Want to choose a WordPress theme for your blog? If your answer is ‘YES’, then this article should help you make the right decision. With thousands of themes out there, it’s hard to find the best one. However, with some basic knowledge and guidance, your selection process will become much easier.
There’s no doubt that WordPress is one of the most popular platforms out there for creating a blog or website. When it comes to design, WordPress offers one of the most flexible options. With thousands of WordPress themes available, the design possibility is virtually limitless.
But with so many themes to choose from, the choice isn’t always easy.
Sometimes it can be hard to know which theme will suit your needs, or how it works with the rest of WordPress’s features. If you don’t have any previous experience with themes, it’s hard to know what questions to ask yourself.
But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!
Today we’ll take a look at 8 things you need to consider when choosing a WordPress theme. These points will help you make the right choice and get started on your new project quickly and easily. Let’s get started!
1. Responsiveness
Having a responsive site is no longer optional. Nowadays, you need a site that works on every device and screen size. Over 60% of all website traffic is now from mobile devices or tablets. This number is only increasing.
So if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s time to get on that ASAP!
A responsive site automatically resizes and changes its layout to suit the device it’s being viewed on. This allows your site to be accessible from any size of the screen.
Responsive WordPress themes are now the best choice for any website or blog. These themes automatically resize and change their layout to suit the screen size. Also, their navigational elements are easy to use on your mobile devices.
The days of creating a separate mobile site are now over. Now is the time to focus on providing an excellent user experience for all users.
Luckily, the most popular WordPress themes tend to be responsive. So your choice is usually clear, as long as you choose a popular theme. That said, it’s always a good idea to double-check that your theme is fully responsive.
You’d assume that these days, all websites are smartphone responsive. However, according to a report, only 58 percent of those surveyed adopted a mobile-friendly design. Some business owners are either unaware of the benefits of responsive design or refuse to invest in it.
One of the benefits of using WordPress and a WordPress theme over having your website developed and designed is that aspects like responsiveness are already taken care of (if included in the theme).
The advantages of responsive design go well beyond creating a pleasant user experience. Mobile design is also useful in the following areas::
- Improves the overall site speed ( Because it’s about loading only one version of the website instead of multiple).
- Easier to produce one design (instead of both mobile and desktop).
- Prevents mobile usability issues.
- Improves your search engine ranking (Google ranks mobile-friendly pages higher than non-responsive ones).
2. Great Design
Great design equals higher conversions.
Nowadays, we can find thousands of blog themes for WordPress. All of them claim to be the best and the most beautiful.
But how do you know which ones are good?
Many people think that it’s enough to have a child theme or slightly change the colors and the logo and call it a day.
But this is not true!
Great design can improve your site’s performance, lead to higher revenue and improve the overall experience for your visitors.
As you probably know, design can’t make a website inherently great or bad. But it sure has an influence on the overall user experience. When you have a well-designed site, it can attract more visitors and keep them there for longer. A great design can also improve your site’s performance and increase revenue.
A good design is less expensive than you think.
I’m not saying it doesn’t require any investment. But you don’t need to hire a designer or spend thousands of dollars on it either.
Here’s what you should do:
- Hire a professional WordPress designer (if you need to).
- Buy the best (and most popular) themes for your blog. These themes will come with a great design and layout.
Also, don’t forget to check the design of your competitor’s blog. And, then, make a decision on which WordPress theme you should buy.
3. Optimized for SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO as it is abbreviated, essentially means making your site optimized for search engines.
No doubt about it, there is huge potential in organic search engine traffic. Google alone gets over 105 billion searches per month, which is why it’s so important to have your blog posts or website ranked high in the SERPs.
But you need to make sure that your WordPress site is built in a way that improves your SERPs. There are many factors involved, but one of the simplest ways to implement effective SEO is to have a well-structured site.
A good WordPress theme will have a major part of the SEO taken care of. Look to see if your theme lists that it is search engine optimized.
It is more likely that a WordPress theme is SEO optimized if it was built with search engines in mind. So, be careful when choosing a theme.
