It’s not easy to find a suitable WordPress theme. That’s because there are many choices and things to consider when picking the right one. This post will explain why choosing a suitable theme is essential and tell you what to do and what not to do when picking a WordPress theme.
What is WordPress, and why is it essential to choose a suitable theme?
Whether you have a website or not, you’ve probably heard of WordPress. WordPress is a famous content management method that makes it easy to make websites and blogs. Almost 43% of all pages on the internet are run by it. WordPress is an open-source platform with many plugins, styles, and features that can meet the needs of any business.
Anyone may utilize them for free to make their website and blog, even if they don’t know how to code. There are many things to consider on this platform when making a beautiful website. You can’t skip picking a suitable theme for your website. Themes tell the story of the business and get people more interested in it.
Most people don’t spend much time looking for a suitable theme. This is primarily because of two things.
- Either the fact that there are more than 10,000 WordPress themes is too much for them to handle.
- They don’t know enough about choosing a suitable theme for their website.
Both of these things can hurt the performance and business of your website. Themes give your website a nice look. It’s an excellent present for people who want to build their website but don’t know how. Security is another crucial reason to use themes. Using a famous theme will get you good reviews, keep your site up-to-date, and protect it from attacks.
You now know why WordPress themes are so important for a website. But the real fight starts when you have to choose the right one. WordPress has a vast number of themes, which can make it hard to choose one. Here are some things to think about when choosing a WordPress theme.
Do’s When Choosing the Right WordPress Theme
1. Navigation
The first step to making your website easy to use is to make it easy to navigate. HubSpot polled why people leave websites and found that lousy navigation was the third most popular answer. Ensure your theme is easy for new users to understand and use. It should have a simple look and feel, making it easy to immediately find what they want.
The user may not want to go further if the theme is cluttered and the menu is hard to understand. The best way to keep that from happening is to try out the theme before buying it. You can try a demo of every WordPress theme before buying it. It will show you what your menu looks like and how easy it is to use. You can change the theme in different ways to see what works best.
2. Look for specific characteristics
You might have an idea for a website that needs certain parts to make it work. For example, if you’re making an e-commerce site, you should use a theme with e-commerce features. In that case, you will need a theme that has LMS plugins. So choose a theme that fits the wants of your business. Consider where you want your business to be in ten years, and choose a theme with all the tools you need to get there.
3. Layout of a website
Finding a theme that fits your website’s style is like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is why your theme requires it to be easy to change. This will let you change the pages already made and build the plan you want. All of the themes can be changed in some ways. Some give you more choices than others, and some can make it hard to build your name. Choose the option that lets you change everything on the page, no matter how small.
4. Security for WordPress
Selecting a secure WordPress theme is the most crucial thing to consider. Sucuri did a study in 2020 that showed that 74% of the 8,000 websites infected by malware, viruses, or any other kind of online attack were built on WordPress. Most of these hacks happen because of a wrong choice of theme or plugin.
A safe theme is:
- Downloaded from a reliable source
- Compatible with most apps for WordPress
- Rolling changes are made often.
When picking a theme, you should ensure it works well with your version of WordPress. If you don’t, your website could crash.
5. Responsiveness
About 72% of people want websites that work well on phones. Your website needs a more responsive theme that looks good and works well on any device. A responsive theme changes based on the browser’s size and improves the browsing experience.
Most themes are responsive out of the box. But you have to check it to be sure if it is mobile-friendly or not. One easy way to see how responsive a page is is to change its size. You can see if the page style changes to fit the width as you change the size.
6. Search Engine Optimized Theme
Your WordPress theme should tell the story of your business and give users a good time. But business owners often don’t care about how SEO-friendly the theme is. If your theme isn’t made for SEO, it won’t help you move up in SERP. This can make organic traffic and leads harder, hurting total sales. But installing themes that are SEO-friendly doesn’t ensure better results. To get traffic, you have to do SEO. A theme will only give you the tools you need to do SEO.
Don’t When Choosing the Right WordPress Theme
1. Bloated Theme
You might be overwhelmed by a theme with many functions and end up installing it. Most webmasters don’t know that a theme with many useless features will make your website load very slowly. So, don’t add everything you think looks cool and trendy. It can make your website look nicer, but it will slow it down.
2. Font Difficult to Read
A lot of the time, you do things that hurt the user experience. Fonts that are hard to read are one of them and are hard to spot. A font you think is easy to read might be hard for website users, making the number of people leaving your site go through the roof.
If your type is too busy and hard to read, it might be hard for people to use your website or read blogs. Make sure your types are simple and easy to read. This improves communication and makes it easier for users to interact with the company.
3. Skimping on customization options
You can stand out from others in your area with a customized WordPress theme. Let’s say you have an online store in a competitive field. You know that the brands you’re up against are big names, and you know that the only way to beat them is to make your theme as unique as possible.
So you make your website available in various languages, change the graphics based on where people are, and let people pay in their currency. This will help you do better than your rivals, regardless of their size.
4. 404 Error Page
If you gave Google the wrong URL, you might have seen a message like:
- 404: This page could not be found
- HTTP 404: Page not found
These are generally shown when a user tries to go to a page that hasn’t existed or been taken down. Websites must make 404 pages with the same navigation features and messages as these. It tells people in a polite way that that page is not available. Also, users can report broken or missing links on these sites. These pages make life difficult for the user, so they may leave upset. But Google says every website should make a mistake page like other pages have been made.
Conclusion
You should now have some ideas to help you cut down your choices. A WordPress theme is integral to a website, but you don’t need to buy one immediately. When you buy a theme for your website, keep all the above things in mind and make a list so you don’t forget anything.
