Published on April 1st, 2019 | by Sunit Nandi

5 Tips to Choosing the Best WordPress Theme for Your Website

Every website that runs on a WordPress platform must have a theme. To a lay person, a theme looks like a minor feature that doesn’t add value to the performance of a website. As a matter of fact, the theme you select for your website determines how slow or fast your portal will load. You must therefore make an informed decision. And that’s not all. The theme you make also influences the way you will be managing your content and running updates. These are just a few things that are affected by the theme you go for. There is actually more than what meets the eye. The problem is that most website owners choose a theme without knowing what they are getting into. Here are a few tips that can guide you in choosing the best WordPress theme for your website.

1. Create a List of Features

Before you start searching for a theme, it’s advisable you first take time to create a list of features that matter the most to your business. Keep in mind that there are thousands of themes out there. Some are actually not known by anyone else except the coder himself. If you don’t have such a list, you might end up picking the wrong theme probably because it’s cheap or available for free. Some of the features that should guide you include color, layout, position of sidebars (left and right) and number of columns. You should also pick a theme that’s ideal for your industry such as e-commerce, photography, news, holiday and entertainment among others. If you don’t want to stick with the defaults, you should consider getting a custom WordPress theme that’s specifically tailored to meet your needs.

2. Avoid Sophisticated Themes

Sophisticated themes are irresistible. This is because they are rich in features. In fact, such themes offer more than what you really need in your website. They actually help in improving the experience of your visitors. But the downside is that they also cause the performance of your website to decline. When the pages start taking a century to load, you will definitely experience a high bounce rate. When customers bounce away, your conversions also go south. Such a problem can be avoided by narrowing down to a simple theme.

3. Responsiveness Always Wins

Gone are the days when people could only access the internet via computers. Nowadays everyone has the option of either using a tablet, computer or a smartphone to browse the internet. The theme you select must therefore be responsive regardless of the device that the user uses to access your website. If your theme is not responsive on mobile platforms, you will definitely lose traffic to your rivals that have invested in responsive themes.

4. Go for Light Colors

Image is everything. The theme you opt for must have colors that blend with the theme of your business. In fact, it’s advisable you pick colors that blend or reflect on your company logo. This helps in reminding visitors that they are at the right place and prevent them from leaving your site before making a purchase. By the rule of thumb, you should stick to light colors as they are more appealing than dark colors. The shortcoming of dark colors is that they make it difficult for visitors to read the text that’s published on your website.

5. Test it First

The worst mistake that you can make as website owner is to install any theme without first putting it to the test. You actually don’t have an excuse for not doing such a test run because there are so many tools on the internet that are specifically designed for testing themes. The advantage of testing before installation is that you will know what to expect once the theme is up and running. In fact, you should confirm that there is some form of support that’s provided either via email, live chat or phone calls, especially when you are investing in a premium theme. Besides that, you may not return a theme after purchasing it. You should therefore test it to confirm that it’s really what you are paying for to avoid disappointments that come later.

Tags: best, choosing, theme, tips, website, WordPress

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.