One of the most crucial parts of setting up a WordPress site is the selection of the theme. The theme isn’t just the layout of your website, it’s the first impression of your brand in visitors’ minds.
Yes, the theme needs to look appealing, but that’s not all. There is a lot to consider while selecting a theme for a WordPress site. You have to ensure that it focuses on providing a good user experience, performs well for SEO, is scalable, and supports different browsers and plugins.
Hire a WordPress Developer to develop a custom theme for your WordPress site.
Let’s discuss the 5 things you must consider before selecting a WordPress theme that’s appropriate for your site.
How to Choose a WordPress Theme?
Is the Design Simple and Uncomplicated?
Your WordPress theme should be simple and easy to navigate for visitors. You should choose a theme that reflects your niche and has no excessive and redundant features. The simplicity of the theme will allow your content to stand out, and your message will be communicated to the users properly.
The widget-loaded themes with lots of intrusive features can affect the user experience. Also, managing such a theme would become difficult for you since there will be regular updates for each feature. Therefore, it’s better to keep a minimalist approach while selecting a WordPress theme.
Does it Prioritize User Experience?
If you want to improve the all-around performance of your site, you must ensure that you’re prioritizing user experience. Here are a couple of things you must consider for providing a better user experience:
i- Perform mobile-friendly tests to check the theme’s responsiveness on mobile devices from where you’ll be getting the most traffic.
ii- It needs to be visually stable, meaning there should be fewer layout shifts.
iii- It must be highly interactive and respond to user queries quickly.
iv- The theme should not affect the page loading speed of your site and should take less than 3 seconds to load.
Is it Scalable?
With time you might have to scale your WordPress website because of continuous updates to WordPress. So it’s better to go with a theme that allows you to do so with comfort. For this reason, choose a theme that is regularly updated for adding different latest features.
One of the best WordPress themes in this regard is Divi which comes with a page builder. It makes editing easier for you and allows you to add advanced features. Here you can read this thorough Divi theme review by CollectiveRay.
Is it SEO Friendly?
Another aspect you must consider for the WordPress theme selection is SEO-friendliness. The most important element to consider here is the code. It should be short, clear, and in line with the WordPress guidelines. Secondly, ensure that it has essential features to enhance the content for on-page SEO. It’ll be particularly important if you’re to run a blog.
Page loading speed isn’t only important for UX, it’s the main factor for SEO too. Therefore, evaluate whether the theme is speed optimized or not.
Does it Support Different Browsers and Plugins?
Whether or not a theme fits well with different plugins and browsers is another essential question. Most developers make the mistake of checking the site on just one browser, neglecting the fact that the site will attract traffic from various browsers. Thus, to avoid the site’s performance being affected on other browsers, choose a theme that supports different browsers.
Also, numerous plugins are essential for running your website. Firstly, recognize those plugins and then inspect whether the theme will be compatible with them.
Final Thoughts
In designing WordPress sites, the selection of themes is one of the most intricate steps. To select the right one, you have to consider a few things. The foremost thing is to have a minimalist approach in mind and choose a simple and uncomplicated layout. Next is to ensure that it aims to provide a good user experience and performs well for SEO. Then examine whether you’ll be able to scale your website with the theme over time. Lastly, make sure it supports different browsers and plugins.
Happy Reading!
