In this article, we will be discussing how to choose a WordPress theme for your website.
Kudos! If you’ve started a business and taken a step to generate a business website. Then you must have encountered the term WordPress themes. Themes play a big part in creating the overall appearance of your website. Templates differ from themes as they decide the look of a single page layout, not the whole site.
They offer several customization features for a specific type of website needs.
From the WordPress theme directory, you can apply any theme you want. They also customize their themes into different categories like layout, features, and blog.
For better optimization and running, all themes are well-coded by WordPress.org. Plus they work well with all major page builders like Brizzy, Elemento, Divi, and Gutenberg.
1. Understand your needs
Understanding your needs is the first step in choosing a WordPress theme. Themes have different features based on website needs. For example, a blog theme must have a dynamic display, modern design pattern, several posting formats, straightforward navigation menus, and appropriate fonts. Before choosing a theme first make a list of features you want in your website.
2. Multiple customization options
If you decide to go for a free theme one thing to keep in mind many of your competitors are using the same theme and you have to create the appearance a bit differently. For that, you must customize every page up to the user’s expectations level. One way to check the customization options is by going to WordPress Dashboard> appearance> themes> live preview. Always remember less is more means less and specific features are best. Themes like Divi, Botiga, and Themify offer several customization features.
3. SEO-friendly theme
Choose an SEO-friendly theme. Stability and speed of a theme affect SEO of your website. Multiple features, plugins, and templates may sound interesting but they can slow down website running speed and impact the performance in a bad way. Themes that are simple and have high functionality works sufficiently. Schema is one of the fastest WordPress themes with a webpageTest loading time of 1.534 seconds. Pingdom and GTmetrix are the two best tools to analyze the loading time of websites. A theme that is light weight about 600 kb and not cluttered with tons of features improves SEO.
4. Mobile-friendliness and responsive theme:
In a responsive theme, every menu is smoothly navigated on any device. Using a non-responsive theme makes the look of your website ugly on smaller screens. According to research, 90% of internet users are using mobile for browsing. To check whether a theme is an SEO or not, copy its URL and analyze it with Google’s mobile-friendly test tool. Divi, Authority Pro, OceanWP, Ultra, Astra, Hestia Pro, SeedProd, Tusant, Gluten theme, and Inspiro are some of the best responsive WordPress themes.
5. Browsers and plugins compatibility
Browsers and plugin compatibility are very crucial when picking a WordPress theme. Not every plugin but themes should be compatible with popular plugins including
Elementor, AISEO, Buddy Press, WP forms, and Woo commerce. Plugin needs vary with websites like a travel website needs a mapping plugin. Analyze the performance of themes from the demo site on browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge. Browser shot is also great a tool to analyze browser compatibility.
Free themes are best for beginners. While premium themes may offer additional features but for a beginner, they are not mandatory. They may be best for business and online stores as they want to customize every page of their site up to the par. Premium themes offered numerous features and you can buy them by paying one time. Buying premium themes doesn’t guarantee that they are well coded.
ThemeForest WordPress themes
On platforms like ThemeForest, any developer can make and sell themes. Theme forest is a marketplace where you can sell or buy themes, HTML templates, eCommerce website templates, and Shopify themes and templates. You can even download ThemeForest free themes from their page there are hundreds of free themes that come every month.
7. Colors are essential
While colors make things appealing and demanding, one should select them wisely, for example, dark color themes decrease readability and increase the bounce rate on the website. Choosing a light-colored theme would be best for the site’s overall appearance. In the custom CSS, you can customize any theme’s appearance including its color. You can even contrast the theme’s color with the page logo. Choose a WordPress theme in which you can customize the colors and appearance of themes.
8. Rating and reviews
Choose a WordPress theme with a 4 to 5 rating and good reviews. From the WordPress directory, go to the “See all” menu and check the reviews. Here read the comments of people about what they don’t like in a theme. Also, check recent updates. Although themes are well coded, they also need updates for codes and security purposes.
Themes that are last updated 1-2 years back generally come with bugs and securities threat as hacker discovers vulnerabilities of outdated coding website. The last update should be within 6 months. Theme Check Plugin and Sucuri site which is a chrome extension are the best tool to check outdated codes.
Nulled themes:
Nulled and pirated themes are a copy from the premium version. Like, Divi Nulled. While they are less pricey or even free of cost but they have different drawbacks.
1. They reduce your SEO.
2. Themes are not well coded and lead to security threats.
3. They are not up-to-date with the current WordPress version.
4. It affects your site performance.
Instead of using nulled themes, you can use free themes from the WordPress repository. It has hundreds of themes that are well coded and up to the mark of functionality and security.
Choosing from hundreds of themes is a bit challenging. Here are suggestions for the top 10 WordPress themes.
Minimalist themes
The purpose of a minimalist theme is to make your site simple and elegant. A minimalist theme is best for photographers, bloggers, and professionals. Some of the best minimalist themes are.
- The Minimal
- Monochrome Pro
- TheFour
- Gallery Pro
- Hestia
- SeedPro
- Divi elegant
Single-page WordPress themes
Single-page WordPress websites are used in business. WordPress free themes are best for single-page websites. There are many professional, trendy, and minimal business website themes available like Astra, Divi, Hestia, Zakra, Sydney, SeedPro, Ultra, Neve, and OceanWP.
Multipurpose themes
A Multipurpose theme can be employed for multiple niches. It has extensions, widgets page, and plugin support to customize the site. Neve and Divi are multipurpose themes used for blogs, Woo-commerce, and portfolio websites.
While niche themes are used in specific industries like blogs and eCommerce. Pros of having a niche theme are that you have all the desired features available in a single theme while the con is you don’t have multiple features as compared to a multipurpose theme. Personals is one of the great themes for blogs. Talking about its features its page layout has a beautiful design layout with a sidebar for recent posts and comments.
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