WordPress themes are a small universe of their own. Diving deep into that universe could result in a lot of lost time, a lot of confusion, and a lot of frustration. Themes are being created for all sorts of reasons, and a lot of themes have been left to fate. And a theme that has not been updated in a long time is …well a dangerous theme.
It is not only about themes. Content Management Systems of all kinds, plugins, and add-ons are also potentially threatening your online security, if not updated.
Knowing only this fact alone narrows your available choice of themes. That, of course, if you choose to go for a recently updated theme. Which I, again, recommend you to do.
And as you probably already know, there are a lot of other factors that you need to consider when choosing your WordPress Theme. As much, as I wish to tell you that it is easy as searching, liking a design and installing WordPress theme, it’s not.
So, let’s not waste any more time, and discover how to find if a WordPress Theme is suitable for your needs.
Figure out the Type of Website You’ll Create
This is obvious. In order to find out if a theme is appropriate for your needs, you first should know what your needs are.
In this case, what type of website you are about to create. I know, I know. If you’ve reached the conclusion that you need a website, you most likely know what type of website you are about to create.
Yet, you really need to go deeper than ‘a business card’ website, ‘an e-shop’, or a ‘portfolio website’.
Will your website have a blog? Are you going to need a specific plugin?
Is that plugin supported by the theme, you’ve chosen? Are you going to create a forum on your website?
Are you going to sell something through your website, even though it is not planned as an e-commerce?
Where are you striving to get? If everything is going to the plan, and you get where you want, will you need any other features that are not needed as of now?
You got the point. Plan for the future of your website. Find out what you need, and what you will possibly need in the future. And see if the chosen theme is meeting the needs.
Use the WordPress Theme Feature Filter
When in your WordPress Admin Panel, and begin the theme installing process, meaning, you went to Appearance -> Themes and clicked the Add New button, you’ll be presented with a vast number of themes to choose from.
Read: How to Install WordPress Theme
On the top of the choices that the CMS is presenting you, you’ll see a stripe with options:
- Featured
- Popular
- Latest
- Favorites
- Feature Filter
While, all the options are worth considering, and clicking to see what they’ll present you with, when you choose the Feature Filter option, you’ll be able to refine the results. Thus, seeing only the themes that are suitable for your needs.
Choose Design
Now that you know what you need, and you’ve filtered the enormous amount of available themes, you can choose the design.
Read: 3 Huge Design Trends
The design is a strongly subjective thing. Yet, when choosing the design of your website, you most probably will want a simple and lean design, instead of something that is complex and loaded.
Customizability
Most of the WordPress themes out there have some feature that the others miss. When I was building my first website, what I needed most was ease of customization.
Some themes, mostly the paid ones, are offering an easy customization. They have an inside customizer, different from the WordPress’s default one.
Yet, there are free themes that are also offering easy customization.
Bear in mind that I am referring to the personalization of the theme that does not require any coding skills. If you are able to work with CSS and HTML, you’ll hardly face problems when customizing your WordPress website.
Still, once you’ve installed the chosen theme, see if you are able to use it the way you want and if you’ll be able to change what you need. If not, you’ll again need to go through the process. If yes, you are good to go.
Conclusion
When building a website with WordPress, or any other CMS, the theme you’ll choose to use, will be one of the most important decisions. It is not that you won’t be able to change it. Just the opposite. But still, the look of your website is the one thing that people will first see, and most likely the one they’ll remember.
If it is a bad design, or if it is the greatest they’ve ever seen, people will notice it. Don’t let them judge ill by the cover of your book.