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The WordPress theme you select can impact your website and reputation in the long run. With so many themes, you may need clarification on picking the right one. But today is the day you learn to choose the best WordPress theme for your site. So, ensure you read this whole article.
In this post, you get the best WordPress theme advice. There are also 15 things you must check before picking the ideal theme. I hope you like and share this article.
What is a WordPress theme?
A WordPress theme is a group of files that build a graphical interface. And with an underlying unified design for your site. Those files are the so-called template files.
A theme changes the look of a site without changing its underlying software. Themes can hold customized template files, image files, Stylesheets (CSS), and custom pages. Required code files of PHP, too.
You can add a theme to your site, and it will get a professional look at once. It’s doable even though you are not a web designer or have the skills to write code.
You have access to many themes in the official WordPress.org Themes catalog.
Every WordPress theme offers various types of design, functions, and layout. Select any theme you wish due to what your site is about.
Assume you run an eCommerce site. If so, you can search for eCommerce WordPress themes. The search result shows the themes that match how you would like your site to look.
Free or premium WordPress theme on your site?
A benefit of WordPress is the variety of free themes available. But what is even more thrilling? You find premium themes created by web designers or pro web design agencies for sale. Those themes usually give you the best customization options and functions. They are often updated as well.
Some of those themes come with their framework. As a result, it takes the primary WordPress functions and adds their custom dashboard. That makes it easier for you to create an exciting design and build pages or blog posts in any way you like.
Have you started recently and have a small budget? Selecting a free theme can be the best choice. You can choose a premium theme later.
What do you think about selecting a premium theme? The following is a quick comparison of free- and premium WordPress themes:
Generally, premium themes have more benefits than free WordPress themes. But keep in mind that you can find great themes in both groups.
Do you wonder how to pick the best free WordPress blog theme or find the best premium theme? Then, the tips below can be a big help to you. All you have to do is go on and read.
Are you ready to see which 15 things you must check? Let’s start.
1. Determine your site’s goal
At first, you have to think about what your site tries to achieve. What is your site’s goal? It’s vital before you can select your ideal WordPress theme.
Let me give you some examples. Do you intend to launch a site about travel? If so, you wish to pick a theme that allows you to show inspiring images of travel destinations.
Do you wish to launch an online store instead? Thus, you would like to pick a theme suitable for this.
A great example of an online store is Lugz. This website uses a Child theme based on the Genesis Framework by StudioPress. They use WordPress plugins like WooCommerce and WP Rocket on their site.
Strive to find a theme with the built-in functions you need.
It’s crucial to balance the design and performance of your site. A good-looking site, which doesn’t convert, is useless. Besides, a theme that only focuses on function will usually affect its look.
Here are a few things you should think about
What kind of site is it?
Will most of your site contain text pages and posts? Or does it also have objects such as animated images, a podcast, and videos?
Within which niche is it?
Some niches expect to have sites that look in a definite way. Other niches need a completely different design.
What is your site’s goal?
Does your site try to make money online via Affiliate programs, or is it a no-commercial site? Due to how you reply, your theme needs various things.
Have you decided what your goal of the site is? Then, look at similar sites to see which WordPress themes they use. It gives you a great idea of what sort of theme you need.
2. Which functions and properties do you need?
Create a list of the functions and properties you need on your site. You don’t have to list all, yet adding a few is good.
What is the benefit of making a list of the things you need? It will be much easier to find the ideal WordPress theme.
Functions and properties you may find in a theme
- Many customization options for fonts and colors
- Several designs- and layout options
- Search engine optimized (SEO)
- Lightweight to boost your website speed
- Full support for eCommerce
- Social media icons
- Support for popular plugins
- Good website structure
3. Responsive
A responsive theme means your website adapts to mobile devices and desktop computers. So, your theme must look good on all devices and screen sizes.
Globally, there were five billion unique mobile internet users in 2022. It means more than 60 percent of the internet population uses a mobile device. Hence, desktop computers are a secondary unit.
