Why You Should be Careful When Choosing a WordPress Theme?
WordPress is used to create all kind of websites. That’s why each theme caters to a different market.
Your WordPress theme should complement the content of your website. For example, if you are creating a blog on politics or social issues, then you would want a theme that improves readability.
Many WordPress themes come with tons of customization options. If not coded properly, these options can make it difficult for you to change themes or use other WordPress plugins. You will be locked into that theme or will have to pay a developer to help you switch.
On the other hand, some WordPress themes that look really great can actually make your website incredibly slow. No one likes slow websites, particularly Google, which prefers to rank faster websites higher.
Your theme is the face of your WordPress site and plays an important role in how users as well as search engines perceive it.
You’ve probably heard the saying, ‘All that glitters is not gold’.
Having said that, let’s take a look at the steps you can take to make sure that you select the best theme for your WordPress site.
1. Strive for Simplicity
Many WordPress themes come with lots of colors, complex layouts, flashy animations, etc. Sometimes you may need those things, but in most cases you don’t really need all that.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
~ Leonardo da Vinci
Look for a theme that has a design layout that helps you support your goal. It needs to look good but without compromising on usability and simplicity.
Make sure that the theme’s presentation style is not overly complicated. The purpose of web design is to help users find information they need and to help site owners achieve their goals at the same time.
If a theme looks great but does not help you get new business or subscribers, then it is not a good theme. It is also not a good theme when your users can’t really find their way around your website.
Take a look at these 37 simple WordPress themes for some inspiration.
2. Responsive is Not Optional Anymore
Responsive themes adjust their layout across different screen sizes and devices.
A significant number of web traffic is generated from mobile and other handheld devices. Depending on your website’s topics, this number could go even higher than 50% of your traffic.
Google shows mobile friendly websites on top in their mobile search results. Regardless of your site’s topics and demographics, all websites need to be responsive and fully mobile ready.
Most WordPress themes are already responsive by default. But there are still sellers who are selling fixed width layouts that are not mobile friendly at all. Make sure that the theme you are choosing for your website is mobile friendly.
Testing a Theme for Mobile Readiness
The easiest way to test whether a theme is responsive or not is by resizing your browser screen. As you resize your browser screen, you will notice that the theme’s layout will adjust itself to the screen width.
For more thorough testing you can copy the URL of theme’s demo page and paste it in Google’s Mobile Friendly Test page.
Please note that this test will show some warnings, regardless of how good a theme is. Lookout for any red flags like text too small, content wider than screen, etc.
3. Browser Compatibility
Your users will be using different browsers. Your theme may look perfect on the browser you use, but there might be something broken in other browsers.
This is where browser compatibility comes in. Most WordPress theme developers test their themes rigorously by using sophisticated browser compatibility testing tools.
They may clearly mention this on their website. But if they don’t, then you can always run some basic tests to check the theme on different browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.
Don’t forget to test on different browsers on mobile as well.
4. Supported Plugins
The real power of WordPress comes with WordPress plugins. These plugins make it possible for you to do anything with your WordPress site.
While there are plenty of WordPress plugins, some are must-have WordPress plugins for every websites. Like Gravity Forms, Yoast SEO, W3 Total Cache, etc.
Make sure that your WordPress theme supports all popular plugins. If you are unsure, ask theme developer about it.
5. Translation + Multilingual Ready
A large number of WordPress sites are not in the English language. You may be creating a website in a language other than English. Maybe you have plans to create a multilingual WordPress site in the future.
Make sure that your WordPress theme is translation ready and supports multilingual WordPress plugins.
6. Page Builders
Page builders are WordPress plugins that allow you to create page layouts using drag and drop user interface.
Many premium WordPress themes come with page builders pre-installed. Some of these page builders are used by that theme developer only.
Using such a page builder to create landing pages can produce a lot of unwanted code. If you ever switch the theme, then those pages will require a lot of cleaning up.
You should choose themes that are shipping with one of the most used page builder plugins. You can also purchase these page-builders separately to use with other themes as well.
7. Support Options for When You Need Help
One downside of using a free WordPress theme is that there is no guaranteed support. While some developers provide excellent support for their free themes, many free themes have no support option.
If you mess up your WordPress theme, then you will have to figure it out on your own. You can also end up paying a third-party developer to solve the tiniest problems.