Read – From Zero to Blogger: A Quick Start Guide
4. Strong Focus on Typography
Typography is the art of arranging type.
It is what you should pay attention to when choosing your theme.
Good typography will result in a better reading experience and can even improve conversions. WordPress themes are, more often than not, designed with typography in mind. It is very likely that the theme you have chosen will also list some of its features as being “custom typography” or some other variation of the same.
So, how should you actually go about choosing a WordPress theme with good typography? Here are a couple of things to look out for:
- Does it have a strong focus on typography and readability?
- Has the designer put in a lot of effort to make things look as good as possible?
- Does it have a strong focus on headings, subheadings, and other elements related to typography?
5. Amazing Support
Free themes are great.
But they often come with their own set of problems.
When you buy a theme, you get access to free updates and you can also contact the developers if there is any problem with the code. Not just that, but you can also get technical support. And, this is incredibly valuable.
Having someone to turn to in case of any problem with your theme is a necessity in this case. After all, you wouldn’t want to mess up your whole site just because a plugin does not work with the theme.
So, always make sure that your WordPress theme has reliable and fast support from its developers. It is a good idea to look for the number of days during which your prospective theme has been available to the public.
Because the longer it has been out there, the more bugs will have been found and the developers will have had time to fix them.
6. Customization Options
The ability to effortlessly design your blog or website site is one of the benefits of WordPress themes. a WordPress theme that is highly customizable is a great way to keep things fresh and up-to-date.
It’s a great way to avoid the need for multiple themes.
After all, with a highly customizable theme, you will be able to change most of its aspects without actually having to switch themes. It is essential, however, that the customization options are not overwhelming.
If you don’t want to do any coding, look that your theme has a page builder or visual composer to help you easily design your site.
Other features you may see are font options, color options, and widgets.
Blocksy theme is a wonderful theme that I strongly recommend if you are looking for a well-designed theme that is easy to customize. It has all of the necessary features that will help you improve the functionality and look of your site.
7. Reviews and Ratings
There are many WordPress themes out there.
While problems can arise with any theme, less experienced users are more likely to come across problems with the free themes. They do not always work well with all plugins, and there can also be problems related to compatibility.
In those cases, you need a well-documented theme that has a good rating and reviews from other users.
An easy way to determine whether the theme you have chosen falls into that category is by checking out its reviews and ratings. If it were just awful, you can bet that many people would have taken the time to mention it.
8. Regular Updates
Regular updates are another sign of a good theme.
You can know whether your chosen theme will receive updates by checking the number of times it has been updated.
The more updates it has received, the better. Of course, you also need to look at the individual update history of each theme.
Most themes update their features and bug fixes periodically. But, other important things should be updated as well.
For example, security updates are very important because they will help you avoid the risk of your site being hacked. It is also a good idea to check for theme compatibility with new versions of WordPress as well.
There are many online articles/reviews that can help you make a better decision, but there are no fixed rules that will apply to all themes.
So, make sure that your theme is regularly updated.
However, understanding what makes a good WordPress theme and why you need to pay attention to certain things when it comes time to choose and buy one is a great way to make an informed choice.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know what to look for when choosing a WordPress theme, you can make an informed decision.
There are countless WordPress themes out there, but not all of them are good choices. You will have to put some effort into finding the best option for you. So, always look at a theme’s features before you choose and buy it and see if it will give you the look and feel that you desire.
There is nothing more frustrating than getting a theme only to realize that it doesn’t offer everything that you need.
Spend some time choosing the right theme and you’ll avoid the frustration of buying something that doesn’t meet your requirements.
If you do it right, your WordPress site will grow like a weed.
The good news?
I’ve taken the time to search for the best themes (in my opinion) and I have created a list of the best WordPress themes out there for you to take a look at. You can find examples of high-quality WordPress themes here.
That’s all for today, thanks for reading!
In the end, if you have found the post useful, please show some love by sharing it on social media. Have any more questions? Contact me here. If you want to create your own blog, check out the step-by-step tutorial.
