How do I choose a WordPress theme for a website?

There are thousands (10,000-plus) of WordPress themes out there. So many that it would take days on end to search through them all. So how do you narrow it down to find the perfect one for your site?

Choosing the right theme is obviously important — the right one should give your content pizzazz, keeping it responsive across devices, while also loading in the blink of an eye. Yet with so many themes in the pool, it can be a rather daunting task to pick the best one possible. Before buying a theme, or investing your time in customizing one, be sure to read through this list of do’s and don’ts when it comes to selecting the perfect WordPress theme.

When it comes to WordPress themes, less is always more. Building from the bottom up, the theme you choose should only have the features that will help you accomplish the goal of your site, not unnecessary ones that clutter your theme, which brings us to the next point.

Don’t choose a bloated theme

The importance of this is you don’t want a theme cluttered with features — this will only hurt you in the long run. A feature-rich theme might be nice, but it can severely affect site performance. Be sure to restrain yourself against installing every feature you think is cool.

While fancy music players or gaming capabilities might be alluring, they could detract from site performance. Plus, developers often use code they found on the internet for these features, thereby creating security weak spots because they aren’t necessarily focused on keeping a site secure, but performing a specific function.

Do choose a responsive theme

Responsive design simply means making your site ultra-easy to use — not just on a laptop, but on multiple devices. This means that it’s compatible with mobile and has menus and other widgets that are easy to navigate. Look for features like a fluid site grid and flexible images that can translate to non-desktop devices. An example of a responsive theme would be one that can easily translate on a mobile device without any hiccups.

Say that you picked a theme that you love, but it’s not as responsive as you’d like. You’re going to have to customize it a little bit. Here are some ways to make your WordPress theme responsive on your own.

We offer more than 4000 premium WordPress themes and plugins, with a wide variety of configurations and features. All in all, premium themes and plugins tend to offer for only $9.99:

• Better demo layouts
• Better design elements
• Better page builder tools to help you set up your website faster
• More options to update/refresh website down the road
• Additional plugins and functionality built into the theme