Your company’s website serves as its public face. A website bears a great deal of responsibility for representing a brand online.
You must choose something other than randomly picking a WordPress theme for your website, which is one area you should take seriously. If you thought building a website was a random act that doesn’t involve much thinking or work, think again. Website selection requires remarkable precision and an eye for detail.
If your next question is “How to choose the perfect WordPress theme for your website?” This blog is for you!
Check out the comprehensive list of criteria you must meet before choosing a WordPress website theme, which is an effort to integrate the theme’s visual appeal and technical superiority.
Let’s start by going over the basics first.
What’s a WordPress Theme?
A theme is a collection of code files that determines your website’s fonts, colours, and fundamental layout features, such as how the menu will function and what the header and footer will look like. Once you’ve decided on a theme, you may enter content without worrying about formatting every title or matching the button colour in the header. The settings for your theme will take care of that for you.
However, your theme is more complex than mere visuals. Many themes additionally enhance the WordPress backend’s functionality. Some feature custom blocks that expand the basic WordPress Editor, while others include new content types beyond Pages and Posts.
Your goal is to find a theme that combines the functionality you need with the look and feels you adore. Although you can change your theme in the future, it will help you build and launch your site more quickly and easily if you choose one that immediately gives you what you want.
What Are the Type of WordPress Themes?
The wide variety of themes readily available for developers is one of WordPress’s best features. You can create a website that suits your business’s requirements using themes available in every style and price range.
You might start by drawing a quick sketch of your ideal website’s design. That will make it easier for you to choose a WordPress theme and help you limit your alternatives. Below are the types of WordPress themes available:
Free Themes
Users of the WordPress platform have access to a large selection of themes. Each theme has a unique set of features used for various functionalities.
The “Twenty Seventeen” theme, which is WordPress’s default theme, includes simple features that are sufficient to manage a blog. To find a theme for a business website, visit the WordPress.org theme directory. You can pick and install any of its free themes without spending any money.
Premium Themes
WordPress themes considered “premium” can be purchased from other websites. These themes are similar to those available for free but have extra features or functionalities. Since you will be paying for these themes, you can anticipate frequent updates from your provider.
Custom Themes
You can also order a custom-designed theme if online WordPress themes do not meet your needs. A professional web developer expertly created these website themes to meet all of your requirements.
The cost of having custom themes created for your website is the sole drawback. Custom themes are not ideal for tight budgets because they can be rather pricey.
Theme Frameworks
Theme frameworks are a specialised set of files that are used while creating WordPress themes. These frameworks include several elements that go into creating website themes developers use.
You can use a single framework to create many WordPress themes. Many web platforms use one framework, and many different themes are built around it.
What to Consider When Choosing the Perfect WordPress Theme?
If you start by considering the requirements of your website, such as the type of content you want to include, the actions you want visitors to be able to take, and the objectives you want to achieve, sorting through all the available themes will be simpler. Here, a little preparation goes a long way.
Below are some of the questions that will guide you in choosing the perfect WordPress theme for your website:
What Type of Content Do You Plan to Have?
Themes are created to highlight various types of information. What is the main objective of your website? Several options include the following:
- Establish a blog
- Build a business page
- Showcase your creative work
- Build a membership site
- Sell your products and services
What’s Your Brand Style?
Most themes allow for great flexibility; for instance, you may alter the colour scheme to match your brand’s colours more easily. However, the overall design will have a distinct appearance and feel, so it will be easier to customise if you can match your brand’s style immediately.
Below are some of the styles that you might be looking for:
- Fun and Quirky – a theme with unique design elements, including text overlays, contrasting shapes, and overlapping images.
- Modern and Artistic – utilises unique menu layouts, animation features, and image styles.
- Strictly Corporate – designs with standard components, such as hero graphics and three-column feature sections.
- Bright and Airy – a layout with one clean column, lots of white space, and plain fonts.
What Type of Functionality Will You Need?
Do you need membership forums, shop pages, restaurant menus, or other specialised features? Even though there are so many WordPress themes available to choose from, only a few meet your needs.
Even while plugins can offer a lot of functionality, it’s best to start your site with a theme that works well with the necessary plugins (like WooCommerce) or even comes with that feature built-in.
Several niche themes offer custom post types to support original content as well. Post-type theme can provide a portfolio for a consultant or an album for a musician.
When numerous people contribute to the same site, template-based features like these can make working with the back end easier and the outcomes more uniform.
What are the Must-Have WordPress Theme Features?
Regardless of your unique requirements, you should search for a theme that includes the following fundamental features:
Performance
A website that loads quickly is beneficial for SEO and user experience. Generally, a theme loads more slowly with the more built-in features and customisations it has. Sliders and animations are two heavy design components that can slow down your website. So make sure you only choose a theme with the features you need.
Accessibility
Having a website that is accessible is not just merely great to have. It’s a must. Aside from limiting your reach by excluding users with particular needs, having an inaccessible website puts you at risk of litigation and other legal issues.
Although most modern themes have code to ensure your site is fully accessible, verifying the theme’s degree of compliance is good before using it.
Flexibility
If the theme you’re thinking about lacks certain functionality you’ll require, don’t worry—you can nearly always add more using plugins. How smoothly your theme connects with other plugins is the most important factor you need to consider.
You’re off to a terrific start if it’s already configured to function with a top-notch translation, event, or mega-menu plugin.
Responsiveness
A good theme will adjust to various platforms, devices, and browsers to ensure every visitor has a wonderful experience. In order to develop a single-column layout, which is considerably easier to read on mobile devices and necessary for effective search engine optimisation, you’ll require a design that shifts content around on smaller screens.
A “mobile first” theme or themes created especially for smaller screens are preferable. You’ll serve most of your audience because mobile and tablet traffic makes up more than half of all online traffic.
SEO-Friendly
Every website on the internet needs SEO. The website’s popularity and success largely depend on how SEO-friendly it is. Therefore, you must verify that a theme supports SEO plug-ins before choosing it.
You should check for SEO compatibility when you run the theme’s demo. Fast-loading themes and HTML tags are additional indicators that a theme is SEO-friendly.
Support and Maintenance
Choose a theme from a developer who is still active. To keep your site secure and ensure your theme is compatible with the most recent WordPress versions, you should update it frequently. A timestamp indicating the most recent update should be visible when viewing a theme in the WordPress library.
Additionally, many third-party themes provide a support package, which is incredibly useful for newbies.
Choose Your Ideal WordPress Theme Today!
Your website’s success depends on the WordPress theme you select. Make sure you thoroughly research all of your possibilities and only choose once you are certain about it.
No theme will be flawless out of the box, but if you choose one that is ready for SEO, isn’t overloaded with extra features, and can be customised to your needs, you’ll be on the right track.
Our WordPress developers at Digital Rescue can help you select and customise the right theme. We understand that online success is a delicate balance of beautiful design, website craftsmanship, SEO smarts, clever copywriting, and more. Why leave your lead generation to chance?
Choose a Web Design Agency with over 20+ years of industry experience helping businesses like yours be positioned to experience unparalleled growth. Combining the web design expertise of Digital Rescue with the leading SEO strategy by TopRankings, it’s time to get the website you deserve. Contact us today to book a FREE chemistry call!
