Choosing a WordPress Theme

Choosing a theme for your WordPress site can be a daunting task, but this article will help guide you through the process. As you choose a theme, keep your business needs in mind. Restaurants need different websites than weddings, and large corporations need different websites than freelancers. Once you have your business model firmly in mind, there are 6 main considerations. 

6 things to look for when choosing a theme:

1. Aesthetic

The first thing to look for is the overall aesthetic. Your website is the face of your product, company, or organization, so the aesthetic should match your brand image. Think about whether you want something simple and clean, something artistic and beautiful, or something exciting and flashy.

2. Usability 

Next, you’ll want to make sure that you’re thinking practically. Many themes offer exciting features that you may be eager to use — but make sure those features will actually work with your content before you choose a theme based on them. For example, a theme might include an interactive calendar to help your business promote events… but if your business only hosts special events occasionally, it’s not worth choosing a theme based on this specialized feature. Keep focused on what your site needs. 

3. Rating

The third thing you want to look for is the rating. Customer ratings on themes are generally a pretty accurate reflection of the theme’s quality. When a theme has low ratings, it’s usually a sign that it hasn’t been kept up well or that it has a really bad UI on the backend. A theme with a bad UI can mean hours of frustration trying to find simple features and places to edit the theme. When a theme’s creators haven’t kept it up well, the features of the theme can break your site. The last thing you want to do is import the theme and have your whole site go down.

4. Downloads

It’s easy for a theme to get a five-star rating if it’s only been used by a couple of customers. Check how many times a theme has been downloaded. It’s usually best to use themes that have at least 250 downloads; you want a product that is tried and true. 

5. Updated

The fifth thing to check is how long ago a theme was updated. Generally, you’ll want to look for themes that have been updated within the last 6 months. This is a good sign that the creators are keeping up with new PHP versions and updating the plugins to work with them. 

6. Price

Finally, consider the price range. Usually, the good themes are around $40-$60. It’s tempting to go cheaper, but in my experience, one of the considerations above will be unsatisfactory. This means hours of frustration and wishing you’d spent the extra money on a slightly more expensive theme

A solid theme has:

1. A good aesthetic
2. Many use cases
3. High ratings
4. Been updated within the last 6 months
5. Plenty of downloads
6. A $40-$60 price range
   

I have been happy with the themes I have downloaded from ThemeForest that follow these guidelines. Remember that the main consideration still is, make sure you’re thinking about what your site needs to do, and not just what would be exciting. If you would prefer someone else to take care of creating a site for you, contact our dev team and get a quote. CKH Consulting