How to Choose the Right WordPress Theme?



Have you ever thought about the most difficult part of creating a WordPress website? Some users believe it is selecting a domain name, others say discovering the appropriate WordPress hosting or choosing the best WordPress website design. But we think selecting the right theme among thousands of others is the most difficult task. Now, WordPress.org alone includes over 4300 themes.


Many users don't have enough time to search the whole available themes and not doubtedly selecting the first theme you see is not the right decision. It's impossible to tell which WordPress theme is the best one for your website, but we can give you some tips to help you make the best decision.



How to Choose a WordPress Theme? 



In a WordPress theme you should look for the following features:



  1. Supporting the most recent version of WordPress


The first feature a right theme should have is about functionality and security. It must work with the latest version of WordPress, because of three good reasons:


  • If your theme doesn't be completely compatible with the latest version of WordPress, some of its features may not work properly

  • If your chosen theme doesn’t support new versions of WordPress, you may end up updating WordPress which can cause security vulnerabilities and bring about crashes, data breaches, website destruction, etc.

  • If your WordPress websites' plugins need the most recent version of WordPress and you are not able to update because of your theme, your website will face functionality issues. 


Thus it is important to select the themes which support the latest version (presently 5.8.2) or a recent version “and up.”



  1. Not selecting a theme which will be no more updated 


Check out your chosen theme to see if it has been updated in the past few months or not. To do this, look for the “Last updated” line in the info box.


A theme which is compatible with the present version of WordPress but hasn’t been updated in more than a year might not get any more updates. This means that it eventually won't work with the latest version of WordPress. 



  1. Selecting a theme that you really need for your website 


Checking all the available themes is time-consuming and may guide you to choose a theme that looks amazing but doesn’t really meet your website needs.


Thus it is recommended to use WordPress.org’s filters to narrow down the theme field a little:



There is nothing to be worried about because you’ll still have many choices within your category.



  1. Selecting a mobile-friendly theme 


Nowadays nearly all modern themes are responsive or at least have to be responsive if they want to stay on the market. Being responsive means displaying differently on different devices to factor in screen size and whether users click or tap to engage. However, not all themes look equivalently good on a phone. 


One way of recognizing whether a theme is responsive or not is opening the theme’s homepage from its WordPress.org page and clicking on the live demo option.


If you use your phone, see the mobile version. On your desktop, in case there’s not a mobile preview option, open the browsers' tools menu and search for “responsive design mode.” It is also possible to download the free trial version and preview it in the WordPress app on your phone.



Why is it important for a theme to be mobile-friendly? 


Because, according to statistics, in the first three months of 2021, most website traffic (almost 54.8%) comes from mobile phones.

Although the website’s appearance on desktops still is important, phone user experience is a little more important at the moment, and it is anticipated to become more important in the future.



  1. Selecting a theme which has positive user reviews


After finding a few themes that look good on phones, the next step is checking the reviews. On WordPress.org, you can find the below features in the info box on the theme’s page.



Click “See all” and look at the reviews for keywords which are important to you and if you want to read more click on the titles of individual reviews. The review page also connects to support pages, active topics and unresolved topics so you can see what are the theme’s problems (if any) and whether the publisher is responsive or not.



  1. Not selecting a theme from an unknown source


Note that it is very crucial to not select a theme from an unknown source. You can find many reliable publishers which list their themes on their own websites and on WordPress.org. Look for these resources and also check out the reviews. This way you won't accidentally download a theme that contains malware. 



  1. Selecting a lightweight theme


Here, the word lightweight means the theme is built in a way to utilize as few resources as possible so it will load very fast when people visit the website.



  1. Selecting a SEO-friendly theme


A SEO-friendly theme will save a lot of time on website optimization, and can also help to work better in search results. 


You may ask, how can I realize whether a theme is optimized for SEO or not? Well, theme developers will usually point out the features they’ve included for SEO, such as a URL structure which is easy for search bots to crawl, fast load times and mobile-friendly design.



  1. Selecting a theme according to its quality, not just price


When searching for different themes, you will notice that some are free and some are paid. A totally free theme is a great choice for those who are very low on budget.


But, a paid theme will offer you features you may require to make your business bigger, and it may come along with more customer support choices. Thus when deciding on which theme to use, consider your goals and requirements, your level of WordPress technical knowledge and the value of your time. 


Now that you've read all the tips to choose the best WordPress theme, are you ready to start your new WordPress website or migrate your existing one? 

Don't forget to check out our managed WordPress hosting plans that also includes WordPress website design.

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