Want to choose the perfect theme for your new WordPress site?
There are thousands of different free and premium WordPress themes to choose from. You want to make sure you choose a WordPress theme that looks good, has the features you need, and is also of high quality.
Reading: How to create a blog with wordpress
In this article, we share the top things to consider when choosing a WordPress theme.
Why is it important to choose the right WordPress theme?
WordPress can used to build all types of WordPress from different types of websites.
There are many themes targeting different markets such as: B. WooCommerce themes, membership site themes, and even multipurpose themes that can be customized to fit almost any type of website.
Many WordPress themes offer tons of customization options. If not coded properly, these options can make it difficult for you to change themes or use other WordPress plugins. You’re locked into that theme or need to hire a WordPress developer to help you switch.
On the other hand, some WordPress themes that look great can actually make your site incredibly slow. A slow website can affect your search engine ranking, user experience, and more.
Your theme is the face of your WordPress site and plays an important role in how users and search engines perceive it.
Your goal should be to find a WordPress theme that that has a theme that you like, is fast, and can be easily customized.
Before you choose the perfect WordPress theme
Before you choose the best WordPress theme, there are a few things that you need to create your WordPress site.
First you need to make sure you are using the right version of WordPress as there are actually two versions of WordPress.
There’s WordPress.com, a limited hosted platform. Next you have the popular WordPress.org, the self-hosted version.
To understand the difference, check out our comparison of WordPress.com and WordPress.org.
We recommend using WordPress.org as it gives you the freedom to build any type of website and gives you access to any WordPress theme and features right out of the box.
To get started, you will also need good WordPress hosting and your own domain name.
We recommend using Bluehost because they are an officially recommended WordPress host and one of the largest hosting companies in the world.
Also, they have each other agreed to offer our readers a 69% discount on hosting, a free domain name, and a free SSL certificate.
Just click the button below to get started.
Once you have signed up for web hosting and set up your domain name, you need to install WordPress. Luckily, Bluehost comes pre-installed with WordPress.
Most other hosting companies offer a 1-click WordPress installation option. If you’re using another hosting provider, check out our guide to installing WordPress, which covers all the major hosting platforms.
Let’s take a look at the top things you need to do Remember, when choosing the perfect WordPress theme.
1. Simple and minimalist design
Many WordPress themes come with lots of colors, complex layouts, eye-catching animations, sliders and more. Sometimes you need these things, but in most cases you don’t need all these extra features.
Look for a theme with a design layout that will help support your goal. It needs to look good without compromising usability and simplicity.
Make sure the theme’s presentation style isn’t overly complicated. The purpose of your website is to help users find the information they need as quickly as possible while highlighting relevant information about your business.
If a design looks good but doesn’t help you, To win new customers or email newsletter subscribers, then it’s not a good topic.
Overall, the theme you choose should be as simple as possible. If you want to add new features to your website, you can use WordPress plugins.
2. Easy to customize and make changes
When you decide on a WordPress theme, you want to make sure it’s easily customizable so you can truly make it your own.
Even if the demo theme is exactly how you want it, you’ll probably want to make certain changes to make the theme fit your unique brand. Most changes are made through the WordPress theme customizer or theme options panel.
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Some themes also allow more customization than others, so you should choose a theme that allows you to customize aspects Your website you want to change.
In general, you have control over the theme’s color scheme, font choices, layout, custom logo, widgets, and more.
You can also use a WordPress drag and -Drop Page use builder plugin like SeedProd to create completely custom pages or custom WordPress themes from scratch.
3. Responsive and looks great on all devices and screen sizes
Today, more than 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. This number depends on your blogging niche, but you need to make sure your WordPress site looks good on mobile.
Most WordPress themes have a responsive design. This means that the theme will adjust the layout based on different screen sizes and devices.
But just because a WordPress theme is responsive doesn’t mean that the theme does responsive design well.
You should preview your design in all screen sizes. You can easily do this by customizing your browser window and seeing the theme adapt.
You can also test your new WordPress theme in different browsers to ensure that it works correctly in all browsers. See our guide to testing a WordPress site in different browsers for more details.
4. Frequently updated and has a high quality code base
Your WordPress theme forms the basis of your website. Beyond the overall theme, you want to make sure it loads quickly and updates regularly.
The size of your WordPress theme can have a big impact on your speed and performance. Your loading speeds affect everything from your user experience to WordPress SEO, so you’ll want to make sure your theme is lightweight and has fast loading speeds.
You can always run a website speed test to see how fast a topic loads. For more details, see our guide to properly running a website speed test.
With free themes, you can simply install the theme and run a speed test. For premium themes you can run a speed test on the demo url which will give you an idea of how well the theme is working.
