WordPress themes provide the look, style and much of the functionality of your website. When you’re creating a new site, you need to think about your brand colours, font styles, page layouts and where you want any widgets to be located – then choose a WordPress theme that delivers what you need.
The good news is that there are literally tens of thousands of WordPress themes to choose from – so you’re certainly spoilt for choice.
The bad news is that there are literally tens of thousands of WordPress themes to choose from – so how on earth can you choose the best for you?
We’ve created some simple tips to help you narrow down your choice so that you find the absolute gem-of-a-theme that works for you – and we’ve included some handy links to websites offering WordPress themes at the end.
1. Price
Both free and premium (paid for) themes are available. Thousands of free themes are absolutely great but paid WordPress themes tend to be updated more frequently (see point 8).
2. Theme layout
Choose a theme that will enable you to lay out your website as you need to. Remember a great user experience and ease of navigation are essential, so often it’s the simpler themes which are best choice.
3. Exclusivity
If you want to have a website look not shared by many others, a premium WordPress theme may well be the best choice as fewer websites are likely to use it.
4. Plugin compatibility
Make sure the theme supports all popular WordPress plugins. If in doubt, check with the theme developer.
5. Mobile responsiveness
All good themes should be mobile-friendly, however, it’s worth checking out the theme demo page URL using Google’s Mobile Friendly Test.
6. Page Loading Speed
Choose a theme that’s not too slow to load. Check out the URL of the theme’s demo page on a free page speed checker such as GT Metrix.
7. SEO friendliness
A good WordPress theme will “show” your website to the search engines using the right html code. Check with the developer that the theme is SEO optimised.
8. Date of last update
Recent updates mean the theme developer is routinely fixing bugs and making improvements. Anything that hasn’t been updated in a year or more should be avoided as it may no longer have support and is likely to cause more problems than it’s worth.
9. Customer feedback and reviews
See what others are saying about the theme and whether their feedback flags up any areas of concern for you. Look to see how quickly the developers respond to questions and feedback.
10. Support
It’s always best to choose a theme with support from the developers. You may have to upgrade to a premium (paid) theme for this. but it means they’re available to help if you somehow mess up the theme.
Where to find WordPress Themes:
WordPress.org – Biggest place to find free themes
Theme Forest – Huge selection and good prices
SolidWP – Hundreds of themes to purchase
Creative Market – More creative and expensive
Shop around, check out the different themes available and check them against our handy tips list.
If however you know exactly what you need and it just doesn’t seem to exist, you can work with a WordPress web design company to have them create a custom designed and developed WordPress theme. Then you’ll be confident it looks exactly as you want and does exactly what you need – and will be completely unique to you.
We are experts in all things WordPress. We can develop custom WordPress themes and offer a wide range of WordPress support services – hosting, maintenance, optimisation and migration. Feel free to contact us for a no obligation chat to discuss your requirements.
