Selecting the right theme for your WordPress site can feel a bit like choosing a needle in a haystack because of the thousands of options out there. No worries! We got your back. This blog talks about the top 11 things you should consider while choosing the best WordPress theme for your site.
WordPress has certainly come a long way since it was first launched. The world’s most popular and widely used content management system (CMS) now powers 39.5% of all websites on the internet and has a market share of 64%.
Businesses prefer using WordPress because it’s free and open-source, highly versatile, comes with oodles of themes and plugins, easily manageable, SEO-packed, and a lot more.
Talking about themes, WordPress themes play a vital role in making your WordPress site visually appealing and user-friendly. Therefore, choosing the apt theme is crucial — the right one keeps your site responsive across devices and loads your website in the blink of an eye.
But…
Choosing the perfect theme is one daunting task because there are so many themes in the pool. So how would you choose that one ideal WP theme for your business website? You can hire a WP website strategy and consulting services that can gauge your site thoroughly and help you choose a perfect WP theme that goes well with your business.
Besides, you can also keep various things in mind while picking the well-fitted WordPress theme for your business. Let’s dive in and see what you need to pay attention to for an ideal WP theme selection!
Pay Attention to These Things While Choosing an Ideal WordPress Theme
Know Your Requirements and Budget
This comes first. You need to know your requirements, needs, and budget. Figure out what is the niche of your business will it be just a blog site or go beyond that? Will your website need a lot of visuals? And various other things you need to determine. Once done, you can go ahead and choose a WordPress theme that best suits your website’s needs. The deeper you dive in to understand your requirements, the apt WP theme you will get!
Go for Simplicity
Leonardo da Vinci perfectly said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. This very much applies when it comes to WP theme selection. No users like to see lots of colors, fancy fonts, complex layouts, flashy animations, etc. on your WP site. So look for the theme that has a simple (yet appealing) design layout that looks professional without compromising usability. Remember, if you strive for simplicity, you can grab many eyes.
Pick a Lightweight WP Theme
How fast your website loads is essential for user experience (UX) and SEO for better conversion rates, so it’s not something you can overlook. Consequently, you must look for a lightweight theme that will help you increase your overall site’s performance and improve the page load times. If you pick a performance-optimized WordPress theme, your page load time can drop by around 40%.
Choose Responsive and Mobile-Friendly Theme
People are shifting from desktops to other devices like mobile phones, laptops, and tablets. In fact, mobile accounts for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide. It’s somewhere around 54.8%. Plus, Google advises website developers to adopt mobile-first development. That’s why you should choose a responsive and mobile-friendly theme to increase your website’s visibility and searchability in search engines.
Easy Customization
Look for WP themes that are easy-to-customize. A customization-oriented theme can help you integrate all the functionalities and features you’re looking for. The themes with customization options help you get more done without even messing with the code. WordPress has a collection of themes with customized options. So look for the one that goes well with your business idea and is easy to customize.
Loading Speed
As we mentioned earlier, the importance of loading speed, it’s become one of the most significant factors today. Loading speed directly impacts the website ranking and conversion rate. Therefore, it becomes quite important to work on loading speed. How would you do that? Simple. Pick a WP theme that can solve the problems with load performance and help you open your website within 3 seconds.
Cross-Browser Compatibility
Your users are not relying on just one browser, and that’s why your website shouldn’t too. That’s where browser compatibility comes in. That said, you must choose a theme that opens flawlessly, functions adequately on all the browsers (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE), and look just perfect. Look for a theme that’s well-tested on different browsers.
E-Commerce Ready
If you’re looking to sell your products/services online, you need an e-commerce theme that’s obviously different from usual themes. All you need to do is pick a theme that’s compatible with WooCommerce, the leading e-commerce plugin for WP sites. However, almost all themes work with WooCommerce; some will inevitably be more suited for your online store. So look more attentively and pick the one that resonates well with your business.
Multilingual/Translation Ready
If you want to target the users globally and make your WordPress website available for all types of audiences other than English, you need to choose a WP theme that is multilingual and translation-ready. In addition to picking a theme with multilingual functionality built-in, some plugins can help you translate certain site elements. So look for that kind of theme.
SEO-Packed
The theme you pick has a vital role to play in your site’s SEO friendliness. A theme can be eye-appealing, and everything still far away from SEO won’t do you any good. Check your theme’s HTML5 online with the W3C markup validation tool, a reliable tool for general checks. However, it is always advisable to hire a custom website design company that can craft an SEO-friendly theme for your WP site.
Essential Plugins Supported
Plugins are the real power of WordPress. The plugins make it possible for you to do anything with your WordPress site. You can literally do anything with plugins. There is a plugin for pretty much anything you’d need on your site, from SEO to speed, security, and more. So make sure that your WordPress theme supports all popular plugins, including Yoast SEO, W3 Total Cache, and others.
Final Note
So there you have it! Finding a theme shouldn’t be done hurriedly. Take your time and choose your WP theme wisely for better UX and workflow. Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas on how to choose an ideal WordPress theme for your website. If you follow the tips mentioned above, you should be able to choose a WordPress theme that will set your WP website up for success now and in the future.
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