Would you like to choose the ideal theme for your brand-new WordPress website? A huge variety of WordPress themes are available, both free and paid. Ensure your WordPress theme is high-quality, appealing, and equipped with the required features.
The most crucial factors you must take into consideration when selecting a WordPress theme are discussed in this article.
Why Is It Vital to Pick the Correct WordPress Theme?
Many different types of websites can be made using WordPress.
Many themes target specific markets, including membership site themes, WooCommerce themes, and even multi-purpose themes that can be adjusted to fit almost any website.
There are numerous options for customization for many WordPress themes. These options make it difficult to switch themes or use other WordPress plugins if they need to be correctly coded. You’ll be forced to use that theme forever, or you’ll have to pay a WordPress developer to assist you in switching.
On the other hand, some gorgeous WordPress themes cause your website to load incredibly slowly. Your website’s speed can negatively impact user experience, search engine rankings, and other factors.
Your theme serves as the public face of your WordPress website and significantly impacts how users and search engines interpret it.
Finding a WordPress theme that fits your preferences in design, speed, and customization should be your aim.
Before selecting the ideal WordPress theme
Before selecting the best WordPress theme, you’ll need a few things to build your WordPress site.
Since there are two versions of WordPress, you must first confirm you are using the correct one.
There is the constrained hosted platform WordPress.com. Following that is the well-known self-hosted version of WordPress.org.
Visit our comparison of WordPress.com and WordPress.org to learn more about the differences.
Because WordPress.org allows you to build any website and access every WordPress theme and all its features, we strongly advise using it.
You’ll also need a reliable WordPress hosting service and your domain name.
See our comprehensive guide on choosing the best domain and hosting provider.
The majority of all web hosts provide a one-click WordPress installation option. Despite the hosting company you are using, check out our installation instructions for WordPress, which cover all the leading hosting platforms.
Let’s consider the most crucial considerations when choosing the ideal WordPress theme.
1. Simple and Minimalist Design
Many WordPress themes feature a variety of colors, intricate designs, eye-catching animations, sliders, and other features. Although you might occasionally need those things, you don’t need all the extra features.
To support your goal, look for a theme with a similar design layout that does the same. It must have a pleasing appearance without sacrificing simplicity or usability.
Make sure the presentation style for the theme is simple enough. The goal of your website is to highlight pertinent information about your company while assisting users in finding the information they require as quickly as possible.
A theme is not good if it looks great but does nothing to increase your customer base or email newsletter subscribers.
In general, the theme you select should be as straightforward as possible. Using WordPress plugins allows you to expand the functionality of your website.
2. Easy to Customize and Make Changes
Please make sure the WordPress theme you select is simple to customize so you can give it a unique look and feel.
Even if the demo theme is precisely what you need, you’ll still want to make specific changes to the theme to reflect your distinctive brand. The theme options panel or WordPress theme customizer will be used for most changes.
You should pick a theme that allows you to customize the elements of your site that you want to change because some themes also allow you to make more customizations than others.
The color scheme, font, layout, personalized logo, widgets, and other aspects of the theme are typically under your control.
Additionally, you can build entirely unique pages or unique WordPress themes from scratch using a drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress, such as SeedProd or Elementor.
We have a detailed guide on the proper use of Elementor to help you redesign your theme.
3. Responsive and Looks Good on all Devices and Screen Sizes
Currently, mobile devices account for more than 60% of website traffic. Depending on your blogging specialty, this number will vary, but you must ensure that your WordPress website is responsive to mobile devices.
The majority of WordPress themes will feature a responsive design. This means that depending on the screen size and type of device, the theme will change the layout.
However, the fact that a WordPress theme is responsive does not imply that it does responsive design well.
Previewing your theme across all screen sizes is a good idea. This is simple to accomplish by adjusting your browser window and watching how the theme changes.
To ensure your new WordPress theme works properly in every browser, test it in a few different ones.
To test that your WordPress theme works well on other browsers or devices, if the website is live, copy the domain name and paste it on the different browsers you want to test it on.
4. Updated Frequently and has a High-Quality Codebase
Your website’s foundation is going to be its WordPress theme. Beyond the general layout, you must ensure it loads quickly and is updated frequently.
Your speed and performance may be significantly affected by the size of your WordPress theme. You should ensure that your theme is lightweight and has quick loading times because your loading speeds will affect everything, including your user experience and WordPress SEO.
Always perform a website speed test to determine how quickly a theme loads.
You only need to install the theme and perform a speed test for free themes. When using premium themes, you can perform a speed test on the demo URL to get an idea of how quickly the theme loads.
A further consideration is the theme’s most recent update date. You’ll want to confirm that your theme is current because WordPress is constantly releasing new versions.
Your website’s old theme might interfere with other plugins and jeopardize WordPress security.
On the WordPress.org theme listing page, you can find free WordPress themes’ most recent update date. Your theme should have recently undergone an update and have a consistent update history.
