How to Choose the Perfect Theme for Your Site

Learn how to choose the right WordPress theme for your business. Choosing a WordPress theme: what to look for and how to make the right choice.

We will show you all the factors you should consider before choosing or purchasing a theme in this ultimate guide.

You can use this checklist as a guide when choosing WordPress themes.

An overview can be found directly below the table of contents.

What are the Best WordPress Themes?

1. The device must be fast, lightweight, and bloat-free.

2. It must also be accessible and responsive.

3. Codes must be valid and secure.

4. The site must be AMP-friendly and SEO-optimized.

5. Customization should be easy, and page builders should be supported.

6. E-commerce capabilities and translation support should be included.

7. The application should also offer updates, support, and documentation.

8. It must be licensed under the GPLv2 or later.

9. The software must be free and open source.

10. It must not require you to install other plugins.

The types of WordPress themes

PHP-based WordPress is a free and open source content management system (CMS). The WordPress Foundation maintains and licenses the project under the GPLv2+.

Plugins are part of WordPress' architecture, and themes are its template system.

You need to be aware of five different types of themes. These include:

1. Themes for free: Free themes usually come with limited features.

2. Premium themes: Those are free themes with paid upgrades as plugins that scale up the theme’s features.

3. Premium Themes: Those are premium paid themes with every feature the vendor can offer.

4. Custom Themes: Development teams build those themes based on the requirements provided by clients.

5. Theme Frameworks:
   

6. These themes are designed to act as a foundation for other themes.

WordPress Themes Must Have These Features

• The WordPress theme should work out-of-the-box without requiring you to install many plugins. Dependencies shouldn't exist.

• The theme should load fast, and it should be small and light. This theme should be extremely fast.

• Ultimately Secure: The source codes of the theme should be valid and trustworthy for production sites.

• Full Responsive: The theme should be able to display perfectly on all devices, including tablets and smartphones.

• Optimized for SEO: It should be SEO friendly and designed to work with all SEO plugins.

• Optimized Menus: The theme's menus should be mobile-responsive.

• The theme should be AMP-friendly if you intend to use Google's Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) feature.

• Easy to customize: It should be possible for beginners without any technical skills to easily customize the theme without watching any tutorials. Page Builders: Page builders are valuable tools for building pages, and many users rely on them. As a result, every popular page builder should be fully supported by the WordPress theme (rather than just offering compatibility). That allows you to use them for any part of your page, including headers, content, and footers.

• WCAG - Level AA: This is now a requirement by law in many leading countries. In other words, you should make your site accessible to people with disabilities. It should be accessible out-of-the-box by meeting the right accessibility requirements.

• In order to build an online store, it is important to pick a theme that supports WooCommerce and e-commerce in general.

• BuddyPress ready: The theme should work with the BuddyPress WordPress plugin.

• WPML and Translation Ready: It should pack a ready (.POT) file for translators. WordPress Multilingual Plugin (WPML) should also be compatible.

• There should be support for right-to-left (RTL) languages.

• Verified on the most recent version of PHP: It should work without issues on the most recent version of PHP.

• The plugin should work with the newest version of WordPress and be perfectly valid according to WordPress.org's coding requirements.

• Every product you buy should provide you with the right support, should you need it.

• This program offers updates: The web is very volatile, and updates are essential for any program to function properly.

• Documentation: Documentation assists developers and users in learning more about products.

• Avoid WordPress themes that are not licensed under GPLv2 or GPLv3. Similarly, other products that are built for WordPress should also be licensed under GPL.

• Fair Pricing: If you are buying a premium theme, the price should be transparent without limiting your rights as a user.