The Art Of Choosing The Right WordPress Theme For Your Website

Are you struggling to choose the best WordPress theme for your website?

Do you browse through countless themes, but there is no hope of a perfect skin?

Do you want to save your time choosing the right WordPress theme immediately which will increase visitors and sales?

Let me tell you this. When I first came to the blogosphere, it took me more than 2 days to choose a theme for my blog. There are thousands WordPress themes out there (both free and paid), why did it take so long to choose one of them? The dilemma is that the more choices you have, the longer it takes to make a decision.

After spending several days just to choose right wordpress themes, I realize that there are some common decisive factors among them. I decided to list them out and what amazes me most is the list has saved lots of my time. Now, it takes me only 1 hour or less to choose a theme meaning that I have more time to create content and build backlinks for my websites.

I am not an expert in this field, but I experienced this painful process several times. I believe that these factors that I’ll tell you below can save your precious time on choosing WordPress theme for your website.

What is your website for?

This is the most crucial factor. Is your website a personal or business website? Do you plan to make money with it or just want to share your feelings? You know, a personal website is far different from business one. With personal site, you can do whatever you want. You can choose your favorite colors, add some experiments, add lots of emotions on comment box.

But for business, it requires professional and reliable lookings. Moreover, your website must stand out from the crowd if you are running a business. Surely, you don’t want to share the same skins with numerous other websites in your industry. In this case, you should invest in custom or at least, a premium theme.

Which features do you need?

Before dipping yourself to the sea of WordPress themes, you should sketch out what you need for the theme, what you want for the homepage and inside posts. I would rather take a piece of paper, draw out my preferred features (a slider, navigation, number of columns…). You don’t have to think about the whole theme, just sketch out the most basic things. It will narrow down your search and make it easier to choose the right theme.

Free vs Premium

Maybe you are wondering “Why should I pay for premium themes if there are tons of free ones that are available?” I once asked myself the same question too. As time passed by, I realized that these themes aren’t free for no reason.

For example, the author will place a link back to his site or other malicious sites that you have no control over the theme. Or, the theme looks good, but its structure and codes are nightmares. The worst thing is when you need some helps, no one will help you.

Of course, if you only want to build a site for personal use, you can use free themes. However, remember to download from reliable source only, like official free WordPress theme collection. It will prevent strangers from controlling your website or other risks resulted from the theme itself.

How about premium themes?

While premium themes bring lots of benefits (nice structure, great design, custom functions…), you should consider carefully since it takes your money. Make sure that every theme you bought is worth buying by browsing entirely the demo or admin demo and look for reviews from the Internet. Four main factors to determine a premium theme is: design, functions, price and support.

Like free themes, only buy premium themes from reliable resource. Check for the best Premium WordPress themes providers here.

Don’t choose the best theme…

…choose the most suitable one for your blog.

Maybe some themes look beautiful with its default images and configurations. But don’t let the elements lure your minds. Try to think of your own website, your images and the message you want to put in it. There is no so-called “best theme”, so it’s a waste of time if you keep trying to find them. Choosing suitable themes is easier and of course, less time-consuming.

Colors and Fonts

Before going to this factor, can you tell the connection between these three colors: Red, Yellow, Orange?

Maybe you don’t notice, but they are the most popular colors for fast food restaurants. Why? Because these colors increase appetite and excitement, which pushes people to spend more and to eat faster.

It is called Color Psychology.

No matter you hire someone to design your theme or choose a premium template, you should know about suitable colors and fonts for your business. This allows you to step closer to the buying mind of your target visitors. In other words, it results in more sales for your business.

Learn more about choosing colors for your niche.

Theme Options

This panel shows you how much you can control the theme without touching the codes. It’s very useful for people without any technical knowledge. The panel should have some basic customizations like Navigation, SEO Settings (some themes separate SEO Settings into a different panel), Header… Remember that the more options your theme has, the heavier it is.

Note: If you want to start everything from scratch and build you own theme in theme options panel, you can check out Dynamik Child Themes from Catalyst Developers. It has more than 800 functions and the code is highly optimized.

Conclusion

These factors are very important to help you choose a good theme that is suitable for your website. If you are stuck at choosing theme or want to find more good themes, you can take a look at this website in the future. I don’t recommend every new WordPress theme, I only talk about the best themes.

Now, it’s your turn. In your opinions, what is the MOST important factor to choose a theme?