Make sure that you select a WordPress theme that has good documentation and support option. Most premium WordPress themes offer detailed documentation with 1 year of email based support.
8. SEO Friendliness
Your WordPress theme plays a crucial role in your site’s SEO friendliness. A good looking theme can still generate poorly coded HTML, this could affect your site’s performance on search engines.
It could be difficult for beginners to analyze a theme’s source code on their own. This is why many premium WordPress theme developers will let you know that their pages are optimized for SEO.
You can also take a look to see if the page generates proper HTML5 by checking it with W3C Markup Validation service. However, please note that the W3C tool will generate many warnings which are nothing to be worried about.
9. Ratings and Reviews
Another solid indicator of a WordPress theme’s quality is ratings and reviews provided by their users. If the theme is sold on a third-party marketplace, then you will see customer reviews.
Almost all WordPress themes can get a few bad reviews. but if the number of bad reviews is unusually high, then you should read them carefully.
Mam, which is better Blogspot or Wordpress?? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteBlogger
DeleteSince Google now owns Blogger, the company offers plenty of Google built-in features, like Adwords, Adsense and Analytics, making the site extremely useful for novice bloggers.Originally started in 1999, Blogger was one of the first user-friendly interfaces for bloggers. Pyra Labs, Blogger’s original creators, started this small company in San Francisco in the middle of the rise of the dot com. After a few years, the company started generating more users and traffic. By 2002, they were pulling in several hundred thousand users. After they were purchased by Google, the site didn’t change much, and they specialize in an interface that is easy to use for bloggers who do not need a ton of bells and whistles.
Pros
Blogger’s most attractive feature to first-time and novice bloggers is its cost: free. Newer bloggers should opt for a free platform that is easy to use and has step-by-step instructions. Blogger definitely delivers a user friendly interface with widgets that are easy for users to master. The site hosts a plethora of free templates, so bloggers can customize their viewers’ experience and create a visual presence that keeps their brand consistent. The site is also extremely reliable. Blogger’s upgrades are seamless, and the site is rarely down for maintenance or due to other issues, such as hackers. Many users also love that they can connect their Blogger account to their Google Adsense and Analytics accounts for seamless tracking.
Cons
While Blogger offers many basic features and a user friendly interface for novice users, they do not offer a lot of options for more advanced bloggers. Many bloggers complain (both novice and advanced) about losing their template customizations. While the simple interface is attractive to novice bloggers, many professional and advanced bloggers complain about the lack of high-end features and more advanced options. The features are also limited, and many bloggers complain about the post editing options and minimal comments options.
WordPress
Created only a year before Google purchased Blogger, WordPress was created to give bloggers a more complex blogging platform. Its simplistic style was welcoming for users who wanted their photos and written content to shine instead of the blog widget’s bells and whistles.Wordpress was created on PHP and MySQL & originally called b2/cafelog
The blogging platform markets itself to both novice and advanced users, as it offers an easy-to-use interface with simple features for new users but can be easily upgraded for advanced users.
Pros
A self-hosted WordPress blog will give you a lot more control over the look, feel and content you can publish on your blog. You will also have your own domain name which will look more professional than a blogspot.com sub-domain which you can get from blogger.
Cons
The technical requirements required to run a self-hosted WordPress blog are a little more advanced than those required for a platform such as Blogger. You will also need to pay for hosting but this can be as cheap as $3 per month.
Both are useful :)It's up to you on what are you going to use as long as your comfortable using it :)
ReplyDeleteMa'am, Wix is also used to create a website. What is the advantage of using WordPress than using a Wix?
ReplyDeleteHello Daisy! :) The advantage is that in WordPress has a much larger range of themes and design layouts than Wix. WordPress users can also switch themes or customize them as much as they want without any restrictions.
DeleteDoes WordPress supports creating contact forms? How?
ReplyDeleteYes :)It is used to let readers get in touch without exposing your email address. You can also use a contact form for creating an RSVP form for an event by adding some dropdown or checkbox fields to the form.
Deleteadd-contact-form2
The contact form comes with four predefined fields: Name, Email, Website and Comment. You’re free to edit, delete or add more fields to your form. Note that you can decide to make your field required or not.
Each field requires a label and a field type. You can choose among the following field types:
Checkbox: allows the user to tick a box to make a choice
Dropdown: creates a dropdown of options
Email Address: requires an email address format
Name: text field
Radio Button: similar to the checkbox field type
Text: a single line of text
Text Area: several lines of text
Web Address: requires a URL format
Ma'am what are the other themes that can be useful?
