PAGE 1 - Things to consider when first selecting a WordPress theme
PAGE 2 - What I do when I find a theme I am interested in
PAGE 3 - How my selection process works using Demo & Details
PAGE 4 - What just a little theme customization will look like
When first choosing the theme to your website you probably will be looking for a theme that is either eye-catching with slider images or seems to reflect what you would like your niche to represent visually. There is nothing wrong with that. However...
In many cases a simple looking theme that can be customized is better in my opinion and here is why. Better rankings in Google. Yes, you read that correctly. How can a simple theme effect search engine rankings for the better?
USER EXPERIENCE IS A RANKING FACTOR
When first choosing a WordPress theme I always consider how my website visitors will react when seeing my theme on a mobile device. Even though we create our website on a computer, we really need to see how it will look and function on a smartphone.
Obviously you will have to install your theme first before seeing how it looks on mobile. But by choosing a simple theme first, you could always change it later to another theme you like. Just make sure to do this early on in your website development.
When a website theme is simple and easy to navigate this gives a better UX, user experience. Another thing to consider is Page Speed. When a theme does not use large header and background images, or has sliders, it will load faster.
In the image above you can see that the Home Page of my WA promotional website, indicated by the word "Index" has a really good Page Speed Rankings of 97 for both desktop and mobile. It's a simple theme which I tastefully customized visually.
I am sure you would like your website to stand out. That can be easily accomplished with the nearly 3,000 different themes available. But if you were to do what I did with my WA promotional website, I chose a simple theme and customized it to my liking.
On the last page of this training I will show an example of what I did to an already simple theme to make it more user friendly yet attractive. But to recap, choosing a simple looking theme to start your website is best, you can always change it later.
NEXT UP = What I do when researching and selecting a theme
Ken
The one thing I would add is checking the compatibility of the theme with the current Wordpress version. If someone isn't updating their theme to keep pace with Wordpress changes you may have glitches or problems with WP operations and possible plug-in conflicts.
Thanks for the info!
JeanLouis87
Hi Robert: Very interesting. I bow to your themes expertise.
I just changed my website theme to one that looked good, then discovered (as I had with the one I just dumped) that the large mountain scene I thought was an integral part of it, was not included! So all I got was a band of one colour across the top!!
Decided I would later add images. I then found that they shoved all
my menu scattered across the top...looks ghastly! I cannot find in
the menu customization how to get it all out of there and do it down the right hand side. Any ideas you could give me, please?
One other question...Since every one of my 16 posts will be listed in my menu, do I need to spread them across 3 or 4 pages? Makes no difference to the reader as far as I can see, right?
John aka JeanLouis87