Google informed back in 2015 that mobile-friendliness will be a ranking factor. What should each company check? Their sites are simple to access and easy to use on mobile devices.
You can check your website quality with Google Lighthouse. It is free, open-source, and an automated tool. Use it to test any web page online. This tool runs audits for performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO, and more.
Lighthouse runs a lot of audits against the web page you test. As a result, you get a report on how well your page performed. Each audit has a reference document clarifying why it is vital and how you fix it.
Many WordPress themes are responsive from the start. Always be sure the theme you select and add to your site is easy to use on mobile devices.
How do you make a simple test to detect if you use a responsive theme? Resize your browser window. Once you resize your browser window, the theme layout adapts to the screen width.
Below, you learn why simplicity is crucial when you look for the perfect WordPress theme.
4. Simplicity
Some WordPress themes offer complex layouts, many colors, and flashy animations. Once in a while, things like this come in handy. But it’s rare.
Try to find a theme with a design that helps you achieve your site’s goal. It has to look fine without weakening its simplicity and usability.
In web design, the purpose is to make it easier for visitors to find the data they need fast. Thus, ensure your prime style of the theme is plain.
A theme looks super, but does it help you gain new subscribers or clients? If not, it’s not a great theme for you. Go on and look for other themes.
5. Readability
Readability calculates the difficulty of the words and sentence construction in your text. Hence, complicated sentences are more difficult to read and parse than easier ones.
It’s important to catch your visitors’ attention fast so they don’t leave your website. Do it as simple as possible for your visitors to read the content on your site. Never select a theme with a font that is hard to read.
Do you have experience in adding and modifying CSS? Some free themes may have limitations on how much you can customize them. It’s something to consider when you are looking for a good theme.
You can increase the line height a little bit within CSS. That often can improve the readability of your readers.
Try to create a simple and navigable responsive website with high readability. You don’t want to risk the readability of your site.
6. Website structure
Site structure is how you organize the content and pages of a website.
So, how will it be much easier to index your posts and pages for robots? If you have well-organized navigation, internal links, and content. It improves their chances of ranking higher on Google.
Your visitors will have a better experience and find details faster. As a result, it may boost the performance of your site.
Once you look for a WordPress theme, study the layout structure, navigation, and logic. Test the theme’s live demo for usability before you buy it. You never want to risk the site structure.
7. Website speed
Website speed is a vital criterion in the site ranking algorithm of Google. Why? Since it has a notable impact on the experience for your visitors. In short, Google favors faster websites.
The best WordPress theme you select is your site’s foundation. There are many ways to increase your WordPress site speed, but your theme is a bottleneck.
Always choose a lightweight theme if you can. How do you decide a theme is lightweight? It has a small file size and only uses a few HTTP requests. So, your website speed will increase when you use that kind of theme.
What is the best method besides using a fast theme? Install and set up the powerful WordPress Caching plugin WP Rocket. It helps minimize CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.
WP Rocket can even remove junk plus transients and optimize your database. It is possible to lazyload images, iFrames, and videos. Disable emojis and WordPress embeds, compress your pics, and more. Enabling these types of functions will likely boost your website speed.
Use a fast-loading theme and a reliable web host like Bluehost or SiteGround. Do all you can. Strive so that your website will load in around 1 to 2 seconds.
8. Cross-browser compatibility
Your visitors don’t always use the same web browser. They can use various web browsers. Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.
The fact that your site looks stunning in one browser does not mean it will look that good in another. Test your best WordPress theme in many browsers for good web browser compatibility.
Most themes specify supported browsers before you begin to use them. But you can check your site on all major web browsers. In this way, you will be pretty safe. Test the theme in various browsers on your mobile, too.
Below, read about why you should choose an SEO-friendly theme.
9. SEO friendly theme
WordPress themes built with SEO in mind can help your site rank on the search engines. In contrast, a theme of lower code quality can hurt your rankings. Hence, always strive to use a theme that supports SEO.
