How To Pick the Right WordPress Theme – Consider These 22 Factors

Last Updated on 2 months by Go Review Rite

It can be hard to decide which WordPress theme to use.

 Since there are so many free and paid themes to choose from, it can feel hard to find the right one for you.

Your theme is essential, after all. It tells WordPress users how their site should look and how you should show your brand to the billions of people worldwide who may visit your site. 

This post will discuss the factors to consider while selecting a theme. 

The Problem with WordPress Themes. 

WordPress themes make it easy to change a website’s looks or design, and they’re versatile enough to make many unique websites — but they’re not perfect. 

Even the best WordPress themes can have features you won’t use or problems you didn’t expect, which can hurt our website’s layout, load time, or even its security. 

Here are some of the most common issues with WordPress themes.

1. Performance Problems. 

There are WordPress themes out there with a ton of code or features you don’t need. 

When there’s too much “bloat” like this, your site will load slower, and a slower-loading site can hurt your user experience and search engine results!

2. Security Vulnerabilities. 

Sometimes, we don’t update themes regularly, leaving them open to hacking just like old versions of WordPress software; like WordPress themes, they have security holes.

 In fact, using old themes — or even themes from sources we don’t trust completely — is a big security risk.

3. Compatibility Issues. 

Some themes don’t always work with all plugins and don’t always keep working when WordPress is updated.

 This can make your site less valuable or even just break the site altogether!

4. Not Enough Customization. 

Most WordPress themes these days let you tweak the look and feel… but not all of them let you tweak everything you’d like to. 

This can annoy people with their hearts set on a specific look.

5. Too Much Dependency on Page Builders. 

Some themes depend too much on a specific page builder. This is good if you like that page builder, but not so good if you don’t. 

Depending on how your theme works with a page builder, you might still be able to change themes later — but that can still be stressful and expensive

6. Poor Code Quality. 

Themes often don’t do fun things to make your site stand out. 

Sometimes, the real “magic” of WordPress themes is in not having to know any HTML or CSS to make a beautiful site quickly and easily.

 But many WordPress Themes out there are poorly coded — and that can wreak havoc on everything from search engine rankings to your site’s speed and security!

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22 Things to Consider When Choosing a WordPress Theme

1. Consider SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important if you want your website to do well in search results. 

Your page ranking is based on how good and consistent your content is and how well you optimize your information.

 What’s the point of rank? Well, more people will visit your site if it ranks higher in search engine results. 

What they say is true: Your theme does matter for SEO. It’s good for SEO for WordPress sites to load fast, be flexible, and have code that is easy to read. 

2. Good reviews

The reviews and scores of a theme can help you figure out what to expect. You would not believe how many user reviews you can find for well-known themes.

The WordPress.org Theme Directory has reviews from other users and rates each theme from one to five stars. 

Find themes that fit the purpose and style of your site, and then read the reviews to see what other people think of the theme. 

3. Plugin compatibility

Plugin compatibility problems can appear in many different ways.

 They shouldn’t happen often if you are picky about your theme and tools.

 Still, if you want to use certain apps to power essential parts of your website, you should ensure that your top theme choices are suitable. 

One example is WooCommerce, the best app for adding e-commerce features. So, if you want to open an online store, WooCommerce theme integration is a crucial thing to think about. 

4. Look through competitor websites

Websites in a lot of different fields tend to have very similar styles.

 Consider whether you want to give your audience what they expect or try to surprise them if they have certain artistic expectations. 

It’s not enough to just look at these places, though. Check out their design style and look for trends in how they make things look. 

5. Customization options

Typically, a theme’s appearance will be the first thing to catch your eye to see whether it aligns with your vision for your website. 

Generally speaking, your selected theme will require tweaking to appear precisely suitable.

After a thorough investigation, assume you have a ninety per cent ideal theme. 

For example, the theme design, the way the menus work, and the page layout all appeal to you, but the typefaces need to match your vision.

6. Development and updates

When you’re looking for themes, you should find ones that are regularly updated and work with the most recent WordPress versions, standards, and best practices.

 This will keep your theme safe and secure, without any holes that hackers could use.

