Do you want to select the perfect theme for your new WordPress site?
WordPress themes come in a variety of styles and prices; choose one that looks good, functions well, and matches your branding.
When choosing a WordPress theme, the following article will talk about the most important factors to consider.
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Various types of websites can be created using WordPress.
WooCommerce themes, membership site themes, and even multi-purpose themes can be customized to fit nearly any type of site.
Many WordPress themes come with tons of customization options. If not coded properly, then these options can make it difficult for you to change themes or use other WordPress plugins. You will be locked into that theme or will have to hire a WordPress developer to help you switch.
On the other hand, some WordPress themes that look great can actually make your website incredibly slow. Having a slow website can hurt your search engine rankings, 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 has a design you like, is fast, and can be easily customized.
The best WordPress theme depends on a few things before you start building your site.
As there actually are two versions of WordPress, the first step is to make sure you’re using the right one.
WordPress.com offers a limited hosting service, whereas WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform.
Check out our comparison of WordPress.com and WordPress.org to understand the differences.
With WordPress.org, you can create any kind of website and get access to every WordPress theme and all the features right away.
You’ll also need a good WordPress hosting plan and a domain name to get started.
A top WordPress host, Bluehost is officially recommended and is one of the largest hosting companies in the world.
They have also agreed to provide 69% off hosting, a free domain name, and free SSL certificates for our readers.
In addition to signing up for web hosting and registration of your domain name, you need to install WordPress. With Bluehost, WordPress is pre-installed for you.
If you have another hosting provider, see our guide on how to install WordPress, which covers every major hosting provider.
Let’s take a look at the most important things to consider when choosing the right WordPress theme.
In most cases, you do not need all of the extra features commonly found in WordPress themes, such as complex layouts, animations, sliders, and more.
Make sure your theme looks good without compromising usability or simplicity. It should support your goal.
Keep the theme’s presentation style simple so that users can find the information they require as quickly as possible.
A theme that looks great but doesn’t help you get new customers or email newsletter subscribers is not a good theme.
Your theme should be as simple as possible. If you want to add new functionality, you can use WordPress plugins.
When you’re choosing a WordPress theme, you’ll want to make sure it’s easy to customize, allowing you to make it your own.
While the demo theme may be exactly what you need, you will probably want to make specific changes to make it match your unique brand. Most of these changes will be made using the WordPress theme customizer.
Depending on what aspects of your site you want to change, you may be able to customize more features with some themes than others.
Color scheme, font choice, layout, custom logo, widgets, and other features will be under your control.
The SeedProd page builder plugin can also be used to create completely custom WordPress themes and pages.
Depending on what aspects of your site you want to change, you may be able to customize more features with some themes than others.
Color scheme, font choice, layout, custom logo, widgets, and other features will be under your control.
The SeedProd page builder plugin can also be used to create completely custom WordPress themes and pages.
The number of visitors coming from mobile devices is more than 60% today. The number may vary with your blogging niche, so you should ensure your WordPress website looks good on mobile phones.
The majority of WordPress themes have a responsive design, which means they adjust the layout for various screen sizes and devices.
Having a responsive WordPress theme does not mean it delivers effective responsive design.
To preview your theme in all screen sizes, simply adjust your browser window and see how it displays.
Also, you should test your new WordPress theme across browsers to ensure it works across them all. For more details, see our guide on how to test a WordPress site across browsers.
The WordPress theme you choose will serve as the foundation for the rest of your website. Besides its design, make sure that it loads quickly and is regularly updated.
Your WordPress theme’s size can greatly affect your speed and performance. If your theme is heavy and slow loading, you will have poor user experience and can suffer from low SEO rankings.
You should always run a website speed test to check how fast a theme loads.
A speed test can be conducted on any of the free themes, or you can use the demo URL on premium themes to see how fast it loads.
Check when your theme was last updated, as new versions of WordPress are released all the time.
You may encounter security issues with WordPress if your theme is out of date. It may also cause conflicts with other plugins on your site.
The WordPress.org theme listing page is a great place to determine the last updated date for free themes. If possible, the theme should have been updated within the last couple of months and have a consistent update history.
Premium WordPress themes have almost certainly been upgraded so that they work with the latest version of WordPress.
When you pay for the theme, the developer will be able to devote more resources to updating it.
It’s ideal if a WordPress theme handles the design, and WordPress plugins handle all additional functionality.
Plugins for WordPress enable you to do things such as add a contact form, generate leads, run giveaways, and more.
All WordPress plugins will be supported by most themes. However, if your theme is poorly coded or adding a lot of plugin-like features, you could experience WordPress errors because of a conflict. In addition, you would lose those features if you ever changed your site design.
We recommend keeping it simple with the WordPress theme and adding functionality via plugins.
The chances are that you can use a WordPress plugin to add any feature you want to your site.
Check out our picks of the must-have WordPress plugins if you’re looking to improve your site.
A WordPress theme’s rating and reviews are another reliable indicator of its quality. WordPress.org provides all the customer reviews for their free themes.
It shows the number of reviews and stars given by users. You can view reviews at different stars levels in detail.
On the theme sales page, you will see customer reviews and testimonials if the theme is sold on a third-party marketplace.
Even if you’ve spent time learning WordPress and have some solid skills, you may need assistance at times.
You will have different support options depending on what theme you choose. For example, many free WordPress themes don’t offer guaranteed support; whereas, others do.
On the WordPress.org listing page of your free theme, you can see how actively the support channel is.
After purchase, most premium themes offer 6 to 12 months of support and updates.
A premium theme usually has its own customer support or help desk.
The theme documentation will show you how to set up the theme and answer most of your questions in addition to customer support options.
It is essential that your WordPress theme has a positive SEO impact. A good-looking theme can still generate poorly coded HTML, and that can negatively affect your site’s search engine rankings.
A website’s source code can be difficult to analyze for beginners. This is why many WordPress theme developers will tell you that their themes are SEO-optimized.
The search engines will appreciate lightweight and fast-loading themes.
Afterward, you should use an SEO plugin like AIOSEO to further optimize your website, so that it ranks better in search engines.
The best way to set up AIOSEO for WordPress correctly can be found in our ultimate guide.
There are many website owners who want to build a site in a different language or cater to an audience that speaks another language since WordPress powers over 40 percent of the internet.
Click on the ‘Feature Filter’ menu option in the WordPress.org theme depository if you want to search for translation-ready WordPress themes.
A premium WordPress theme will typically list its language compatibility on the theme page if you are looking for one.
Using a WordPress translation plugin, you can also create a multilingual WordPress site.