Another thing to look for is the last time that the design has been updated. New versions of WordPress are released all the time, so you’ll want to make sure your theme is up to date.
An outdated theme can cause WordPress security issues and conflicts with other plugins on your site.
For free WordPress themes, you can find the last updated date on the WordPress.org theme listing page. Ideally, your theme has been updated in the last few months and has a consistent update history.
If you look at premium WordPress themes then you can almost guarantee that the theme was updated to work with the latest version of WordPress.
Since you are paying for the theme, the developer or development team has more resources to keep the theme up to date.
5. Compatible with the plugins you need
If you choose a WordPress theme, ideally it takes care of the design and all additional functions are handled by WordPress plugins.
WordPress -Plugins Allows you to do things like create a contact form on your website, generate leads, run giveaways and more.
Most themes support all WordPress plugins. However, if you have a poorly coded theme or a theme that adds too many plugin-like features, you might run into a conflict and experience WordPress errors. If you ever change your website design and want to switch themes, you would lose these features.
That’s why we recommend going for the simple WordPress theme and adding features via plugins.
If there’s ever a feature you’d like to add to your website, there’s probably a WordPress plugin that can help you with that.
If you’re looking for great WordPress plugins to enhance your website, check out our selection of must-have WordPress plugins.
6. Has Solid Ratings and Reviews
Another solid indicator of a WordPress theme’s quality is ratings and reviews provided by its users.If you are looking for free themes, you can find the customer reviews by going to the theme page on WordPress.org.
It will show the number of reviews and stars given by users. You can view a detailed breakdown of the ratings at each star level.
If the theme is sold on a third-party marketplace, you will see customer reviews or user testimonials on the theme sales page.
7. Has an active and helpful customer support team
Even if you’ve spent time learning WordPress and have solid skills, there may be times when you need to rely on support.
Depending on the theme you choose, there are different support options. For example, many free WordPress themes do not come with guaranteed support, while others still offer regular support.
If you’re using a free theme, you can check how active the theme’s support channel is on the WordPress.org listing page .
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Most premium themes offer between 6 and 12 months of support and updates after purchase, with the option to renew.
Premium themes usually have their own customer support or Helpdesk via their website.
Besides the customer support options, you should also read the theme documentation. These tutorials will show you how to set up the theme and answer your most common questions.
8. Optimized for the Search Engines
Your WordPress theme plays an important role in the SEO friendliness of your website. A good-looking theme can still generate poorly coded HTML, which can affect your website’s ranking in search engines.
It can be difficult for beginners to analyze a theme’s source code themselves. That’s why many WordPress theme developers let you know that their themes are optimized for SEO.
If you have a lightweight and fast-loading theme, then you’re heading in the right direction for search engine rankings.
Then you can use a WordPress SEO plugin like AIOSEO to further optimize your website to rank in the search engines and get more traffic.
See our ultimate guide on how to set up AIOSEO for WordPress correctly for more details.
9. Ready for translation into different languages
WordPress powers over 40 percent of the internet. As a result, there are many website owners who want to create a website in a different language or target an audience that speaks a different language.
If you are looking for a free WordPress theme, you can search for translatable themes. To do this, click on the “Feature Filter” menu option in the WordPress.org Theme Repository.
Then select “Translation ready” from the drop-down list.
This brings up Create a list of themes created to facilitate translation.
If you are looking for a premium WordPress theme, its language compatibility is usually listed on the theme page listed.
However, you can also create a multilingual WordPress site by using a WordPress translation plugin.
See our guide to creating a multilingual WordPress site easily for more details.
Frequently Asked Questions About Choosing The Perfect WordPress Theme
We’ve helped thousands of users start a blog and website and answered many questions about choosing a WordPress theme. Here are some of the most common questions we get:
Do you have any WordPress theme recommendations?
As we mentioned above, there are thousands of them different topics to choose from. The right theme for you will depend on the type of website you are building and the features you need.
Nevertheless, check out our list of the most popular and best WordPress themes to see some of our Find top topics chooses.
To create a custom theme, we recommend SeedProd.
How to install a WordPress theme?
Once you have a free or Premium WordPress theme, you need to install it before you can start creating your website.
See our beginner’s guide to installing a WordPress theme for more information.
Can you change WordPress themes?
Yes, one of the great things about WordPress is that you can switch to a different WordPress theme at any time. You are never tied to an existing design or theme.
However, if you have made a lot of customizations to your website, you should know what happens when you switch WordPress themes.
If you’re ready to switch themes, check out our guide on switching WordPress themes.
We hope this article has helped you learn what you need to know about should consider when choosing the perfect WordPress theme. You might also want to check out our guide to properly migrating WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS and our expert picks of the best email marketing services for small businesses.
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