7. Take a mobile-first approach. 

The majority of bloggers and website owners consider responsive design to be essential, but the mobile-first strategy goes one step further. 

You can make sure that your design team gives the greatest attention to the devices with the most challenging design requirements—many different screen options and hardware configurations—by starting with a WordPress theme that is optimized for mobile devices.

Even while not every industry requires a mobile-first strategy, it’s still a wonderful feature to keep an eye out for to ensure mobile device users have the greatest possible experience when visiting your website.

8. Simplicity

You can update and manage the content of your website more effectively using an intuitive backend.

 By doing this, you may save time and concentrate on other facets of your project or business.

If you’re new to WordPress, it’s best to go for something straightforward and practical rather than the fancy-looking multipurpose WordPress theme with a built-in live customizer.

 Ensure that the theme you choose complements your WordPress proficiency and comfort level. 

9. Accessibility

Websites built with WordPress that put accessibility first benefit all parties.

 Search for themes designed considering aspects like colour contrast, typeface selection, and visual hierarchy to deliver a user-friendly experience to individuals with impairments.

Even though you may change many of these when you customize your theme, having a solid foundation still helps. 

Additionally, keep in mind to check your theme’s compatibility with keyboard navigation and screen readers.

Although Including these features in a theme might be difficult. 

10. Browser compatibility

While Chrome, Firefox, and Safari are the most widely used browsers, they are not the only ones available.

 Hundreds of browsers are available, and not all display pictures and text similarly.

This is known to good developers, who use recognized best practices for code and design to ensure their themes work well with most browsers.

11. Easily customizable Themes. 

Using WordPress for your website has the tremendous advantage of allowing you to personalize nearly every theme to appear precisely as you want.

Make sure the WordPress theme allows you to alter fonts, colours, photos, layouts, and pages, among other features.

By personalizing your theme, you can incorporate your brand throughout your website and ensure that every page maintains the colours and aesthetic of your company.

Selecting a customizable theme also gives you complete control over the pages that appear on your website.

 Your blog page should take centre stage; an about page is unnecessary. You can design your navigation arrangement with a WordPress theme that allows customization.  

13. Pick a lightweight WordPress theme

The weight of a theme has a significant effect on how well your site works and how fast pages load. 

This is important for user experience, SEO, and other reasons; a site that loads quickly lets more people use it without it breaking.

 You can use GTmetrix or another tool to load outdated websites quickly.

14. Responsive WordPress theme

A responsive theme functions and appears the same on a mobile device as on a desktop computer.

 Without sacrificing any functionality or level of user experience, responsive themes will change to fit the screen of a visitor’s device to see your website. 

No matter how they choose to access your website, a responsive theme guarantees that every visitor will have a positive experience, increasing the likelihood that they will come back.  

15. Calculate your budget

The price of a theme can be established by the developer and can vary from free to premium, depending on factors like feature set, support, updates, or just a value they feel is reasonable. 

While many excellent free themes are available, it ultimately comes down to personal preference and money. 

Generally speaking, paid themes provide greater functionality and regular updates from their developers. 

16. Demo content

Home, landing page, blog, and contact pages are just a few examples of page layouts that can be quickly and easily created using pre-built templates and block patterns. 

Since you won’t have to start from scratch to generate various style possibilities, you may save time and work while creating your website.

Look over the demo material of potential new website themes to see how many pre-built templates and block patterns are available. 

Then, give priority to themes that have an extensive library of templates that are suitable for your desired layout and style. 

17. Page builder compatibility

Any theme you decide on for your WordPress website must be updated often. 

Since the core WordPress software is continuously being updated, you must ensure that the theme developers maintain it updated as well.

Regular theme updates are necessary to fix bugs or security flaws and ensure that the theme operates efficiently.

Choosing a theme that has been updated within the last six months is a decent rule of thumb for theme updates. 

From this timeline, the theme creator updates the theme frequently, so you can be sure you will only add something to your already outdated website.  

18. Speed Performance

People detest slow websites more than anything else. 

Your choice of theme will significantly impact how quickly your website loads, but there are many other aspects. 

Specific themes are often speedier than others since they are more optimally designed.

Although it might be challenging to determine a theme’s optimization level without using it yourself, you can quickly get an idea by reading through reviews that have already been posted and performing a speed test on the theme’s demo page. 