There are plenty of theme developers who can make themes ready for SEO. Make sure both your theme and pages follow best practices.
You can use a validation tool like W3C to check. Keep in mind the W3C tool shows lots of warnings. You don’t have to worry about them.
Test your site below
10. Plugins
The real power in WordPress you get is thanks to WordPress plugins. They are apps that you use to extend the functions on your WordPress site.
Plugins enable you to do all with your website. Is the function you need not included in WordPress by default? You can very likely find a plugin for that.
Here are some things you can do with plugins
Confirm that your best WordPress theme supports crucial plugins. WooCommerce, WPForms, WP Rocket, UpdraftPlus Backup, Yoast SEO, and more. Do you feel unsure? Ask the theme developer about it.
Can you also get support for popular plugins? Contact the theme creators to see if it’s possible.
So, you made it this far. Awesome!
» Watch the video: How to Choose a WordPress Theme
11. Compatibility for visual page builders
It may be hard to customize a WordPress theme. That is especially true for WordPress newbies. Still, even more experienced users can find it difficult.
With visual page builders, you can make web pages only by dragging and dropping objects. It is possible to do without knowing how to code CSS and HTML.
You will find many WordPress themes included in page builders. And only some of these the theme creator uses.
If you use those not-so-well-known page builders, they can add lots of undesired code. As a result, you may experience a slower site.
Pick a WordPress theme for your site that works with popular visual page builders. They do not mess up your code.
Some of the most popular visual page builders
Before you can select the perfect WordPress theme, what should you do? Ensure the theme is compatible with the visual page builder you want to choose. That will make it much easier for you to customize your site.
12. Social media integration
Once you select a WordPress theme, think about social media integration. Social media is one of the main channels to get website traffic.
Verify the theme is social media-ready. Connect your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube, and more.
You can check if the theme shows social media share buttons at the top or bottom of every post. This way, even your visitors can market your website.
Great! Next, you learn how to test your WordPress theme.
13. Test the theme carefully
Adding the ThemeCheck plugin is a good start when you test a theme.
With this plugin, you can test your theme. It is easy to confirm that it follows the latest theme review standards. WordPress.org also uses ThemeCheck for theme submissions.
A handy plugin for developers of themes to check their theme is up to spec for the latest theme standards. The tests run via an easy admin menu. All results show at once.
Every single tweak is complete, and the content looks good. What should you do next? Examine your website before you tell the world. Read through all content, review your website on mobile, and ensure all images load the right way.
Is it great to install a Child theme?
A good strategy is also to install a Child theme. Why?
Do you add code straight to your parent theme’s files? You may lose the changes once you update your parent theme. Using a Child theme solves that issue by letting you add your changes there instead.
What does it mean? When you update the parent theme to a new version, all changes will stay safe in your Child theme folder. You only need to add the parent theme files you want to change within your Child-theme folder. Quite good, right?
14. Support and updates
Do you want to use a free WordPress theme? Then, it isn’t sure that the theme developer gives you support.
It’s best to know that you can get help. I urge you to select a WordPress theme with helpful support and documentation. Pick a WordPress theme that gives you one year of email support when possible.
Almost all premium WordPress theme creators have good help documents. Email support for one year, too.
Regular updates are necessary for WordPress themes. To prevent new security holes, fix bugs, and more. Is the theme updated rarely? Then it’s not a good theme. Avoid such WordPress themes.
To check how often the theme gets updated, you should read the theme’s changelog. It can give you a good summary of how active the development procedure for the theme is.
15. Check ratings and reviews
How high is the quality of a WordPress theme? You can explore it by reading reviews and ratings from theme users.
Is the theme for sale at a 3rd party marketplace? Then, you can read reviews from clients.
You will find the rating part for free WordPress themes at wordpress.org/themes. Click on a specific theme for more info. On the right side of the theme screenshot, you see Ratings.
Let’s make a quick summary of this post.
Right after the summary, you get more great tips
Best WordPress theme advice: Summary
Which things are important to check before you are ready to pick the best WordPress theme?
