Most of the humans love technology a lot, agree?

May that be because technology enhances the way we live and makes it immensely easy, yet cluttered!

So today’s article here at Softstribe will be on “How to Choose a WordPress Theme?”. Start.

There’s no one way to look up the perfect WordPress theme. This all comes up with which kind of theme you like and says as perfect yet there things to consider. It’s totally upto you, which theme do you call perfect but is that really perfect overall.

To me, the theme suits a blog is not perfect but a theme that actually is loved by your audience and is chosen based on the preferences of your target audience. There are a couple of things to see in a theme to decide whether it could be called “perfect for your blog”.

This article constituted on those things. Skip to the meat, now;

1. Niche matters there

A perfect WordPress theme must be  chosen according to the blog niche. As an example, a blog on internet marketing should be enticing/captivating enough to trap the readers for long. This is what internet marketing is all about: captivating.

See what do you blog about. List those things aside on a paper like mine:

• I blog about inspiration and all.
• I want my blog to be looking bright, not blacky etc. that sucks.
• My blog does cover articles about various topics, including technology so it must be look modern and all.

Have got the list ready? Move on to the next thing.

2. Who’d read it?

Ask this question to yourself. Kindly, don’t answer it silently but by jotting it down on a paper or in a notepad on your computer, whatever you prefer. Here’s what I answer when it’s asked to me;

my blog is about inspiration, web designing, blogging, seo and all those things that a technology or news site does have. I know, who read it. It is read by teens, mostly and almost only. Teens in this age are modern, they love technology, they know more than what previous generations’ teens would have known. As of a reason, we need to keep this site on accord of teens; which kinda web designs they like. what does captivate them. what interests them. These are those questions, which help a site know what does it target.

If your site is about personal development, would teens be it’s target? very less chances are there, if that is the case. Olds, womans, mans are those who love reading on how to develop themselves. In that case, a WordPress theme needs to be of old-age, a way that is loved by old. Simple?

Simple that is. You need to ask the same thing to yourself. Are you reading me? You should implement what you’re reading! ;-).

3. What color do you love?

This all depends upon your target audience and blog niche. Don’t prefer which color do you like but what’s the choice of your audience and your blog relates to. Audience includes not a single person ever, but a bunch of all those people who read your blog.

Since, it’s not about one person but a lot of, you cannot have a color chosen loved by all, almost never. But good news is; you could have chosen a color that pleases the most.

This requires knowledge about your target audience.

4. Clutter or Clutter-free?

Clutter includes: non-essentials, distracting stuff etc. Clutter-free: simply is the opposite of clutter. It includes: essentials – stuff that matters the most and only. Which one would you prefer? Tell me.

A clutter-free blog is one that doesn’t have what a cluttered blog has. It  is essentials. A clutter-free blog constitutes on essentials only.

How does your blog serve? by showing ads that make you few dollars? or by what does it offer: content? If it’s content, this is essential to you. And the other part of the site is just clutter, non-essentials. Sidebar fundamentally is there not for your ads, links or any kind of benefit of yours but for the benefits of readers; navigation.

“What does your reader want? They want good content, inspiration, a laugh. They are not there to see the ads or the widgets. They tolerate those for the content.” ~ Leo babauta

Want to serve? avoid clutter but essentials. This helps you decide how your theme would be or which kind of theme could you call perfect for your blog.

5. How compatible is it?

Before you put your hands on any theme and claim it to be the perfect, you must know whether it is compatible with most of the browsers or not.

Yes, this matters. On the other hand, otherwise, you may lose a lot of traffic just because of your blog’s theme compatibility. Do you know, which browser do your target audience love/use? Know this. And ensure your WordPress theme is compatible for most of the major browsers like Mozilla, Google Chrome, Opera and etc.

6. Do you get support?

You may mess up with any kind of problem that is technical or etc. Most of us here are not developers to resolve such issues themselves. So they need help/support from their theme developers, at such times, agree?

Read terms of conditions of WP theme that you’re about to decide on, check whether does it provide you the support together with the theme or that’s just only thing you get: theme.

7. Is that SEO-friendly?

SEO matters, you know that and admit the fact. Search engines especially Google want your site to be structured in better way, a way that search engines understand. Do you know, your WP theme could not be SEO-friendly and this could harm your site’s SEO in many ways.

Therefore, ensuring you’ve a SEO friendly WP theme is a must. Try not to miss this.

8. Free or Premium Theme?

At certain times, you may have this question there in your mind. What’s the good answer? No good answer is there.

There are pros and cons of both types of WP themes, and just because the premium themes give you a lot and a lot good, they’re preferred over free themes. That’s all. That’s what you need to know. I love to use premium WordPress themes. And so do I on most of my sites. Here are few recommendations on premium themes;

1. StudioPress
2. Thesis by DIYthemes
3. WooThemes
4. ElegantThemes
5. ThemeFuse
6. ThemeForest

These are those companies serving individuals and other small organizations providing their highly optimized premium themes. They are all premium companies and some does have free too (good for you!). Sooner than later, I’ll write an article on Free vs Premium WP theme. I hope, you will love reading and knowing how does this all the stuff work together.