Your website is an extension of your brand. It’s a home base for your company to showcase new products or services and where your customers can come to find you if they have questions or are looking to browse. WordPress can host your domain and provide you with a theme that will strengthen your online presence. These themes play an important role in how your customers, and search engines, perceive your business. But how do you choose the right one that will make you stand out and be user-friendly? This step-by-step guide can help you make the best choice.
Make a List of Features
One of the great things about WordPress is that it has numerous different themes that suit a wide range of website needs. It also has a filter option to help you narrow down the most critical features for your brand. Write a list of essential plug-ins and additional functionalities that your site will need.
For example, an e-commerce site must have a theme that works with its preferred software. A theme that allows easy text translations will be ideal if you’re a global brand that does business in other languages.
Opt for Simple Yet Customizable
After you’ve used the filters to find themes that have the features you need, analyze them from a visual perspective. You’ll need to determine whether your business would benefit from a text-focused or photo-focused theme. You may need a mix of both. Additionally, ask yourself questions like, is this theme easy to navigate on the backend? And, can I customize this theme to match my brand package?
A bloated theme will incorporate too many elements on one page, making it potentially challenging to personalize it. It might be hard to read and difficult to navigate. A simple design can make all the difference in the present and future when you update your site with new pages, products, or promotions.
Determine its Functionality with Support and Maintenance
Perhaps you’ve found a theme you think will work for your business. It checks all the boxes, yet it hasn’t been updated in a few years, and customer support is nonexistent. You’ll likely want to move on to your next choice. Without a dedicated and routine update, it might be hard for this theme to get you ranked on Google, especially if it isn’t stable, lags when loading, or doesn’t properly index your information. Additionally, if you run into site issues, you’ll be stuck figuring them out yourself.
Read the Highest and Lowest Reviews
Reviews can summarize a user experience and important details that can help you decide if this is a suitable theme for your brand. This is especially important if you are looking at premium themes. Consider the good and the bad, and identify where you might run into problems based on other users’ knowledge.
Be Your Customer
Turn yourself into one of your customers and explore sites that use this theme. You might get caught up in what backend optimizations could look like, but it’s how accessible your site will be for customers that matters. Check how long each page takes to load, see if you’re struggling to find anything, and try submitting a query through the Contact Us page. The more seamless your experience, the more receptive your customers will be if you use this theme.
Choosing the right WordPress theme can be overwhelming. Take your time, and don’t rush the process. Expert WordPress theme developers like those at Goodiewebsite are trained to create unique WordPress themes for your brand, which can reduce your stress and help you land on a theme that works and looks great. Designing the right WordPress theme can really help your site stand out from the rest.
