WordPress is the most popular content management system for a reason. It offers various features to meet the needs of website owners with different purposes. This means there are thousands of WordPress themes to choose from on the internet and it can be a confusing process if you are unsure about what to look for.
What is a WordPress theme?
A WordPress theme includes all the front end styling for your page, including the overall design, fonts, colors, widgets, layouts, and stylistic details, thus it is very important for your online presence. It also makes it confusing for many website owners to choose the ideal one to reflect the business’s image online. Website owners should also consider the purpose of the website to be able to find the best option. There are also various technical features to look for during the process.
If you can follow these 7 simple steps, they may guide you through this tiring process.
Table of Contents
How to choose the best WordPress theme?
Website’s purpose
The most important thing that your website should do is to represent you or your business online. To be able to do that, you should choose a theme that visually meets your needs. For example, if you want to showcase your artwork on your website, a theme with bigger images and a simple design would be a better choice. If you want to publish articles, the design should focus more on posts and their titles to arouse interest.
Responsive themes
Mobile devices are as important as desktop PCs or laptops, if not more so. This means most of your visitors will visit your website with mobile devices that have different resolutions. Responsive themes resize your website to fit the various devices. So if you want your website to look nice on different screen sizes, make sure you choose a responsive theme.
Plugins
There are also thousands of WordPress plugins to make your website look better, work smoother, or provide you information about your website and visitors. If you need certain plugins before choosing your theme, make sure to check if the theme supports the plugin or not. Most themes come with embedded plugins, so it would be wise to check if the plugin you need conflicts with the one included in the theme before deciding.
Premium themes
As you may already notice, that there are free and premium WordPress themes online. Some free WordPress themes might be as good as premium ones but most of the time, buying a premium WordPress theme means you can get free support from the team that builds the theme and most of the premium themes also get frequent updates to improve the website’s performance and patch flaws. So don’t be hesitant to pay for the theme you liked.
SEO
If you want to reach a larger audience with your website, SEO is one of the most important things you should check. On-page optimization is very important for SEO. A WordPress theme should use the correct HTML5 structure tags and appropriate heading for your content, otherwise, search engines can’t index your content properly. Additionally, some themes also provide basic schema support for web pages.
Page builder
Page builders allow website owners to easily customize their websites via a drag-and-drop interface. To be able to create special pages on the website, you may need a page builder. If the theme supports a page builder, it can make things much easier for you. The most popular page builders are Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, and Elementor.
Reviews
It is always nice to hear other user’s opinion before buying a theme. Most WordPress theme shops let users read other users’ reviews and feedback. If a theme has a problem that can’t be fixed for a long time you can easily avoid it by reading reviews. You can also have an opinion about the support delivered by the developer.
Where can you download or buy a WordPress theme?
- WordPress Theme Directory
- Themeforest (Every month, you can download three free WordPress themes here.)
- MOJO Marketplace
- Elegant Themes
- CSSIgniter
- Studiopress