Use a theme design that helps you achieve the goal of your site. Opt for a theme that makes it easy for visitors to find what they want fast.
Always be sure the theme you select and add to your site is 100% responsive. It means your theme must look good on all devices and screen sizes.
Often, a theme with a simple design is the best choice. Your theme should be user-friendly, too.
What can you expect from the best WordPress theme? Good website structure, usability, support, updates, and cross-browser compatibility. Besides being responsive and optimized for speed and SEO.
It’s also an advantage that the theme has good readability. And with basic readable fonts as standard. Does the theme support vital WordPress plugins and have social media integration icons? Perfect.
With these 15 things in mind, I hope you can choose the best WordPress theme. It may take some time to research. But, once you find the best WordPress theme, it’s worth the effort.
You can also read the article Best WooCommerce Themes. This article tells you about the top 5 themes with full support for WooCommerce.
Did you like this article?
Feel free to add your comments so we all can read and learn from them.
Let us know your thoughts below.
How to install a free WordPress theme
Installing a WordPress theme is an easy process.
1. Log into your WordPress admin panel at yoursite.com/wp-admin. Replace “yoursite.com” with your actual domain name.
2. Next, you head to Appearance » Themes.
3. Click on the button Add New.
4. Now, you can browse the themes of the WordPress themes catalog.
5. Do you wish to add a free theme? Click on the button Install.
6. After installation is complete, you click on Activate.
How to install a premium WordPress theme
Do you’ve already bought or downloaded the theme?
1. Go to Appearance » Themes.
2. Click on the button Add New.
3. Next, click on Upload Theme.
4. Choose File. Locate the zip file for your downloaded theme and click Install Now.
5. Finally, click on Activate.
WordPress themes we recommend
If you search for WordPress themes, you get thousands of results. You can be unsure about picking the perfect WordPress theme for your site. Why? There are so many themes, and new theme releases occur each day.
Don’t you know where to start looking for WordPress themes? Of course, there is no way to list all themes, but we will list some below.
Here are a few of the best ones
WordPress theme companies we recommend
Web hosting companies we recommend
It is also critical to pick a reliable web hosting company. Why? If your site crashes, gets hacked, or shows errors.
Usually, it’s only a matter of time before something goes wrong with your site. So, make sure you have good web hosting.
Good web hosting companies like Bluehost and SiteGround offer you outstanding support. WordPress.org suggests them, too. Both help you 24 hours a day.
Bluehost
Bluehost offers support via phone or chat. They have a broad knowledge base of articles, guides, and how-to. The company replies to the most frequently asked questions from their clients.
Do you opt for Bluehost? You don’t need to worry your site is slow even while it gets lots of traffic. You get a free domain name, free SSL, and ad credits. Their packages are one of the cheapest web hosting options.
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SiteGround
SiteGround gives you support via phone, chat, or helpdesk ticket. In the help center, you can type your technical questions, read tutorials, and go through their vast knowledge base. They have optimized their servers for WordPress. Thus, your site will run as fast and secure as possible.
SiteGround gives you functions like auto-updates, free SSL, free CDN, daily backup, and unlimited databases. The GrowBig or GoGeek plans offer more functions, such as dynamic caching and Staging.
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WP Engine
WP Engine is the world’s leading WordPress Digital Experience Platform. More than 75,000 companies in 130 countries trust the advice and help of WP Engine.
They apply a proven and stable architecture. That brings outstanding speed, scalability, and safety to your websites. It means your site will run at max performance, and you don’t need to do any server settings.
They only provide Managed WordPress Hosting but are great at the services they offer. The support team gives you the best help 24/7 via live chat, or you can search their library of support articles.
StudioPress Premium WordPress themes and Genesis framework are available when you sign up for a WP Engine plan. You obtain both free SSL and global CDN, as well as Staging. What more? WordPress auto-updates, integrated EverCache, page performance, etc.
We advise WP Engine as the top choice for Managed WordPress Hosting.
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