WordPress Themes are the focus in this part of our WordPress Do It Right series.
There is no video component this time, but instead we discuss your options when deciding how your new WordPress website is going to look.
This is clearly important for any WordPress site, but how the site looks is not all you need to consider when choosing your theme.
By the end of this article you’ll know what your options are and be able to make an informed decision – whether you should buy a premium theme, a WordPress theme framework, or just go free.
The beauty of WordPress themes – flexibility and choice
WordPress is fantastic in its theme-ing and flexibility. You (probably didn’t) hear that here first!
But this flexibility comes at a price – a developer who doesn’t really know what they’re doing can make a pig’s ear of your website.
And many developers do, it’s sad to say.
This is why, for people like you and me who don’t develop WordPress themes, we need to find a reliable solution for our WordPress websites.
You’ve probably made 3 assumptions about themes that you should revisit:
Don’t assume that …
- … choosing a theme is only about how it appears to the visitor.
- … just because a theme is distributed on WordPress.org it’s a good theme.
- … just because it’s “premium” and you’ve paid money for it, it’s a good theme.
The last point is important – read that one again.
Honestly, I hate premium themes – I’ve never bought or used a theme straight out of the box that works how its advertised. Never. (And don’t get me started on the documentation for these “premium” themes either)
The point here is you need to lose your preconceptions about what WordPress theme-ing is all about before you can really decide what you need, and whether paying for a premium option is worth it.
So if choosing a theme isn’t only about how it appears, what else is there?
A WordPress theme is a combination of:
- Design
- Functionality / Features
- Code
And you need to evaluate potential candidates based on each of these, where possible.
WordPress Theme Design
Before you start looking, try to have an idea in your mind about what you want. Things like:
- how many columns in your layout?
- do you want a footer?
- do you want a header image?
- what colour scheme / style do you want?
- do you want widths etc. to be fixed, or flexible?
- do you want a “responsive” design
- …and whatever else you can think of.
These are the basics, and all themes are different. Having a clear set of basic requirements helps filter from the start.
Next you need to consider is how much flexibility the theme offers with customization. You will discover that themes vary greatly in this.
How much customization they offer can make a huge difference on your decision – a theme that doesn’t offer what you need at first glance may be customizable enough to get you where you need to be.
WordPress Theme Functionality
This is where the line between Themes and Plugins becomes a little blurred.
Like SEO and the rules of pool, everyone has their own unique set of opinions on this.
But the fact remains: it doesn’t matter where the functionality comes from (whether through the theme or through a plugin), as long as it’s done right.
I move in favour of functionality through plugins instead of themes for 3 reasons:
- if I decide to change my theme later, migration problems are less because basic functionality isn’t affected.
- I have more control over individual plugins and their working on the site if they’re provided with plugins.
- The interweb changes quickly – I don’t want to have to update my theme just to upgrade or add new functionality on my site.
An example, if I am a real-estate company I may need a dedicated real-estate theme that provides all the functionality I need to serve up a full-featured real-estate website.
This is an example of what I’d call “macro-function” – it is a theme for a type of website. Functionality such as Facebook, twitter, galleries, sliders, SEO, etc. can all be provided with plugins.
There is nearly always a plugin for whatever you need. There are some cases, a dedicated theme feature serves better.
In this, you just have to use your best judgement.
WordPress Theme Code
This is the hardest part and unless you’re going to do a complete code review of each theme, you have no choice to but to spend hours reading reviews about other people’s experience.
Remember this if nothing else: there’s no guarantee that if you pay for a theme, you’ll get a well-coded WordPress site.
Weird, huh?
A WordPress theme is just code and if it’s written poorly, your site will perform poorly under stress.
Why is a well-coded WordPress theme important? Because it directly affects:
- performance
- stability
- security
Your WordPress theme will make or break your site, so take time to choose carefully.
Taking the time to see what people are saying about the themes you’re interested in is well worth the investment – at some point, you just have to trust it and go for it.
On a personal note, I don’t buy/use premium WordPress themes any more because I don’t trust them in general. I do however, put a lot of trust in Theme Frameworks.
WordPress Theme Frameworks vs. Premium Themes
Theme Frameworks are built (usually) with a healthy focus on code quality and to provide you a starter for your theme development.
They often have simple designs because they’re meant to be used as a canvas for your new site.
You can then buy a “skin”, or develop your new site “on top” of the theme framework with a “child” theme. Child themes use the underlying parent theme framework, but focus on delivering the style/design that you need.
In this way, the code of theme frameworks is typically of much higher quality than premium themes. Frameworks help you separate the website design from the code.
If you think the difference between frameworks and premium themes can be a little unclear, you’re not alone – sometimes there is no clear distinction and there’s big overlap between what people call premium themes, theme frameworks, parent themes etc.
Basically it comes down to how customizable it is and whether or not you can easily bend it to your will. 🙂
Some Theme Recommendations
The following is a list of recommended themes and frameworks you should try out. I cannot vouch for them all, but they’re a good place to start…
Free WordPress.org themes
- Atahulapa – perhaps my favourite because of its maturity and flexibility. More like a Theme Framework.
- WordPress.org most popular
Premium WordPress Themes
- WooThemes – a very popular WordPress Premium theme directory.
- Elegant Themes – a collection of some really nice themes. Membership provides full access to all themes – nice.
Free WordPress Theme Frameworks
- Gantry Framework (free)
- Hybrid Core (free)
- Thematic Framework (free)
Premium WordPress Theme Frameworks
- Thesis Theme – this is my preferred and while it’s not perfect, I use it extensively.
- Headway Theme – hugely popular and a mature platform
- Genesis Theme – huge collection of child themes
As you can see, with all things WordPress, there’s HUGE choice for your WordPress theme.
Finding the right one takes time and you may not find the right one first go, but at least now you have a place to start.
Good luck!