If you’re looking at premium WordPress themes, you can always be sure that a theme has been upgraded to function with the newest WordPress version.
The developer or development team will have more resources to update the theme because you paid for it.
5. Compatible with the Plugins You Need
Selecting a WordPress theme will take care of the design, and WordPress plugins will handle any additional functionality.
A contact form can be added to your website, generate leads, run contests, and much more with the help of WordPress plugins.
Themes support the majority of WordPress plugins. However, if your theme is poorly coded or adds too many features akin to plugins, you might encounter a conflict and encounter WordPress errors. Additionally, you would lose those features if you ever wanted to switch themes or change the design of your website.
We advise selecting a basic WordPress theme and incorporating plugins to add functionality.
There is probably a WordPress plugin that can help you if there is a feature you want to add to your website.
See our selection of the top WordPress plugins if you’re looking for some excellent plugins to enhance your website.
6. It Has Solid Ratings and Reviews.
The ratings and reviews left by users of a WordPress theme are other reliable indicators of its quality. The customer reviews can be found on the theme page on WordPress.org if you’re looking for free themes.
The number of reviews and stars that users have awarded are displayed. A thorough breakdown of the ratings at each star level is available.
If the theme is purchased from a third-party marketplace, user testimonials or customer reviews can be found there.
7. Has an Active and Helpful Customer Support Team
Times may come when you need support, even if you’ve spent time learning WordPress and have some strong skills.
Depending on the theme you select, different support options will be available. Some free WordPress themes, for instance, don’t guarantee support, while others still offer ongoing support.
On the theme’s WordPress.org listing page, you can see how active the support channel is if you use a free theme.
The majority of premium themes come with the option to renew their support and updates for an additional 6 to 12 months after purchase.
Most websites with premium themes have their help desks or customer service departments.
You should also review the theme documentation and available customer support options.
8. Optimized for the Search Engines
The SEO friendliness of your website greatly depends on your WordPress theme. Even a visually appealing theme can produce improperly coded HTML, harming your site’s search engine rankings.
It can be challenging for beginners to analyze the source code of a theme independently. For this reason, many WordPress theme developers will tell you that their themes are SEO-friendly.
In terms of search engine rankings, you’ll be moving in the right direction if your theme is lightweight and quick to load.
Then, to optimize your website further for search engine placement and increased traffic, you can use a WordPress SEO plugin like AIOSEO.
See our comprehensive SEO beginner’s guide – the best way to rank high in search engines.
9. Ready for Translation into Different Languages
WordPress powers more than 40% of the web. As a result, many website owners want to create a site in another language or provide content in another language for their target audience.
You can look for themes ready for translation when searching for free WordPress themes. Select ‘Feature Filter’ from the drop-down menu in the WordPress.org theme depository to accomplish this.
Choose “Translation Ready” from the drop-down menu after that.
A list of themes designed to facilitate translation will then appear.
The theme page will usually list its language compatibility if you search for a premium WordPress theme.
However, you can also use a WordPress translation plugin to make a multilingual WordPress website.
Choosing the Perfect WordPress Theme FAQ
We have answered many questions regarding selecting a WordPress theme after assisting thousands of users in starting blogs and websites. The following are some of the queries we receive most frequently:
1. Can I Customize My WordPress Theme?
Yes, most WordPress themes include options for customizing various design and functionality aspects. You can access these options by going to Appearance > Customize in the WordPress dashboard. Some themes may also include additional customization options in the form of custom widgets or plugins.
2. Can I Use A Theme From One Domain On Another Domain?
Yes, you can use a WordPress theme on multiple domains as long as you have a valid license for the theme.
However, some themes may have usage restrictions or licensing terms that limit their use to a single domain or require you to purchase a separate license for each domain. Check the terms of use for any theme you consider using to ensure it is allowed on multiple domains.
3. Would You Recommend Any Particular WordPress Themes?
As we already mentioned, there are thousands of different themes. Your choice of theme will depend on the kind of website you’re creating and the features you require.
4. Can you change WordPress themes?
Yes, one of the best features of WordPress is that you can change to a different theme whenever you want. You are always free to use a style or theme that already exists.
5. Can I use a theme from one domain on another domain?
Yes, you can use a WordPress theme on multiple domains as long as you have a valid license for the theme. However, some themes may have usage restrictions or licensing terms that limit their use to a single domain or require you to purchase a separate license for each domain.
Check the term of use for any theme you consider using to ensure it is allowed on multiple domains.
6. Can I create my WordPress theme?
Yes, you can create your WordPress theme from scratch or modify an existing one. To create a theme, a good knowledge of HTML, CSS, and PHP, as well as the WordPress template hierarchy and theme development best practices, is required.
Various tools and resources are available to help you create a custom WordPress theme.
We hope this article has given you tips on what to consider when choosing the ideal WordPress theme. Check out our WordPress folder for more articles and tutorials.
