Are you trying to choose the perfect theme for your new WordPress website?
There are thousands of different free and premium WordPress themes to choose from. You need to make sure you choose a WordPress theme that looks good, has the features you need, and is high quality.
In this article, we’ll share the most important things you should consider when choosing a WordPress theme.
Why is choosing the right WordPress theme important?
WordPress can be used to create a variety of different types of websites .
There are many themes that cater to different niches, such as WooCommerce themes , membership site themes , and even multi-purpose themes that can be customized to fit almost any type of website .
Many WordPress themes come with a ton of customization options. If not coded correctly, these options can make it difficult to change your theme or use other WordPress plugins. You’ll be locked into that theme or have to hire a WordPress developer to help you switch.
On the other hand, some WordPress themes that look great can actually make your site extremely slow. A slow site can hurt your search engine rankings, user experience, and more.
Your theme is the face of your WordPress website and plays a major role in how users and search engines see it.
Your goal should be to find a WordPress theme that has a design you like, is fast, and can be easily customized.
Before choosing the perfect WordPress theme
Before choosing the best WordPress theme, you need to meet some criteria to build your WordPress website .
First, you need to make sure you are using the correct version of WordPress, as there are actually two versions of WordPress.
WordPress.com is a limited hosting platform. Next, you have the popular WordPress.org, which is the self-hosted version.
To learn about the differences, see our comparison of WordPress.com and WordPress.org .
We recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you the freedom to create any type of website and gives you immediate access to every WordPress theme and all features.
First, you’ll also need good WordPress hosting and your own domain name .
We recommend using Bluehost because they are an officially recommended WordPress host and one of the largest hosting companies in the world.
Additionally, they’ve agreed to offer our readers 69% off hosting, a free domain name, and a free SSL certificate .
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Once you’ve signed up for web hosting and set up your domain name, you’ll need to install WordPress. Luckily, Bluehost comes with WordPress pre-installed.
Most other hosting companies offer a one-click WordPress installation option. If you use a different hosting provider, see our guide on how to install WordPress , which covers every major hosting platform.
That being said, let’s take a look at the most important things to keep in mind when choosing the perfect WordPress theme.
1. Simple and minimalist design
Many WordPress themes come with multiple colors, complex layouts, flashy animations, sliders, etc. Sometimes you might need these things, but in most cases, you don’t need all these bells and whistles.
Look for a theme with a design layout that can help you support your goals. It needs to look good but not compromise on usability and simplicity.
Make sure your topic’s presentation style isn’t overly complex. The purpose of your website is to help users find the information they need as quickly as possible while highlighting relevant information about your business.
If a theme looks good but doesn’t help you get new customers or email newsletter subscribers, then it’s not a good theme.
In general, the theme you choose should be as simple as possible. If you want to add new features to your website, then you can use WordPress plugins .
2. Easy to customize and change
When you choose a WordPress theme, you want to make sure it’s easily customizable so that you can truly make it your own.
Even if a demo theme is exactly what you want, you may still want to make specific changes to make the theme match your unique brand. Most changes will be made through the WordPress theme customizer or theme options panel.
Some themes also allow you to make more customizations than others, so you’ll want to choose a theme that lets you customize the aspects of your site that you want to change.
Generally speaking, you can control the theme color scheme, font selection, layout, custom logo , widgets, and more.
You can also create completely customized pages from scratch using a WordPress drag and drop page builder plugin like SeedProd or a custom WordPress theme.
3. Be responsive and look good on all devices and screen sizes
Today, over 60% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. This number will vary depending on your blog niche , but you need to make sure your WordPress site looks good on mobile devices.
Most WordPress themes will be responsive. This means that the theme will adjust its layout to suit different screen sizes and devices.
However, just because a WordPress theme is responsive, it doesn’t mean that the theme’s responsive design is good.
You need to preview your theme on all screen sizes. You can easily do this by resizing your browser window and seeing how the theme adjusts.
You can also test your new WordPress theme in different browsers to make sure that it works properly on all browsers as well. For more details, see our guide on how to test your WordPress site in different browsers .
4. Frequent updates and high-quality code base
Your WordPress theme will form the foundation of your website. Aside from its overall design, you’ll also want to make sure it loads quickly and is regularly updated.
The size of your WordPress theme can have a big impact on your speed and performance . Your loading speed will affect everything from user experience to WordPress SEO , so you want to make sure your theme is lightweight and has fast loading speeds.
You can always run a website speed test to see how quickly your theme loads. For more details, see our guide on how to properly run a website speed test .