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of themes available to blogging sites when you are creating websites. In these blog I am only giving you tips on how you should pick a proper theme for your wordpress blogs.But you can choose in available templates or simply customize it with your own design. :)
DeleteWhat are the disadvantages?
ReplyDeleteI dont think there is a disadvantage in using themes in wordpress sites. Actually themes makes your blog interesting but make sure to follow the steps above so that you can have the best theme for your wordpress site.
DeleteIf I were to use wordpress, what are the things that I should keep in mind?
ReplyDeleteYou should keep in mind the following steps above in choosing your theme for your wordpress site so you can produce an interesting one. :)
DeleteYou mentioned earlier that "...themes that look really great can actually make your website incredibly slow. " so how can we have a great theme that does not affect the speed of the website?
ReplyDeleteMake everything simple but interesting.
Deletecan we costumize or add our own themes on using Wordpress?
ReplyDeleteYes :)
DeleteMaam, what is the some advantages and disadvantages using this wordpress theme?
ReplyDeleteThere is no disadvatage as long as you follow the tips in choosing and customizing your theme.
DeleteI just cant understand why responsive is not an optional anymore? can you explain it to easier way that i can understand it well?
ReplyDeleteMa'am can you give us an idea in choosing theme? so we can use it on our presentation.
ReplyDeleteRead this blog! :)
DeleteCan we choose our own theme?
ReplyDeleteOf course, Your free to create your own.
DeleteOn #8 you have mentioned "SEO friendly". What exactly is SEO? Can you please give a brief explanation? Thank you ma'am!
ReplyDeleteIt means search engine optimisation.A search engine allows users to search for information on the internet by typing a phase (known in SEO as a keyword).Examples of English language based search engines include Google, Yahoo and Bing, among others.
Deletewhich is better Blogspot or Wordpress??
ReplyDeleteBlogger
DeleteSince Google now owns Blogger, the company offers plenty of Google built-in features, like Adwords, Adsense and Analytics, making the site extremely useful for novice bloggers.Originally started in 1999, Blogger was one of the first user-friendly interfaces for bloggers. Pyra Labs, Blogger’s original creators, started this small company in San Francisco in the middle of the rise of the dot com. After a few years, the company started generating more users and traffic. By 2002, they were pulling in several hundred thousand users. After they were purchased by Google, the site didn’t change much, and they specialize in an interface that is easy to use for bloggers who do not need a ton of bells and whistles.
Pros
Blogger’s most attractive feature to first-time and novice bloggers is its cost: free. Newer bloggers should opt for a free platform that is easy to use and has step-by-step instructions. Blogger definitely delivers a user friendly interface with widgets that are easy for users to master. The site hosts a plethora of free templates, so bloggers can customize their viewers’ experience and create a visual presence that keeps their brand consistent. The site is also extremely reliable. Blogger’s upgrades are seamless, and the site is rarely down for maintenance or due to other issues, such as hackers. Many users also love that they can connect their Blogger account to their Google Adsense and Analytics accounts for seamless tracking.
Cons
While Blogger offers many basic features and a user friendly interface for novice users, they do not offer a lot of options for more advanced bloggers. Many bloggers complain (both novice and advanced) about losing their template customizations. While the simple interface is attractive to novice bloggers, many professional and advanced bloggers complain about the lack of high-end features and more advanced options. The features are also limited, and many bloggers complain about the post editing options and minimal comments options.
WordPress
Created only a year before Google purchased Blogger, WordPress was created to give bloggers a more complex blogging platform. Its simplistic style was welcoming for users who wanted their photos and written content to shine instead of the blog widget’s bells and whistles.Wordpress was created on PHP and MySQL & originally called b2/cafelog
The blogging platform markets itself to both novice and advanced users, as it offers an easy-to-use interface with simple features for new users but can be easily upgraded for advanced users.
Pros
A self-hosted WordPress blog will give you a lot more control over the look, feel and content you can publish on your blog. You will also have your own domain name which will look more professional than a blogspot.com sub-domain which you can get from blogger.
Cons
The technical requirements required to run a self-hosted WordPress blog are a little more advanced than those required for a platform such as Blogger. You will also need to pay for hosting but this can be as cheap as $3 per month.
