How to Add Custom CSS to Your WordPress Site (Beginner’s Guide)

Adding custom CSS your WordPress site can offer tons of customization. From changing the look of elements to removing them completely, CSS can be used for a wide range of visual changes on your website.

In this guide we’ll show you how to add custom CSS to your WordPress site using built-in options or a plugin.


Video Tutorial

No time for an article? here’s a quick video showing you how to add CSS to your WordPress site.


Add Custom CSS to WordPress using Theme Customizer

The easiest way to add CSS to your WordPress site is to use the additional CSS option in the theme customizer.

If you’re using WordPress 4.7 (released in 2016) or a newer version you should have the options for additional CSS in your theme customizer.

This can be found in Appearance>customize.

This is by far the fastest way to add custom CSS to a WordPress site. Best of all it lets you preview the changes as you add them.

Customize option under appearance in WordPress

Once you’re in the WordPress customizer you should see an option for additional CSS on the bottom of the panel on the left side of the page.

Additional CSS option in the customizer

In this panel you can add any custom CSS you have plus you’ll be able to directly preview your changes as you type.

Additional CSS area in the WordPress customizer

Best of all in the customizer you can schedule your changes as well using the gear icon next to the publish button. If you want to publish your changes directly just hit publish on the top.

Scheduling changes in WordPress customizer

Add Custom CSS to WordPress using A Plugin

If you’re using an older version of WordPress or for some reason additional CSS isn’t in your customizer you can use a plugin. Simple Custom CSS is a great option to add an option for CSS in your WordPress admin.

Simply look up “Simple Custom CSS” in Plugins>add new

Simple Custom CSS Plugin

After installing the plugin and clicking activate you’ll see the Custom CSS option under appearance.

Custom CSS option

On this page you can add any addition CSS you have to add to your site.


Now that you know how to use CSS in WordPress you can learn more about CSS on sites like Codecademy, CSS-Tricks and even on YouTube.

I highly recommend learning CSS since it gives you great control of the visual aspects of your website.

Picture of Andy Feliciotti

Andy Feliciotti

Andy has been a full time WordPress developer for over 10 years. Through his years of experience has built 100s of sites and learned plenty of tricks along the way. Found this article helpful? Buy Me A Coffee

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