One of the most important decisions you would ever have to make for your WordPress website is the choice of a suitable theme. The theme you choose would determine the overall outlook of your website, and would also have a great role to play in determining visitor engagement on your website. Therefore, it is extremely important to choose a good theme for your WordPress website.
But for the sake of those who do not already know, let’s define what a WordPress theme is and what it’s supposed to do.
What is a WordPress Theme?
Think of WordPress theme as an architectural design.
When you want to build your home, you would have to decide on a number of aesthetic features like how you would want it to look, the colors, designs and functionality. That’s exactly what your WordPress theme does; it helps you choose the overall design of your website and how you want it to appear to your visitors. It would also help you choose other things like:
- Page Layouts of your Website.
- Location of Widgets.
- Font Styling.
- Colors of your Website.
- How your blog posts would appear as well as other unique features.
There are paid and Unpaid WordPress Press themes that you can choose from. You can also design your own WordPress theme if that’s what you would prefer. Even though there are a lot of free WordPress themes, Premium (Paid) themes are more reliable as they come with better client support and documentation.
Features of a Good WordPress Theme
To choose a good WordPress theme, it is important to know what a good WordPress Theme should look like:
Detailed Documentation
To install and use your WordPress Theme perfectly, you would need detailed explanations and step by step tutorials. This is why the first thing you should be looking out for when you want to select a WordPress theme is the documentation. The theme must have a detailed tutorial that teaches you how to install, modify and customize the theme to suit your own unique needs.
SEO-Friendly
You also need a WordPress theme that makes it very easy for search engines to crawl your website. The more SEO-friendly your website is, the more visitors it would attract and the more revenue you would be able to generate.
Mobile Responsive
Hey! It’s 2015; mobile responsive websites are a must have now because if your website is not mobile friendly, you would be missing out on a number of visitors your website.
Theme Customizer
It’s also better to go for a theme that allows you to customize as much as possible, and manipulate some of the key elements like the fonts, backgrounds and logos.
Social Sharing Options
Social sharing is extremely important in the World Wide Web today as it helps your content to have a wider reach and audience. Therefore, choosing a WordPress website that allows for social sharing is not just an option but a necessity.
Automatic Upgrades
WordPress theme publishers are always introducing new versions and upgrades all the time and it might be really stressful if you have you have to manually update your WordPress themes all the time, hence the need to opt for a WordPress theme that allows for automatic updates.
Retina Display Compatible
Most Computer gadgets that are being released in recent times come with Retina and HD displays. If you choose a theme that is not compatible with these features, the images and visuals on your website would have poor quality and would not be sharp ad crisp when accessed using a gadget with the HD or Retina display.
Useful Add-ons
Good WordPress themes would also have other useful add-ons that you would need to enhance your experience and those of your website’s visitors.
Lightweight
You should avoid complex and heavy WordPress themes and settle for themes that are easy to use and understand and that would not slow your website down.
Solid Client Support
You don’t want to wait for months to have your support ticket attended to. You need to be sure that if you ever run into any challenges with your WordPress theme, you would be promptly attended to and have the problem fixed very fast.
Excellent Reviews
Lastly, you want a theme that is already tested and trusted, with lots of genuine, positive feedback.
How to Choose a WordPress Theme
There are a number of factors to consider when you want to choose the most suitable WordPress Theme for you. Some of them include:
- Pricing: Like I mentioned earlier, there are free and paid WordPress Themes and the truth is that with WordPress Themes, price often indicates good quality. Although there are some Paid WordPress Themes that have free versions, the functionalities are usually limited ad you would most likely be required to upgrade to a paid version to enjoy some of its features.
As for free WordPress Themes, a good number of them are poorly coded but you would find a lot of free WordPress themes that are great to choose from.
If you need to create a unique website, don’t go for free WordPress Themes as there are usually Thousands of Websites using the same Plugin but if you just need to create a simple blog or website, you can go for free WordPress Themes.
- Weight: This is another extremely important factor to consider because some WordPress Themes have too many unnecessary features and bloat codes in them, which would only end up slowing down your website and increasing the load time.
- Design: Your Website theme is supposed to make your website look more beautiful and appealing to users. Therefore, you should also consider the design output when choosing your WordPress Theme.
- Mobile Responsiveness: This is not an option because doing otherwise would cost you a lot of potential visitors. Therefore, when searching for the perfect WordPress Theme to use, make sure it says ‘Mobile Responsive’
- SEO Ready: You should also search for the term ‘SEO Ready’ or ‘SEO Optimized’ in order to be sure you are choosing an SEO friendly WordPress Theme.
- Customization: Choose a WordPress Plugin that allows you to Customize easily from your WordPress Dashboard.
- Security: The security of your website is very important, in order to avoid compromise of your website’s security, you should go for a WordPress Theme with strong security features.
With all of these in mind, you would be able to select the best WordPress Themes without much bloat codes.