Step 14: Install supporting plugins

Aurora doesn’t replace your essential plugin stack, so you’ll still need to add your own tools for SEO (Yoast or Rank Math), caching, backups, security, image optimization, and a contact form.

See our plugin installation guide if you’re not sure where to start, and the official WordPress.org documentation on themes covers additional installation methods, including FTP and cPanel uploads, if the admin uploader ever gives you trouble.

What you end up with

Aurora setup, in short: install the theme, configure the Customizer (header, homepage, single post, archive, and footer layouts, plus colors, typography, and socials), build your menus, create essential pages, and install your supporting plugins. That’s roughly an hour of work total. Done in the right order, you end up with a polished blog that’s genuinely ready to publish, not a half-configured theme you’ll have to revisit next week.