WordPress themes are an essential part of building a website. They provide the foundation for your site’ssite’s design and functionality and can significantly impact the user experience.
With thousands of WordPress themes available, it can be overwhelming to choose the right one. It is probably the most crucial choice you make, as the theme determines the appearance and which features are included.
This article will discuss 10 essential factors to consider when choosing a WordPress theme.
Summary:
- Don´t Choose A Theme With Too Many Features
- WordPress Plugin Compatibility
- Find A Responsive Theme
- Choose A Theme With A Font That Is Easy To Read
- How Can I Decide If A Theme Is of Good Quality?
- Translation Of Your Theme If Your Blog Is Not In English
- What Is Your Plan For Your Blog, What Is the Purpose
- Is it Easy To Customize
- Good Customer Support and Frequent Updates
- What Is Your Budget
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Don’t Choose a Theme That Has Way Too Many Features.
You shouldn’tshouldn’t choose a theme that has way too much extra. Some themes are packed with “everything” of functions, and these can become a nuisance for you later.
Feature-rich themes can be excellent, but try to think that the suitable theme for your website is the one that has the features you need without too much extra.
A disadvantage of themes with too many functions is that they often give poor performance, speed results, and the risk of being complicated to use.
Less is always more in the end when working with website performance.
However, If the theme you choose lacks the built-in feature you need, you can see if there is an extension (plugin) that can solve the same task. But here again, adding too many plugins will hamper the performance of your website.
Plugin Compatibility
Following the discussion in the previous paragraph, you may have to add some plugins to your WordPress website. These can be plugins to extend the features of your selected theme, and they can be plugins that add functionality based on your specific needs about the purpose of your website.
You can find the plugins you are looking for from your WordPress admin dashboard or go to WordPress.org’sWordPress.org’s plugin page to choose plugins.
Bear in mind, though, that adding too many plugins can cause performance and security issues for your website. Only add plugins that are needed. You want a fast and responsive website so as not to scare your visitors away.
Please do your due diligence in researching the plugins you are considering adding, and ensure they are updated frequently and have good support and user reviews.
Be aware that not all plugins are compatible with your chosen theme.
Find a Responsive Theme
Today, it is rare to find themes that are not responsive, but be aware that a responsive theme is essential for the user experience and, as such, will help in ranking higher on Google SERPs.
I use GeneratePress and Astra on my sites, two of the fastest and most responsive themes available.
You can read more about the two themes here:
- GeneratePress
- Astra
Responsive design means the website is user-friendly for computers and all devices, such as tablets and mobiles.
You can change the theme and implement this yourself, but it is a poor starting point and requires technical knowledge.
To determine if a theme is responsive, you should read the specification for the theme in question. You can find this detail that is in the description or on the sales page. If you are in doubt, you can contact the developer directly.
I would also recommend checking out the user reviews of the themes from several reviews.
Ensure the reviews are not from the company that has made the theme and check if a personal review is based on an affiliate connection to the theme. Then you can discern a biased review from an objective one.
Further, it should be easy for you to customize the theme by changing colours easily, changing fonts, adjusting the positions of images and graphics, and adjusting the layout, to name a few.
When talking about colours, most marketing on the Internet is based on an excellent visual appearance, and the use of colour can make a big difference.
If the website consists mainly of neutral colours, a hint of another colour will make it more interesting.
If you’re trying to decide between a dark or light theme, we can reveal that visitors will prefer light colours statistically.
This does not mean the suitable theme is necessarily light, but a dark theme can reduce readability and the possibility of more conventional design elements.
To create a mobile-friendly blog, there is an option to add an AMP plugin (Accelerated Mobile Pages), an open-source catalogue of mobile-friendly website pages that provide a smooth and fast scrolling experience for users.
But I would not recommend using AMP, at least not at the beginning when you are new to this. Using AMP requires you to have a deep knowledge of what you do, as adding AMP to your site can break it or make a mess of your site.
I was a bit too quick the other day to add AMP to one of my sites, and now I need to clean up the mess it caused because I didn’tdidn’t know AMP very well before I installed the plugin.
Choose a Theme With a Font That Is Easy To Read.
A website that is easy to read will capture the user’suser’s attention more quickly. It is of significant advantage that you make the website easy to navigate and that the content you publish is easy to read, then the readers spend more time on your website.
If you are familiar with CSS codes, you can easily change fonts, but many themes allow you to choose from “Customize” or a theme menu without inserting codes.
Small fonts are challenging to read, and too big fonts will be too tiring to read. The recommendation is to use a font size of 14 to 18 in size; maybe up to 20 is required.
Avoid using “fancy” fonts because they will be difficult to read, and people are not interested in those. They only want a quick answer to their questions that is easy to read.
How To Judge The Quality Of a Theme
There is a wide variety to choose from, but how do you judge the quality of a theme? Several things come into play when selecting a suitable theme for WordPress.
- Popularity – How many customers or downloads the developer or theme has can indicate how many users are happy with the theme
- Premium – A theme you pay for is often, but not always, better quality and has more features than a free theme
- Updates – Themes that are updated frequently show that the developer is working to improve them and that they support new WordPress editions.
- Feedback – Read feedback from users of a current theme. The input is a great way to see what others think and possibly their challenges with the topic.
Your time is well spent researching reviews and support related to your desired theme. Don’t skip this part of your research because it can cause headaches later if the theme crashes your site or causes it to perform poorly.
Prepare For The Fact That You Will Have To Translate The Theme
WordPress is available in many different languages, but the situation is not like that for many themes where the language is usually English.
If you are going to create a website in your native tongue, you must be prepared that all or parts of the theme must be translated. Then you avoid that predetermined text being displayed in English while the rest of the website is in your native language.
Many will argue that these are just small cosmetic details, but it doesn’tdoesn’t look very nice.
Most extensions and themes can be translated. It is neither difficult nor complicated.
Once you have chosen the WordPress theme you want to use on your website, you should investigate which text is displayed in the wrong language. Typically this is predetermined text such as read more, next, previous, and comment, to name some.
You can translate the entire theme or only the visible text to your readers.
How Do You Plan To Use WordPress?
When looking for the “perfect” WordPress theme, it’s a good idea to think about how often and how you will write new posts on the website.
Some time ago,
Gutenberg was launched as the new default text editor in WordPress. Since its launch, Gutenberg has received mixed opinions: some like it, and others still prefer the classic editor.
There will probably still be divided opinions about which one is best, but as we see it, Gutenberg is a complete editor and the one that applies going forward.
Therefore, it is wise to choose a WordPress theme that is compatible with the new editor.
If you are going to create professional front pages or product pages, Gutenberg may fall a little short. Then you can use one of the best page builders on the market instead.
Some Final thoughts
Finding the perfect WordPress theme is difficult when you start a new website or blog. At the same time, it is probably the most crucial choice you make, as the theme determines the appearance and which functions are included.
A significant advantage of WordPress is that you have an incredible number of choices, literally thousands of themes to choose from, many of high quality.
Before buying a theme or investing time customizing one, you should consider a few things.
Knowing any pitfalls or essential factors to consider for beginners is challenging.
I will happily hear from you in the comments section below or via the contact form if you have any questions or feedback. I respond to all inquiries.