For free themes, you can simply install the theme and run a speed test. For premium themes, you can run a speed test on a demo URL, which will give you an idea of how the theme performs.
Another thing to look for is when the theme was last updated. WordPress is constantly releasing new versions, so you want to make sure your theme is up to date.
An outdated theme may cause WordPress security issues and conflicts with other plugins on your site.
For free WordPress themes, you can find the last updated date on the WordPress.org theme listing page. Ideally, your theme will have been updated within the past few months and have a consistent update history.
If you’re looking for a premium WordPress theme, then you can almost guarantee that it has been updated to work with the latest version of WordPress.
Since you’re paying for the theme, the developer or development team will have more resources to dedicate to keeping the theme up to date.
5. Compatible with the plugins you need
Ideally, when you choose a WordPress theme, it will handle the design, and all additional functionality will be handled by WordPress plugins.
WordPress plugins allow you to do things like create contact forms on your website , generate leads , run giveaways , and more.
Most themes will support all WordPress plugins. However, if your theme is poorly coded or your theme adds too many plugin-like features, then you may run into conflicts and encounter WordPress errors . Additionally, if you ever want to change your site design and switch themes, you will lose those features.
That’s why we recommend choosing a simple WordPress theme and adding functionality through plugins.
If there’s a feature you want to add to your website, there’s a good chance a WordPress plugin can help you with that.
If you’re looking for some great WordPress plugins to improve your website, check out our selection of must-have WordPress plugins .
6. Have reliable ratings and reviews
Another reliable indicator of the quality of a WordPress theme is the ratings and reviews provided by users. If you’re searching for a free theme, you can find customer reviews by going to the theme’s page on WordPress.org.
It will show the reviews and number of stars given by users. You can view a detailed breakdown of the reviews for each star rating.
If the theme is sold on a third-party marketplace, then you will see customer reviews or user testimonials on the theme sales page.
7. Have a proactive and helpful customer support team
Even if you’ve taken the time to learn WordPress and have some solid skills, there may come a time when you need to rely on support.
Depending on the theme you choose, there will be different support options. For example, many free WordPress themes don’t offer guaranteed support, while others still offer regular support.
If you’re using a free theme, you can check the activity of the support channels on the theme’s WordPress.org listing page.
Most premium themes will come with 6 to 12 months of support and updates after purchase, with the option to renew.
Premium themes often have their own customer support or help desk through their website .
In addition to customer support options, you’ll also want to check out the theme documentation. The tutorials will show you how to set up the theme and answer the most common questions.
8. Optimize for search engines
Your WordPress theme plays a big role in your website’s SEO-friendliness. A beautiful theme can still generate poorly coded HTML, which can affect your site’s ranking in search engines.
For beginners, it can be difficult to analyze a theme’s source code on your own. That’s why many WordPress theme developers will let you know that their themes are optimized for SEO.
If you have a lightweight and fast-loading theme, you’ll be heading in the right direction in terms of search engine rankings.
You can then use a WordPress SEO plugin like AIOSEO to further optimize your website to rank higher in search engines and get more traffic.
For more details, see our ultimate guide on how to properly set up AIOSEO for WordPress .
9. Prepare to translate into different languages
WordPress powers over 40% of the internet. As such, there are a lot of website owners who want to build their site in a different language or cater to an audience that speaks another language.
If you are looking for free WordPress themes, then you can search for translatable themes. To do this, click on the “Feature Filters” menu option in the WordPress.org theme repository.
Then, select Translation Ready from the drop-down list.
This will display a list of themes designed to make translation easy.
If you are looking for a premium WordPress theme, then it will usually list its language compatibility on the theme page.
However, you can also create a multilingual WordPress website using a WordPress translation plugin .
For more details, see our guide on how to easily create a multilingual WordPress website .
Choosing the Perfect WordPress Theme FAQ
We’ve helped thousands of users create blogs and websites, and we’ve answered many questions related to choosing a WordPress theme. Here are some of the most common questions we receive:
Do you have any WordPress theme recommendations?
As we mentioned above, there are thousands of different themes to choose from. The right theme for you will be based on the type of website you’re building and the features you require.
That said, check out our list of the most popular and best WordPress themes to see some of our top picks.
To create a custom theme, we recommend SeedProd .
How to install a WordPress theme?
After downloading a free or premium WordPress theme, you need to install it so you can start building your website.
To learn more, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress theme.
Can I change my WordPress theme?
Yes, one of the great things about WordPress is that you can switch to a different WordPress theme at any time. You are never locked into an existing design or theme.
However, if you’ve made a lot of customizations to your site, then you’ll want to understand what happens when you switch WordPress themes .