19. Pricing

Selecting between a premium and free WordPress theme is one of the most important choices you will have to make.

To make up for their higher price points, premium themes typically have a ton more features.

 However, the WordPress.org directory does include a ton of amazing themes. Independent developers contribute these themes and WordPress volunteers do a fantastic job of ensuring that the code is, well, code.

To get started, seek free themes that fit the requirements of your website and visit their demos to see how the theme would seem with your content.

However, before making your purchase choice, be sure to read the developer’s return policy and understand what kind of assistance to expect if you decide to invest in a premium theme. 

20. Properly documented

Enough documentation and assistance should be included with a reputable theme. 

Verify if the theme developer has a responsive support system and provides prompt assistance. 

You’ll find it simpler to set up and modify your website if there is thorough documentation. 

21. Support

It’s always good to know that you can ask the theme creators for help resolving any problems you may be having with it. 

The creators of your theme should ideally provide you with a variety of support avenues and sincerely try to assist their user community.

Customer service is just one aspect of assistance, though. WordPress is a platform that is updated often, with some changes significantly altering the fundamental platform’s functioning.

 To stay up with these developments, themes must be updated often. 

22. Your site must be responsive

These days, mobile devices account for an increasing percentage of website traffic. 

Therefore you should make sure your theme is responsive—that is, can change its layout to fit various screen sizes and devices. 

You may verify this by experimenting with the theme on different hardware and web browsers. 

My Favorite Recommended Theme With All These Factors

Neve WordPress Theme

Neve is a high-end WordPress theme renowned for its adaptability, effectiveness, and ease of use.

 It has more than 80 starting sites, a simple installation process, unique layouts, and live customizer choices.

 It keeps up with the newest WordPress features and site design trends because of its rapid loading speeds and frequent upgrades. 

Why Neve WordPress Theme? 

Why I personally love this Neve theme is that it is quite easy to personalize, loads quickly, and comes in both a premium and free version. 

Neve allows you to develop any kind of website with its mobile-first design and compatibility with page builders like Elementor. 

Neve Theme Features

Outstanding speed

The speed of any WordPress theme is one of its most crucial components. 

Conversions, SEO rankings, and user experience may all be enhanced by a website that loads quickly. 

Because of this, the Neve theme is among the quickest WordPress themes available.

Custom layouts

This theme’s Custom Layouts module, which lets you design and display unique sections for various website areas, is another one of its beautiful features. 

The Custom Layouts add-on gives you the freedom to design your own 404 pages, footers, sidebars, and headers.

 You may also use drag and drop to construct your own bespoke layouts with the block editor or Elementor.

Exceptionally customizable

When compared to others, the personalization options are just amazing.

 Its WordPress customizer makes it simple to alter each aspect. Additionally, a real-time preview of the modifications is shown to you.

Suitable for most popular page builders

For those who are unfamiliar with WordPress, page builders are plugins that let you create and modify pages using simple drag-and-drop operations.

 This is something that the Themeisle team knows, so they’ve given you a lot of choices.

Neve Mega Menu

The Neve theme’s Mega Menu function is yet another noteworthy feature. It lets you design and present unique parts, especially for your main menu.

 To your menu items, you may also add icons, titles, descriptions, dividers, and other features. 

Neve PRO – Pricing – Themeisle

Now let’s examine the pricing for Neve. As mentioned earlier, there is both a free version with basic features and a selection of more advanced paid options. 

The pricing is split into three categories, as follows:

• Personal: $69 (incorporating unlimited site usage, and many other features such as Header & Footer Booster, blog, Elementor, and custom layouts).

• Business: $149 (taking everything from the Personal tier, with additional features such as Premium Starter Sites, WooCommerce Booster, and LMS Booster, and something called Sparks for WooCommerce with a value of $129).
• Agency: $249 (giving you all the above plus Neve Cloud access, white labelling, priority VIP support, and a few other things).

Conclusion

Choosing from among the hundreds of themes that are available for WordPress might be an intimidating experience.

 It is important to keep in mind that the WordPress theme you select will have a significant influence on your website, so ensure that you give great consideration to the selection you make.