Simple Wordpress Themes Are Best

bynathaniell

101.5K followers

5 years ago

From time to time I get a request asking which theme is "best". Well, there is no "best", but I always leave them with a recommendation to find a theme that is very simple.

• White background
• Black text
• Simple menus and sidebars
• No fancy homepage setup

There are literally thousands of themes that you can choose from, and hundreds that look almost just like these below, but with small color and menu tweaks. These are just the first ones that popped up in the feed that caught my eye, and a few I researched.

If you are frustrated that your theme has too many moving parts or things you don't know how to customize, maybe one of these is for you. BTW, Leo made a great beginner's tutorial on Wordpress themes.

Update 2020

I used to have a list of free and simple WordPress themes you could install on your website, but the list was too small to showcase all the good ones you could choose from AND themes kept going out of date.

A theme which has not been updated for many years can be a security issue for your website, so rather than get you in trouble by having you install an old theme, I'll just have to stick with general advice on this page!

Simple WordPress Theme Advice:

1. Blog roll for your home page

• How To Set Up a Static Home Page or Landing Page vs Default Blog Roll

2. Single side bar (right-align)

• Add A Custom Menu To Your Sidebar
  
• WordPress Dashboard Tutorial - Widgets

3. Small header image (or none)

• large images look nice, but can take too long to load and push content futher down the page

4. Simple menu setup

• WordPress Dashboard Tutorial - Custom Menus

5. NO IMAGE SLIDERS

• uses website resources
• usually annoying
• does not contribute to clicks

Simple But Versatile Recommended Theme

These days, I know that many Wealthy Affiliate members, including some of the coaches are using a theme called GeneratePress. I like GeneratePress as well, because:

1. it's free
2. it's fast
3. it's got a simple design
4. there are some advanced features to explore (not required)
5. there's a pro version you can upgrade to later (not required)
6. commonly used so lots of tutorials on custumization options

So it's the best of both worlds IMO. Lots of customization options, but you don't necessarily need to use them.

This is Why I Love the GeneratePress WordPress Theme

How to Change Your Website Theme in Wordpress