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The success and failure of your WordPress website lies in your ability to choose the right theme. Choosing the right theme is something that can be too overwhelming most especially for a beginner. This is because there are thousands of WordPress themes which serves different purposes. These themes may either be paid or free and making the right choice is something most people are not good at.
Since we know how important choosing the right theme can be to a WordPress website we shall be dedicating the better part of this article to providing you’re with actionable ways and guidance on how to choose the best themes for your WordPress website.
1. Be as simple as possible
The primary motive behind the creation of a WordPress site is to have as many people as possible visiting your site to get to know you better and find a way to interact with your product. A lot of WordPress themes may come with lots of flashy animations, complex layouts, and a vast array of colours to choose from. While you may be tempted to go for a WordPress theme that catches your eye, we suggest you always consider the simplicity of the theme; will it be flexible enough to appear on a mobile device, the average loading time for the theme and will it offer your visitors a great form of flexibility while surfing? Providing honest answers to these questions will surely guide you in selecting the best theme for your WordPress website.
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2. Responsiveness
The market is congested at the moment; the customer is on the lookout for the fastest means of obtaining the needed information without any form of delay. A slow site will only limit your relevance in the market. The bulk of traffic received by a website on a daily basis is generated from handheld devices such as Smartphones, and tablets. Your theme of choice must be customer friendly regardless of the topics and demographics. Make sure your theme of choice is highly mobile friendly and loads fast. Remember the client is not patient; he or she is on the move.
3. Browser Compatibility
Individual clients who visit your site will have to do so through a browser. Look for a theme that is compatible with all browsers. This can be achieved by using a sophisticated browser compatibility testing tools which will direct you on knowing which of the themes is highly compatible with the browser of choice. Ideally, the best WordPress theme should be compatible with all browsers since you have no control over your client’s choice. Test all your themes on all browsers to make sure they are compatible.
4. Supported Plugins
One of the primary reasons why people settle for WordPress is rooted in the fact that it has lots of plugins that can make your site look quite excellent and great. These plugins come in different categories such W3 Total Cache, Yoast SEO and Gravity forms which are used to support navigation on your site. The best theme for your WordPress website must support all the popular plugins in the market.
5. It must support multiple languages or be translated from one language to the other
Most WordPress themes are not available in the English language and thus, may require the need to be translated from one language to the other. There are also cases where individuals could visit your site from a completely different region and may need to an idea of what you offer thus the need for a translatable theme.
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6. Support Options for When You Need Help
No one is an island; even the greatest superheroes may at one time or the other need help. Running a WordPress website can be very tasking and confusing, most especially for beginners. While making a choice, we strongly suggest you opt-in for themes that have customer support. This comes in handy in assisting gain access to the necessary help as fast as you can.
7. SEO Friendliness
Your choice of WordPress theme determines your site’s SEO friendliness. There are cases where a good looking theme can still generate a poorly Coded HTML which could affect your site’s performance on search engines. This makes it hard for prospective clients to locate you and thus, limit the total amount of traffic you receive. The better SEO friendly your site is, the better exposure you get in the market and thus the better engaged and relevant your site gets to be.
A good WordPress theme must be highly recommended; we, therefore, suggest that you take your time to read through some of the customer reviews about your chosen theme to enable you to gain a better understanding of what you are up against.
The level of success or failure your website record is directly proportional to the type of theme you install on them.