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How to Select the Best WordPress Theme for Your Business Website?

Themes and plugins are the strongest verticals of WordPress. This CMS platform has quickly become one of the most preferred platforms for its reliability and ease of use. Do you know? WordPress powers over 43% of the websites globally.

Blog Author
Rama Krishna

December 13, 2024

This is because it significantly simplifies the process of website creation, and can be used to build blogs, e-commerce stores, business websites, portfolios, and many more. With strong community support and regular updates, businesses can ensure uninterrupted services for their costumes. As mentioned before, this platform offers thousands of both free and premium themes and plugins that allow brands to customize their website, just the way they want. However, with so many options at your table, it can be overwhelming to select the best WordPress theme for your business website. Well, let us help you in making this process simpler and more easier to navigate. This blog is your ultimate guide to choosing the best and most reliable WordPress theme for your website.

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress theme is a pre-built design template with layouts and inbuilt functionality. These themes are flexible and easy to edit with basic drag-and-drop features without needing to code from scratch. While some themes offer a single column, others might have sidebars, some themes are responsive and others are not, and some themes have better SEO capabilities than others. So choosing a theme that just looks aesthetically pleasing is not a feasible option. There are various things that a business owner or developer should consider before finalizing the theme. Here is a detailed list of all the factors that you should consider when choosing the theme for your website.

  • Security
  • Responsiveness
  • SEO
  • Browser compatibility
  • Speed and performance
  • Plugin compatibility
  • Design aesthetics
  • Updates and support
  • Linguistic support
  • User reviews and ratings
  • Scalability
  • Clean codebase
  • Cost and licensing
  • User-friendliness
  • Considering their roadmap

Questions to ask yourself before choosing the theme

  • Do I want this design for my website?
  • Can I make the necessary design tweaks to the theme to make it stand out?
  • Are there any support services offered by the theme vendor?
  • Will the vendor provide updates regularly to optimize and enhance the theme?
  • How fast is the theme when loading the home page?

Note: As an experienced WordPress development company, we recommend you use plugins for functionality and choose themes purely based on the design elements. While it can be great to have tons of built-in functionality in your themes, if you use plugins for functionality it won't break the website’s functionality when you change the theme in future. Also, themes with built-in functionality features are built by hard-coding plugins into the theme. This demands the vendor to offer support and keep it updated.

Types of WordPress Themes

  1. Free Themes: Available in the WordPress repository, suitable for basic needs.
  2. Premium Themes: Paid themes with advanced features and dedicated support.
  3. Multipurpose Themes: Versatile themes for various website types (e.g., Divi, Avada).
  4. Niche-Specific Themes: Designed for specific industries like restaurants or portfolios.
  5. E-Commerce Themes: Optimized for online stores using WooCommerce.
  6. Responsive Themes: Mobile-friendly designs that adapt to all screen sizes.
  7. Minimalist Themes: Simple, clean designs for fast-loading and distraction-free sites.
  8. Page Builder-Integrated Themes: Built to work seamlessly with builders like Elementor or WPBakery.
  9. SEO-Optimized Themes: Developed with search engine best practices in mind.
  10. Customizable Frameworks: Themes like Genesis offer robust customization and performance.

Most Popular WordPress Themes and Page Builders

Popular Themes

  1. Astra: A lightweight and highly customizable theme, ideal for all types of websites.
  2. Divi: Multipurpose theme with a built-in page builder.
  3. GeneratePress: Known for speed, simplicity, and flexibility.
  4. OceanWP: Feature-rich and optimized for WooCommerce.
  5. Avada: One of the top-selling multipurpose themes on ThemeForest.
  6. Neve: Compatible with almost all page builders and is also lightweight.
  7. Hestia: Refined design, best for startups and portfolios.
  8. Kadence: Easy-to-use theme with a focus on performance and design.

Kadence:

  1. Elementor: Drag-and-drop builder with powerful design options.
  2. WPBakery: Flexible builder included with many premium themes.
  3. Beaver Builder: User-friendly page builder for creating stunning layouts.
  4. Divi Builder: Comes with Divi theme and works on other themes as well.
  5. Gutenberg: The standard block editor in WordPress is used for designing content layouts.

How to Browse Themes

  1. WordPress Theme Directory: Access thousands of free themes from the dashboard or WordPress.org.
  2. Premium Marketplaces: Explore ThemeForest, TemplateMonster, or StudioPress for paid themes.
  3. Premium Marketplaces: Browse directly from theme developer sites like Astra or Divi.
  4. Search Filters: Use filters like niche, features, or ratings in theme directories.
  5. Demo Preview: Preview themes to assess design and functionality before downloading.
  6. Community Recommendations: Check reviews and blogs for top-rated themes.
  7. Theme Search Plugins: Use plugins like Theme Detector to find similar themes used by other websites.

How to Configure and Install a WordPress Theme

  1. Access Theme Menu: Go to Appearance > Themes in the WordPress dashboard.
  2. Install from Repository: Click Add New, search for a theme, and click Install for free themes.
  3. Upload a Theme: For premium themes, click Upload Theme and select the .zip file.
  4. Activate the Theme: Once installed, click "Activate" to apply the theme to your website.
  5. Import Demo Content: Many themes offer demo import tools to replicate the demo look.
  6. Customize Settings: Use Appearance > Customize to tweak colours, fonts, and layouts.
  7. Install Recommended Plugins: Some themes suggest plugins for enhanced functionality.
  8. Test Responsiveness: Ensure the theme looks good on desktop, tablet, and mobile.
  9. Backup Settings: Save customizations with export tools or backups for future use.

Key components of WordPress theme

WordPress theme is the heart of your website, this theme controls the design, layout, and visual elements of the website, all the parts of the website that the user interacts with. Here is a list of components that run behind the scenes

  1. Template files - Establishes the structure and design of all the pages.
  2. Stylesheets - controls the appearance of the website including colours, fonts, and layout.
  3. Functions file - adds inbuilt functionality to the theme.
  4. Theme templates and hooks - determines the template file used for the page and points where developers can add code using actions.
  5. JavaScript and styles - improves the interactivity and user experience with animations, sliders, etc.
  6. Theme options panel - a settings panel for customzing logos, colours, and other layouts.
  7. Widgets - search, social links, etc.

Advantages of the WordPress Theme System

  1. Separation of Concerns: Keeps design and functionality distinct for easier updates and management.
  2. Modularity: Template files allow fine-grained control over specific parts of the website.
  3. Customization: Themes can be easily modified via child themes to preserve the original codebase.
  4. Scalability: Themes are designed to work with additional plugins and WordPress updates.

Best Practices for Choosing and Using Themes

  1. Choose Lightweight Themes: Avoid bloated themes for better performance.
  2. Focus on Responsiveness: Ensure the theme adapts to all screen sizes.
  3. Use Child Themes: Customize designs safely without modifying the core theme.
  4. Regular Updates: Opt for themes with regular updates to ensure compatibility and security.

Conclusion

All in all, themes integrate various templates, styles, and other functions that significantly simplify the process of website development. It is very important to choose the right theme for you website, as the theme becomes the face of the website. However, themes only offer limited customization and functional capabilities, build powerful and unique WordPress websites with Webomindapps. We offer custom WordPress development services to help businesses build websites that are extremely unique, highly powerful, and offers a range of functionality and features. Visit our website for more information on blogs and WordPress development.