Most beginners feel overwhelmed when it comes to selecting a theme for their WordPress site. There are thousands of free and paid options. Each theme looks better than the other. How do you choose the best theme for WordPress? In this article, we will share the things you should consider, so you can choose the best WordPress theme for your site.
Use only credible sources of themes
It’s very important not to download your templates from unknown sources. Consider only official or trustworthy ones. This guarantees no errors in coding, viruses, or spam links. The safest source is an official WordPress website, which has many WordPress themes to choose from: from free to premium ones.
When going through a trusted source, you can also check reviews and make sure the theme is still supported and users are getting fast answers to their questions.
Say “NO” to complex templates
Some themes can really slow down your site, causing visitors to leave before they take in any information. make sure the theme you choose is optimized and agile. Otherwise you might risk alienating your audience.
Do not choose common themes
Some free templates seem to be overused that is why many websites look alike. But you want to be unique, don’t you? Choose a WordPress theme that can describe your individuality, this won’t only amuse your visitors, but will also help a lot with promoting your business online.
Responsive design wins
Having a mobile version of your site is now a must-have for any webmaster because more and more people are accessing the web with their phones and tablets. Sometimes your mobile version of the site can even give you more traffic than the desktop one. Make sure your theme is responsive and can move with your website. You don’t want to turn off visitors by having an unreliable mobile site.
Design is not the main criteria
Usually, people choose website themes considering only its design. That’s totally wrong. Of course, it’s not the last criteria to pay your attention to, but still, there are much more important ones. When selecting a theme, you should realize what exactly you need, what kind of content you want to publish, your target audience, and other special elements such as advertising blocks or banners. Beware of being cheated with an awesome design full of hidden spammy links or other serious issues.
Definitely choose a WordPress website design you like the look of, but make sure it is a functioning theme with good support.
Browser Compatibility
Your users will be using different browsers. Your theme may look perfect on the browser you use, but there might be something broken in other browsers.
This is where browser compatibility comes in. Most WordPress theme developers test their themes rigorously by using sophisticated browser compatibility testing tools.
They may clearly mention this on their website. But if they don’t, then you can always run some basic tests to check the theme on different browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.
Don’t forget to test on different browsers on mobile as well.
Choose flexible templates
Do you have your own company’s logo that you want to use in the design? Many templates are configured very easily, but still, there are some that need serious code editing. Thus, if you plan to have your logo or other visual content included, you should check how well it will match your template’s design. The golden rule is choosing a theme that can be edited easily and has an easy-to-use configuration bar. This guarantees that you can adapt the installed design to your needs yourself.
Try a demo first
Before installing a theme make sure you try the demo first. Here are some things to pay attention to when looking for a theme:
- Readable fonts
- Unusual grits
- Useful signs for a user (e.g. interactive highlighting of the main ideas, hints etc)
- Use of visual content.
Play around with the demo version and see if it feels easy for you to use and fits your brand. If you like the way it works, go ahead and download!
Always check tech support
Some themes in the repository are old and abandoned and aren’t supported anymore. If you do not want to cope with all the technical issues yourself, then you should always check whether there is some tech support that is ready to help you with any issue you might face.
Like we said above, check the reviews to see if people’s problems are getting fixed in a timely manner.
SEO matters
SEO has the same importance for your website as interesting and informative content. And we are not even speaking of some complex SEO strategies used by top specialists in this sphere, but about some basic rules to follow like using more than one H1, lists, subheadings etc. They can guarantee having much traffic and better SE ranking.
Supported Plugins
The real power of WordPress comes with WordPress plugins. These plugins make it possible for you to do anything with your WordPress site.
While there are plenty of WordPress plugins, some are must-have WordPress plugins for every websites. Like Gravity Forms, Yoast SEO, W3 Total Cache, etc.
Make sure that your WordPress theme supports all popular plugins. If you are unsure, ask theme developer about it.
Page Builders
Page builders are WordPress plugins that allow you to create page layouts using drag and drop user interface.
Many premium WordPress themes come with page builders pre-installed. Some of these page builders are used by that theme developer only.
Using such a page builder to create landing pages can produce a lot of unwanted code. If you ever switch the theme, then those pages will require a lot of cleaning up.
You should choose themes that are shipping with one of the most used page builder plugins. You can also purchase these page-builders separately to use with other themes as well.
Examine your competitors
If you want to stand out from the crowd, you’d better do research on your rivals. This will help you to have a general view on the other websites of the same niche. By doing this, you’ll have a clear picture of what should be improved or added to your theme.
Monetizing
When searching for a right theme, you should clarify the focus of your website or blog. And, if you’re thinking of monetizing it in the future by placing advertising banners, you should consider finding templates with a minimum of four blocks. This number of blocks is quite enough for everything. And also, do not forget to check whether your theme supports advertising scripts you may use in the future.
Ratings and Reviews
Another solid indicator of a WordPress theme’s quality is ratings and reviews provided by their users. If the theme is sold on a third-party marketplace, then you will see customer reviews.
Conclusion
How to find a WordPress theme that will meet all your requirements? There is no one simple answer to this question, as everyone has their own needs, but these tips will make sure you get a quality WordPress website designs. Only choose themes that are made by reputable developers and have good support.