After installing the WordPress theme the first step is choosing a good theme. It is very important because choosing a bad theme can destroy the whole purpose of your website. So in this article, I’ll help you know how to select the best WordPress theme.
For any purpose, you might be creating your WordPress website like blogging, affiliate marketing, business website, or some kind of informatory website or you are just creating a landing page. You need to consider few things always in mind while selecting any theme.
1. Speed
2. Simplicity
3. Responsive
4. Plugin Support
5. Ratings and Reviews
6. Customization Options
1. Speed
When your website loads slow, in every one second you can’t imagine how much traffic you lose and it increases the bounce rate of your website as well. So make sure whenever you are choosing any theme, the theme is light and loads fast.
A slow-loading website not only interrupts the experience of users it also affects your SEO score because in the end google or any other search engine they are a company. They won’t like to interrupt the experience of their audience. That means they won’t consider ranking your website rather they would prefer to rank those websites whose speed is better than yours.
2. Simplicity
It is rightly said simple looks cool. The same you need keep in mind while selecting a theme. Don’t try to choose attractive themes which looks like a website of big brand or consist different animation. So when you choose this kind of theme it doesn’t only slow your website’s speed it also breaks the some pages and layout of your website. Even it creates the issues of downtime.
So make sure to choose a simple theme and to build your website from the scratch. That will make your website light and responsive.
3. Responsive
People open your website on different devices like desktop, mobile, tablet, iPhone, iPad etc. means your website should be responsive on all kinds of devices but most of the theme available in the market is not responsive.
So, you have to be very sure about which ever theme you are selecting is responsive for all the devices otherwise you’ll lose countless traffic.
If your pages are not responsive in all types of devices, google will not index your destroyed pages or post. Always think google like a company and you are a partner and visitors are the customers. This thought will help you to choose better theme, plugin and make your website super responsive and light.
If you want to know how to test it you can try their demo websites on a different website or you can check out by creating few sections in any of the pages of your website as well.
4. Plugin Support
There are many themes in the market which don’t support all kind of plugins that creates complications for you. Because you are forced to use some alternative plugins which may cause you to install too many plugins and might make your website heavy.
Even there might be some circumstances when it doesn’t support the plugin which you necessarily need. So make sure it supports all the popular plugins.
5. Ratings and Reviews
You should also be very focused on the ratings and reviews. Probably you can get all the required specifications I have mentioned above in this article. You can look at the reviews of users especially those who are talking about the specification.
In case if you checkout any new theme and found something interesting or bad thing about that theme don’t forget to share you reviews as well because if you are seeking help from someone’s else review your review might help some body else.
Checking ratings and reviews is not only required while selecting any theme or plugin. It helps you select the best product every time whenever you plan to buy any new stuffs.
6. Customization Options
Most of the themes launching in the market they have created too many limitations in their free plan and trying to pitch their upsells every time.
Due to limitations in their customization option it requires to install too many unwanted plugins and that’s how you install too many plugins on your website that make your website heavy.
Having a heavy website will not help you to get traffic from Google’s search engine. That means you’ll lose a huge opportunity. Even you’ll lose your existing user if they don’t find it user friendly.
After going through all these points mentioned above. You may have got an idea that in every point I have focused more on responsiveness and speed of the website. Because that is most important and most of the part of technical SEO depends upon it.
Now let’s discuss about some best recommended themes.
1. Generate Press Theme
Whenever I need to create a simple website for a blog or a small business I choose the GeneratePress theme blindly because this is the best theme I found ever and my all website is made on generatepress except one. Even most of the websites from my clients I use generatepress to create their website.
In terms of speed, this is the best theme I found, it is super responsive as well. So, I can proudly recommend this theme to anyone.
2. Astra Theme
After GeneratePress found this theme which is best it has a bit extra features than GeneratePress and speed is also good. After GeneratePress this is the super speedy theme. Its responsiveness is also awesome.
As there are some extra features that have been given in Astra theme, it can also be used to create simple eCommerce websites. Using a plugin “site library” by Astra you can import some prebuilt templates as well but I don’t recommend. Always prefer to create your website from scratch.
3. WP Ocean
In terms of customization options, It is the best theme I found till now. You can also create awesome responsive websites and this is the best option for creating an eCommerce website. However, Astra is a Good theme for creating an eCommerce website but the WP Ocean wins this battle because of its customization features.
All of these plugins have free and paid both plans available. But using free themes you can create a great website until you don’t more features to add on your website.
Note: In these themes there are different kinds of website can be made but still there are some kind of website that needs dedicated theme which is not possible to made by these themes.
If you need recommendations for themes for your website you can ask me in the comment box. Also if you found this article helpful please leave your valuable feedback.