How to Choose the Perfect WordPress Theme for Your Site

WordPress themes are one of its main backbones, as well as one of the biggest strengths of this platform. The free WordPress repository alone has more than two thousand themes, not to mention the thousands of others you can get from third-party developers. With such a wide choice, deciding can sometimes be no easy task. But thanks to this guide, you will probably be able to narrow down your choice.

Plan Ahead

Not every theme will suit every site. Before you start hunting for themes, you need to understand what you want your site to be. Many users make the mistake of looking for a theme first and then adapting their site to it, when it should be the other way around. First figure out what kind of site you will have: a portfolio or some kind of news resource. There are also tools that let you sketch your site. For example, services like Jumpchart and Slickplan let you develop simple plans, organize content and create design drafts. Once you have fully decided on the functions, features and styles you need, you can start making a list of themes that meet these requirements.

The Importance of Updates

With such a variety of themes, it is very important to choose one released by a developer who constantly updates their creations. The thing is that WordPress is also updated often, so themes must adapt accordingly to changes in the platform. So, when reading reviews about a developer, be sure to pay special attention to how long ago the theme was updated. Also look through the comments, see what people usually ask, what their complaints are and how support responds.

Choose a Responsive Theme

Now that more than half of search queries are made from mobile devices, if your site is not responsive, you are simply losing the lion’s share of traffic. Responsive themes adapt to any device and screen size, creating a convenient user experience regardless of which device the person is browsing from. Most of the themes you will find online are already responsive, but it is still worth double-checking, because from time to time you can come across a truly superb design that is, alas, not adapted for mobile devices.

Understanding Customization Options

Not all themes are built on the same principle. And you, as the site owner, will surely want to control various aspects of the theme such as the position of text and images, menus and widgets. You should be able to change an entire theme without having to dig through code. Many developers let you play with customization in demo versions. Otherwise you should have a full description of the customization options, as well as a picture of what the backend looks like during such personalization.

Find Your Niche and Get Inspired

Fortunately, there are hundreds of themes on the market for your niche. And even if none of them suit you for some reason, this can be great inspiration and push you toward the right thinking. You will know what you want. You can also look for inspiration from other people in your niche. Say you want to launch a travel blog. You can visit similar sites and see which theme they use. To find out, it is often enough to simply look at the site footer. If there is no information there, you can simply go into the source code and then, using the search function, find the word theme – this will be your theme.

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