How To Choose A WordPress Theme – Ultimate Guide For Beginners

Are you wondering how to choose a WordPress theme?

We buy domain & hosting. Install WordPress. Browse thousands of WordPress themes. Go over hundreds of theme demos. And finally, select a premium or free WordPress theme that we feel will look good on our website.

Then a few weeks pass. Only to realize this is not the theme we’re looking for. Sometimes the theme doesn’t have a look. At other times, it doesn’t have the functionality.

Then we start the process repeatedly and start looking for a new theme. This can quickly get frustrating.

In this article, we’ll look at:

• Standard terms related to WordPress themes
• How to choose a WordPress theme
• And the best places to find a theme

Standard WordPress Terminologies

While WordPress is straightforward, the terms can quickly become confusing. If you’re new to WordPress, you’ll need to know these theme-related terms:

WordPress Themes

Themes are skins that decide how your WordPress website looks. A theme dictates your website’s layout, colors, and other design elements. WordPress themes are of three types: parent, child, and theme frameworks.

Parent & Child Themes

Almost all WordPress themes are parent themes by default. You can create a child theme by extending or changing the design of the parent theme. You’ll also need the parent theme installed along with the child theme. For example, Responsive Blog is a child theme of the popular Responsive theme.

Theme Frameworks

A theme framework is a code library that facilitates theme development. Such a framework can either be a parent theme or a separate piece of code shipped with the parent theme. Genesis is one such popular theme framework.

WordPress Plugins

A plugin is a piece of code that you install on your WordPress website to add new features or functionality. For example, a plugin can add a feature allowing you to share your blog posts on social media.

Page builders

Page builders are WordPress plugins. These plugins help you design pages using an easy to use, drag-and-drop interface. While there are many such plugins, Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, and Elementor are the most popular ones.

Importance of choosing the right WordPress theme

Choosing the right WordPress theme is crucial because it affects how your website looks and functions.

An excellent theme helps your website to look appealing and makes it more user-friendly. It also influences your site’s speed and performance, impacting the user experience and search engine rankings.

Picking the right theme is essential to create a professional, unique, SEO-friendly website.

Additionally, the WordPress theme ensures compatibility with various devices, such as smartphones and tablets and different web browsers.

How to pick a WordPress theme

No theme is complete on its own.

You’ll need to customize it or extend it using a child theme. You may also need to add some functionality in the form of plugins.

Yet, picking the right theme can save you precious time and money. Here’s a 20-point checklist to help you select the perfect theme for your WordPress website.

#1. Does the Theme Match Your Website’s Purpose?

Every website’s purpose is different. A website can be a simple blog or a complex ecommerce website. The theme you select must match this purpose.

For example, for a blog, you need a theme that comes with better readability and attractive typography. For a portfolio, you’ll need a theme that showcases images attractively. On the other hand, for an ecommerce site, you need a theme that makes buying easier.

You’ll also find some multi-purpose themes. But such themes are often bloated and can slow down your website.

#2. Does it Match Your Website’s Personality?

Every theme has a unique personality. And just like purpose, you want to select a theme that matches your website’s personality.

For example, if you’re building a casual and fun blog, you don’t want a corporate-looking theme.

Or, when building a website for your football team, you don’t want a theme with a delicate design, which is more suited for feminine websites.

#3. Does the Theme Match Your Budget?

Like it or not, your budget will be essential in choosing a theme.

WordPress themes come for all budgets. You can get a free theme from WordPress.org or even from theme shops like ours that sell premium themes. You can also buy themes that cost a small fortune.

Before you start looking for a theme, decide on a budget. Then find a theme that matches your budget.

#4. What’re the Licensing Options?

WordPress is an open-source software that comes with a GPL license. Most of the themes and plugins are under the GPL license too.

With a GPL license, you can modify the code to suit your requirements. This license also allows you to use a purchased theme on multiple websites.

You may want to go with a liberal or a restrictive license based on your future plans.

#5. Is the Theme Responsive?

According to Google, over half of the traffic today comes from mobile devices. In 2018, Google made mobile site speed a factor for ranking search results.

It’s obvious that your website needs to look and work well across devices.

As we discussed before, your theme dictates how your website looks. Choosing a responsive WordPress theme is critical if you want traffic to your website.

#6. Does the Theme Work Across Browsers?

Apart from devices, your website also needs to look and work well across browsers.

While you don’t need that supports browsers as old as Internet Explorer 6, you need to make sure the theme works well with all major browsers.

#7. Is the Theme Compatible with WordPress?

Gutenberg brings a rich editing experience to your website. You get to see how your blog post or page will look right in the editor.

Choose a theme that must be WordPress-compatible to prevent website upgrade issues.

#8. Does the Theme Work with Common Plugins?

It’s very rare that your WordPress site will have no plugins.

Commonly used plugins include plugins for SEO, backup, social sharing, contact forms, and adding WordPress Privacy & Terms Generator Plugin – WP Legal Pages to your website.

