What kind of features and customization options do you need?

This is pretty straightforward … If there are any niche-specific features that are important for your business – for example a booking form, or an ecommerce feature -, you’ll have to find a template which is equipped with those features. Here’s an advice: consider what features you need, and as a first step eliminate all the templates with features you don’t need …

The customization options will allow you to change the “standard behavior” of the given template. In other words, you’ll be able to manipulate various functional and/or visual elements (colors, fonts, imagery, multimedia, etc) in order to enhance the template according to your needs. Leveraging these customization options in order to create a so-called custom layout is almost mandatory, but you should keep in mind, that your goal is to enhance the template and not to completely redesign it …

Finally, if you are going to use a paid theme ...

What kind of support do you get for your money?

Nowadays every single website template is “deeply customizable” and “easy-to-use”. Still, at a certain point you are going to have some questions and you are going to need some help …

This is why I strongly recommend you to choose a template with a reliable support provided via online chat, phone or at least email. A support which includes:

• providing clear installation instructions and/or installation services
• answering general questions about how to use the given template
• answering any kind of technical questions about the given template (features, functionality, third-party assets, etc)
• answering any questions about customization issues
• solving any future bug-related problems
• solving any possible compatibility problems or security vulnerabilities
  
• providing ongoing template updates

The above four angles should help you to choose the right template for your site.