In building a website, one of the most important factors that one must consider is the theme. When it comes to functionality, overall design and look, the theme is the key factor responsible aside from the style of the website. This means that buying a theme is not a simple decision but a crucial move if you want to make a striking website.
In reality, no theme is complete; there are some that require customization. Several others entail some plugins and functionalities. However, choosing the right theme will save you a lot of trouble especially in terms of time and resources. Here are the top ten things that you should consider when buying a WordPress theme 2019 (Can be found at The 13 Ultimate Best WordPress Themes on medium.com).
1. Does The Chosen Theme Match The Purpose of Your Website?
Each website has a unique purpose. It could be a blog site or a complicated e-commerce site. When choosing a theme, make sure that it matches the purpose that you intend to achieve. For instance, if you want a blog, you will need a theme that offers attractive typography and better readability. If you want a portfolio, you will need a theme that showcases the graphics and images attractively. If you want an e-commerce site, you will need a theme that will make buying easier for your potential customers. There are also multi-purpose themes. However, this kind is most of the time bloated and could slow down your site.
2. Does The Theme Match the Personality of Your Website?
Just like purpose, each theme has its own distinct personality. Therefore, you must select one that goes with the personality of your website. For instance, if you are creating a fun and casual blog, you will do away with corporate-looking themes. If you are building a website for a sports team, you should not choose a fragile design with light colors.
3. Does The Chosen Theme Meet Your Budget?
Whether you admit it or not, the budget plays a crucial role when choosing a theme for your website. WordPress themes are available in prices that meet all budget types. There are even free themes available at WordPress.org. There are themes that are very affordable and there are expensive ones. Before you start looking for a theme, it is important that you have already decided how much you are going to spend on it.
4. Consider Your Licensing Options
WordPress is an open source type of software with a GPL license. Most of the plugins and themes available are GPL licensed. This type of license allows you to modify the code to meet your requirements. Additionally, it enables you to utilize a purchased theme on several websites. You may also want to consider in the future restrictive or liberal license.
5. Is Your Chosen Theme Responsive?
In 2018, Google included mobile site speed as one of the factors in ranking websites based on search results. According to the search engine giant, more than 50 percent of the traffic is coming from mobile devices. This means that your website must work and look well across devices. Since the theme dictates the overall look of your website, it is important that you select a responsive theme if you want more traffic in it.
6. Does The Chosen Theme Work On All Browsers?
In addition to the devices, your website must work and look well on all browsers too. Although you do not need a theme that supports very old browsers, you still have to ensure that it works really well with major browsers.
7. Does The Theme Work With WordPress version 5.0?
WordPress upgraded to 5.0 in the later part of 2018. This version is equipped with Gutenberg or an editor experience. This feature provides editing experience to the website. In addition, it allows owners to see the page or the site in the editor. Although the old editor can still be used until 2021, make sure that your chosen theme works with WordPress 5.0 to avoid issues related to a website upgrade.
8. Check if Your Chosen Theme Works With Common Plugins
Nowadays, it is rare for a WordPress site to have no plugins. The most commonly used plugins are backup, SEO, contact forms, sharing, and legal pages. Your chosen theme, must not, in any way, cause issues with these common plugins. Issues or conflicts could happen when your chosen theme defines similar code as these usual plugins.
9. Does It Work With Page Builders?
A page builder helps design a page through its drag and drop user interface. If you want to create special pages on your website, then you will need a page builder. The most common page builders available today are Elementor, Visual Composer, and Beaver Builder. Make sure that the theme is compatible with the plugins of these page builders.
10. Does The Theme Load Fast?
One of the most important searches ranking factors is the website speed. Several studies show that visitors often leave websites that take above three seconds to load. This means that your theme must be lightweight and loads fast on any browser.