The theme you choose shouldn’t cause conflicts with these standard plugins. Conflicts can occur when your theme defines or include the same code as these standard plugins.

Most good themes will also come with default styling for these plugins. Your theme should too.

#9. Does the Theme Work with Page Builders?

As discussed earlier, a page builder helps you easily design a page using a drag-and-drop interface. You’ll need a page builder to create special pages on your website – such as a landing page.

Today’s most popular page builders are Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, and Elementor. Ensure that the theme has support for these page builder plugins.

#10. Is the Theme Lightweight & Fast Loading?

Site speed is one of the most critical search ranking factors. According to a study, visitors leave websites that load more than 3 seconds.

You need a theme that loads fast and is light on the browser.

To achieve this feat, the theme you pick needs to send minimal server requests and make the most of browser caching by pre-connecting with server resources.

#11. Is it Easy to Customize and Use?

Chances are you’ll need to customize your theme.

Most good themes come with enough customization options to help you make the theme your own. But there are also themes that come with too few or too many customization options.

You don’t want either too few or too many customization options.

Too few, and you’ll feel helpless. Too many, and you’ll feel like you need a degree in website design. Plus, websites with too many options tend to slow down the website.

Ideally, you want a theme that allows you to customize the branding, navigation, colors, and typography.

#12. Is it Extendable?

Sometimes basic customization options are not enough. You need more than changing colors and typography.

In such situations, you need a theme that can be extended by creating a child theme. Child themes allow you to extend the design of your parent theme beyond basic customization.

#13. Is the Theme From a Reputed Theme Developer?

WordPress is an open-source software. You’ll find themes developed by various developers – from fresh coders to reputed theme shops.

Not all themes coded by fresh coders are evil.

But it’s always safe to get your theme from a reputed theme developer to avoid security and support-related issues.

#14. Is the Theme Updated Frequently?

Like any open-source software, WordPress is updated frequently.

You also want your chosen theme to keep up with the updates. Or you may end up with a broken website. Check how often the theme developer updates the theme to fix issues or provide support for an upgraded WordPress version.

#15. Does it Come with Documentation?

Sometimes you’ll need to know how to configure specific theme options.

Requesting support can be time-consuming. That’s where theme documentation can come in handy. Ensure that the theme you pick has sufficient documentation about how to install and configure the theme.

#16. Does the Theme Developer Provide Support?

While documentation is enough in most cases, sometimes you’ll need to contact the theme developer for help.

Most good theme developers provide either forum-based or ticket-based support. Review the forums to determine how quickly the theme developer responds to support requests.

Choose a theme that comes with sufficient support for times when you need it.

#17. Is the Theme Optimized for Search?

On-page optimization is one of the pillars of SEO.

This includes outputting:

• Valid HTML
• Correct HTML5 structure tags for the header, footer, main, aside, etc
• And appropriate heading (h1, h2, h3, etc.) tags.

In addition, most good themes also come with basic schema support for web pages and blog posts.

17 Easy WordPress SEO Tips & Techniques to Boost Rankings

#18. Is the Theme Accessible?

Accessibility means the ability of everyone regardless of their condition to have access to your website.

While 100% accessibility will need a compromise with design, your chosen theme should come with enough accessibility support to include people with disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with our website.

#19. Is the Theme Translatable?

This feature won’t matter for everyone.

But if you’re running a multilingual website, you’ll need a theme with translation support.

#20. Does the Theme Come with a Money Back Guarantee?

Sometimes after taking every care, your theme still doesn’t work for you. In such situations, you want to be able to return the theme and get your money back.

Check if the theme shop you buy the theme from has a money back guarantee.

Best places to find a perfect WordPress theme

Now that you know what to look for in a theme, let’s look at some places where you can find quality themes for your website.

WordPress.org theme repository

The WordPress.org theme repository is home to thousands of free WordPress themes. Some of these themes are also free versions of premium, feature-rich themes. Themes submitted to the repository go through a thorough theme check process and are 100% GPL compatible.

If you’re looking for a free theme or want to try out the free version of a premium theme, check out the WordPress.org repository.

Reputed theme shops

There are many premium theme shops like CyberChimps that sell high-quality themes. Most theme shops also offer free themes of equal quality but with fewer features.

Other than CyberChimps – you can choose themes from Themeforest which is also a popular theme shop.

Conclusion

Choosing a perfect theme for your website can be frustrating, particularly if you’re a beginner.

To help solve this problem, we looked at commonly used WordPress theme terms, learned about how to choose a WordPress theme and looked at some of the best places to find a theme.

If you’ve liked reading this article, don’t forget to check our other similar articles:

• How to Install a WordPress Theme: A Step-by-Step Guide
• How to Install a WordPress Plugin – Step-by-Step Beginner’s Guide
• Gutenberg vs Elementor: Which Page Builder Should You Use And Why?

If you’re looking for the best WordPress theme, grab the Responsive theme now!