When it comes to the best places to create a website quickly and easily, no site ranks higher than WordPress. Its ease of use and the addition of plenty of functional plugins makes WordPress the ideal place to begin site-building and is easy enough even for the most novice of developers. While WordPress offers ease of building your site, themes help bring your site to life and help you add a more personalized touch to your creation.
Themes come in 2 levels, which are Free and Premium. The premium themes will normally be more focused toward the business website and include a much sleeker and professional look and feel. The free WordPress templates can also offer the same look and feel but come without the price tag. Selecting a WordPress theme will take various different aspects into account. The folks at WPisLife.com compiled some tips and below are the 6 most important things to consider when selecting a WordPress theme.
1 – Do You Intend To Sell From An Online Shop?
If your main target for setting up a WordPress site is so that you may open an online store or shopping portal, then you will want a theme that is compatible with Woo Commerce. Woo Commerce is WordPress’s own online sales platform designed to make it easy for those looking to sell to be able to create a quick and easy website to do it from. When using Woo Commerce, you will most likely want a theme that supports various other shopping-related plugins, such as shipping calculators, contact forms, and payment gateways such as PayPal & Skrill. While plenty of themes make it easy for these plugins to work well in them, some will not work with selected plugins.
2 – Simple Is Best
There is nothing worse than landing on a site that is messy, fussy, and a little bit OTT! When it comes to themes, you ideally want something that is clean and free from fuss, a nice font which is easy to read while remaining professional and to avoid colors that clash. If your theme is messy and vibrant, then it makes it difficult for users to remain focused and navigate your site. The simpler the design and layout of the theme, the better.
3 – Check Browser Compatibility
When selecting a theme, you need to ensure that it will work with all of the major browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Explorer. While the theme may look just as you want in the browser you are using, it can be altered and mismatched in another. It is also important to check that the theme is mobile and tablet optimized so that your site can be viewed correctly, no matter what device it is being viewed on.
4 – Does It Support The Plugins You Need?
As touched upon above, WordPress is all about the plugins. Plugins take all of the hard work out of website building and give you access to a plethora of business and blog boosting benefits. The thing with plugins is that they are not compatible with every single theme on WordPress., so you want to do a little bit of research regarding the plugins you absolutely need and the theme compatibility with said plugins.
5 – Is The Site SEO Friendly?
SEO is everything when it comes to your site being visible to those searching for it. SEO covers plenty of different methods, with the most common being Keywords and long tail keywords. One of the very best SEO tools for WordPress is Yoast SEO, which unfortunately is not compatible with every theme. One thing to remember is that you don’t just want Yoast, you need it! So, selecting a Yoast compatible theme is a must.
6 – Check Other User Ratings & Reviews Before Installing.
User reviews are always a fantastic way to see just how well the theme works. Since the theme will have been tried and tested by the individuals leaving the reviews you can get a good idea of how it works, its ease of use, and whether it is seen as a good or bad theme. Getting honest and up to date feedback from other WordPress website builders is one of the best ways to see if the theme will meet your requirements. However, with that said, not every review will be genuine or honest, so take what you read with a pinch of salt. If you fell it’s the right theme for you, then go ahead and give it a spin. After all, if you don’t like it then switching to another theme is as simple as a few clicks of the mouse.
So there you have it. The 6 most important things to consider when searching for your ideal WordPress theme. Now you know what to look for, why not begin your search now.