Blogger
DeleteSince Google now owns Blogger, the company offers plenty of Google built-in features, like Adwords, Adsense and Analytics, making the site extremely useful for novice bloggers.Originally started in 1999, Blogger was one of the first user-friendly interfaces for bloggers. Pyra Labs, Blogger’s original creators, started this small company in San Francisco in the middle of the rise of the dot com. After a few years, the company started generating more users and traffic. By 2002, they were pulling in several hundred thousand users. After they were purchased by Google, the site didn’t change much, and they specialize in an interface that is easy to use for bloggers who do not need a ton of bells and whistles.
Pros
Blogger’s most attractive feature to first-time and novice bloggers is its cost: free. Newer bloggers should opt for a free platform that is easy to use and has step-by-step instructions. Blogger definitely delivers a user friendly interface with widgets that are easy for users to master. The site hosts a plethora of free templates, so bloggers can customize their viewers’ experience and create a visual presence that keeps their brand consistent. The site is also extremely reliable. Blogger’s upgrades are seamless, and the site is rarely down for maintenance or due to other issues, such as hackers. Many users also love that they can connect their Blogger account to their Google Adsense and Analytics accounts for seamless tracking.
Cons
While Blogger offers many basic features and a user friendly interface for novice users, they do not offer a lot of options for more advanced bloggers. Many bloggers complain (both novice and advanced) about losing their template customizations. While the simple interface is attractive to novice bloggers, many professional and advanced bloggers complain about the lack of high-end features and more advanced options. The features are also limited, and many bloggers complain about the post editing options and minimal comments options.
WordPress
Created only a year before Google purchased Blogger, WordPress was created to give bloggers a more complex blogging platform. Its simplistic style was welcoming for users who wanted their photos and written content to shine instead of the blog widget’s bells and whistles.Wordpress was created on PHP and MySQL & originally called b2/cafelog
The blogging platform markets itself to both novice and advanced users, as it offers an easy-to-use interface with simple features for new users but can be easily upgraded for advanced users.
Pros
A self-hosted WordPress blog will give you a lot more control over the look, feel and content you can publish on your blog. You will also have your own domain name which will look more professional than a blogspot.com sub-domain which you can get from blogger.
Cons
The technical requirements required to run a self-hosted WordPress blog are a little more advanced than those required for a platform such as Blogger. You will also need to pay for hosting but this can be as cheap as $3 per month.
Can we create our own theme?
ReplyDeleteYes.
DeleteWhat does this SEO stands for?
ReplyDeleteIt means search engine optimisation.A search engine allows users to search for information on the internet by typing a phase (known in SEO as a keyword).Examples of English language based search engines include Google, Yahoo and Bing, among others.
Deletesame question with Pasia. Which is better blogspot or word press?
ReplyDeleteSame answer.
DeleteDoes it need a Adobe Flash Player ? because adobe flash can rich Internet application runtime that delivers consistent and engaging user experiences in browser compatibility and also plugins .
ReplyDeleteMam in creating and layouting the page we want for educational purposes in wordpress, aside from the themes and design, what factors do we need to consider?
ReplyDeleteHow do I create a lightbox popup in WordPress?
ReplyDeletema'am in layouting wordpress, can we manually do it, or are there applications that we can use to do it?
ReplyDeleteYou can do it manually.
DeleteWhat is the reason that we should have design in any blogspot
ReplyDelete???
To make your blog interesting :)
Deletesimple but detailed websites.
ReplyDeletehow important is the theme in blog for all bloggers? particularly for students?
ReplyDeleteIt makes your blog interesting and attractive.
DeleteIf I want to create my own website, is the wordpress the best choice?
ReplyDeleteThis is such a helpful blog when making your own website.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the things we need to consider when creating a website?
ReplyDeleteRead this blog. It might help :)
DeleteDo wordpress sites translate words based on its meaning? because some translators just translate it literally.
ReplyDeleteYou mean auto correction?
DeleteWhat is SEO? ps: some translators/translations are not that accurate especially on facebook.
ReplyDeleteAlready Answered in previous comments.
DeleteBut is there any chances that they already obligate you to pay just to use a kind of theme or something related to it?
ReplyDeleteBut is there any chances that they already obligate you to pay just to use a kind of theme or something related to it?
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the theme. But there are a lot of free themes.
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ReplyDelete