This Is What You Need To Know Before You Decide On A WordPress Theme

Posted by Lisa | Individual Obligation on August 2nd, 2019

There are thousands of Themes out there all available for your new WordPress blog.

You won’t want for lack of choices when it comes to Themes. But this causes its own problem of deciding how to choose a WordPress Theme. How can you decide which one is perfect for your blog?

After all, there is a lot to consider, like:

• Cost - Is the Theme free or is it a premium one? Are there any extra costs like the Genesis Framework required to use this WordPress Theme.

• Included support - Is any support provided if you need it? If so how can you access the support and how quickly will you get a response?

• Ease of installation - How difficult is it to install this Theme to your WordPress blog? Are there any extras that need to be installed with it, such as plugins. To make everything work?

• Compatible plugins - Does the Theme work well with other plugins? Are there any that are not compatible that you might already be using?

• Extra features - What extra features come with the Theme? Does the Theme do anything unique compared to others?

• Customization options - How much customization does the Theme have? Can you change import settings to make your blog unique? Such as fonts, colors, and images?

• Popularity - How popular is the Theme? Is it highly-rated? Is it being used by many other bloggers? As it might be more difficult to make your blog stand out.

• Layout choices - Does the Theme include the layout options you want? For example, you might want to have your blog logo in the top navigation menu. Or a full-width header at the top of your blog to display an image in.

• + Mobile Responsive - Is the Theme mobile responsive? How does it feel to browse this Theme whilst using a smartphone or tablet device?

Whilst I have covered in detail all the factors you should consider in this blog post. Including extensive comparisons between free and premium Themes. There’s one aspect I want to focus on.

Do you want your blog to look unique?

This is probably one of the biggest and crucial aspects of choosing your Theme.

Why? Because this is the whole point of Themes. They are there to make your blog look a certain way. By combining different layouts, features, colors, images, and fonts. How your blog looks is highly dependant on the Theme it uses.

And yet they need to have enough customization options to allow you to make them look unique. Even if another blog is using the same Theme as you.

This is probably the biggest discrepancy with free Themes. With free Themes, you could be directly competing with other blogs using the same Theme as you. And with the limited features that often come with free Themes. It might be a huge struggle to set yourself apart as unique from these other blogs.

Free Themes can have millions of downloads if they are popular. Sure not everyone will likely use the Theme. But I bet a significant portion do.

Premium Themes are downloaded by a much smaller amount of bloggers. Simply because you have to pay for each premium Theme usually. They also come with a lot more customization options and extra features. Which makes them even easier to make them unique to you.

Take Into Consideration The Number Of Downloads Or Popularity Of A Theme

So the next time you look at a free Theme, consider looking at the downloads. And thinking about all the other people who downloaded the Theme and may already be using it for their blog.

After all, you probably don’t want your blog to look the same as someone else’s right?

Don’t get me wrong though. This isn’t me saying you can’t use a free Theme for your blog. I am just pointing out that you should consider the number of downloads. And then consider how much customization the Theme has.

If a free Theme has lots of downloads and little customization. Then it could hurt your ability to make your blog unique and stand out from the crowd. And this could make it more difficult to attract an audience and monetize your blog. If you plan to do so. Meaning you'll want to think carefully before choosing a free Theme.

And if it’s just a hobby blog you want to have, well the above is still true. But being unique might not be as important for you. This might make a free Theme a better choice. Assuming it is a high-quality Theme from a reliable source such as the WordPress.org website.

Being unique is just one of several factors you should consider when picking the perfect Theme of your blog. So make sure you consider all the factors before you make your final decision on a blog Theme.

So, how important is it to you for your blog to look and feel unique to your audience? Do you think free Themes are unique enough?