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There are hundreds (10,000-plus) of WordPress themes on the market. So many who it will take days on finish to go looking by way of all of them. So how do you slim it down to search out the proper one to your website?
Selecting the best theme is clearly essential—the best one ought to give your content material pizzazz, maintaining it responsive throughout gadgets, whereas additionally loading within the blink of a watch. But with so many themes within the pool, it may be a fairly daunting process to choose one of the best one attainable.
Earlier than buying a theme, or investing your time in customizing one, make sure you learn by way of this checklist of do’s and don’ts in the case of deciding on the proper WordPress theme.
1. Do make a listing of the options you need forward of time
Earlier than deciding on a theme, it’s completely essential to find out which options are important and which you’ll be able to stay with out.
The WordPress Function Filter within the Themes Repository makes it tremendous straightforward to customise your seek for free themes based mostly on particular options you need, like being translation prepared and permitting for a versatile header. It’s essential to have the design in thoughts earlier than making a range. For example, you have to be ready to know in order for you your website to have one column or a number of columns.
In relation to WordPress themes, much less is at all times extra. Constructing from the underside up, the theme you select ought to solely have the options that may provide help to accomplish the aim of your website, not pointless ones that litter your theme, which brings us to the subsequent level.
2. Don’t select a bloated theme
The significance of that is you don’t desire a theme cluttered with options — this may solely damage you in the long term. A feature-rich theme may be good, however it will possibly severely have an effect on website efficiency. Make sure to restrain your self towards putting in each function you suppose is cool.
Whereas fancy music gamers or gaming capabilities may be alluring, they might detract from website efficiency. Plus, builders usually use code they discovered on the web for these options, thereby creating safety weak spots as a result of they aren’t essentially centered on maintaining a website safe, however performing a selected perform.
3. Do select a responsive theme
Responsive design merely means making your website ultra-easy to make use of—not simply on a laptop computer, however on a number of gadgets. Which means it’s suitable with cell and has menus and different widgets which are straightforward to navigate. Search for options like a fluid website grid and versatile photographs that may translate to non-desktop gadgets. An instance of a responsive theme can be one that may simply translate on a cell machine with none hiccups.
Say that you just picked a theme that you just love, however it’s not as responsive as you’d like. You’re going to should customise it a little bit bit. Listed below are some methods to make your WordPress theme responsive by yourself.
4. Hold coloration in thoughts
Bear in mind, a lot of on-line advertising and marketing is predicated on visible look, and colours enhance model recognition as nicely. In case you have a emblem, attempt to match your coloration scheme of that emblem. If sticking to neutrals, a touch of coloration right here and there’ll make it extra attention-grabbing. WordPress makes it tremendous straightforward to change the looks, together with colours, of a theme by going instantly into the file or getting into in customized CSS.
For those who’re making an attempt to resolve between darkish and light-weight, observe that it’s statistically proven that website guests favor lighter coloured sights. Whereas a darkish web site design isn’t an absolute no, when you do select to go for the darkish facet, you may be reducing readability and the chance for extra typical design parts.
(If you need some recommendation on colours to your theme, right here’s some from our CTO, Jason Cohen.)
5. Do think about shopping for a premium theme
Whereas free themes are nice for these on a price range, they’ll current some points. Apart from the standard of coding probably not being as much as par, by utilizing a free theme, you’re taking the chance of it not being up to date usually, an absence of assist, and the theme writer abandoning the theme altogether.
Premium themes are dynamic, sometimes providing extra options than free ones, which might help you stand out from the gang. Along with WP Engine’s Premium Themes, that are offereedd to prospects at no further value, these premium WordPress themes solely require a one-time price fairly than a recurring fee.
WP Engine acquired StudioPress to equip our prospects with top-of-the-line WordPress themes and provides them entry to the Genesis Framework. For extra data on how one can get began with the Genesis Framework and WP Engine, take a look at this whitepaper.
6. Don’t select a theme with a font that’s onerous to learn
This ties again to capturing your customer’s consideration fast in order that they received’t abandon your website. You wish to make it as straightforward as attainable to your viewers to navigate your website. Make your fonts easy, refined, and readable. A number of the hottest fonts on the web in 2021 had been Geometric Sans Fonts similar to Holgada and Character Serifs like Temeraire.
For those who’re accustomed to CSS, it needs to be straightforward to go in and alter your theme’s font, though some free themes may be restricted in the case of customizations—one thing to bear in mind throughout your theme choice course of. (For learn on selecting distinctive and readable fonts, see Cease Utilizing Arial & Helvetica.)
7. Do check the theme totally
An amazing place to start out when testing out a theme’s effectivity is to put in the Theme Examine plugin that checks in case your theme is as much as all present WordPress requirements.
If you’re accomplished with all of the tweaks and have uploaded your entire content material, overview your website earlier than asserting it to the world. Reread your entire content material, take a look at your website on cell, and ensure your entire photographs load correctly. You must also think about investing in a internet hosting answer that gives staging environments, and set up a little one theme plugin.
Right here’s a compilation of some locations to purchase high quality themes:
Subsequent Steps
Hopefully, this text has given you some concepts to assist slim down your theme choice course of. What’s nice about WordPress is when you do resolve to change themes down the highway, you’ll have the flexibility to take action. For those who’re on the lookout for extra on deciding on the best WordPress theme, take a look at this library of sources on Torque, or converse with a WP Engine represneative for solutions to your questions.
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