Have you ever created a website on WordPress? If yes, Here are some great Tips For Designing Amazing WordPress Themes. I bet you know the order of actions: first, you choose a domain name and set up WordPress hosting, and after that choose a visual design. The installation of WP template takes no longer than a minute while the choice of appropriate options may last for days and require a lot of work since you have to pick the best one out of thousands of themes, each of which with its unique features.
Properly selected high-quality theme improves the appearance of a website, makes it unique and helps to create the required functionality. Standard templates included in the installation WP package are good enough for a small blog or website, but what if you need a large, complete, and versatile business?
Tips For Designing Amazing WordPress Themes
For the time I’ve been working at DesignContest, I selected and installed WP themes a lot of time. In the paper, I’m going to share the essential advice on this matter. So, let’s start!
#1 Choose Between Free and Premium Themes
Free
You can find over 2000 free templates for WordPress, but all of them have some drawbacks. The main inconvenience is that the majority of the free themes just stop being updated at some point. The reason for this is quite simple: since the producer earns nothing, he’s not interested in maintaining and adapting them up to advanced technologies.
If the theme ceases to be updated, you will likely have problems with the functionality of the website: for example, the pattern may begin falter after WordPress update, which may cause incorrect display of website pages.
If you take a free topic, please choose from the most popular ones on the WordPress website. At least, they are often updated and supported, which guarantees you the safe operation of the website for a long time. However, this approach has a significant disadvantage: about million of websites are already used these themes. Free-to-use templates are never unique.
Premium
Premium themes have many benefits, including regular updates, unique design, reliable support service, and more. As a rule, the price for a premium template is less than $ 60 – that’s a relatively small investment for a project with serious ambitions.
#2 Make Sure the Topic of the Theme Comply with Your Business
Be sure to choose a template that is suitable for a category of the website. For example, business themes perfectly fit entrepreneurs’ websites while themes for kids are suitable for children’s stores. By the way, if you’re going to open an online store, make sure that the chosen template supports the use of plug-ins for eCommerce. Note that platforms for selecting and buying WP templates have an internal search on the subject: for example, by the “eCommerce” request you’ll get more than 200 ready-made templates for eCommerce. For more advanced search, you can use keywords like “business”, “music”, “kids” and so on.
#3 Check whether the Chosen Template is Compatible with Browsers and Mobile Devices
Since users come to the website from different browsers, the chosen theme should support at least the most popular ones: Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, and Safari. Read the template description to find out whether it supports the browsers mentioned above, or check it by yourself.
The more browsers are supported, the wider the audience of your website. Give priority to the themes which support old versions of Internet Explorer. The prices for WordPress templates are almost equal, so there’s no reason to buy less functional at the same price and lose potential customers.
Of course, the template must be displayed correctly on all possible devices – from PCs to mobile phones. The share of mobile traffic is constantly growing and will grow even faster in the foreseeable future, so before buying the template, make sure it’s scalable, that is, automatically resized to full-screen mode when opened on a smartphone/PC/tablet.
#4 Choose the Theme that is Easy to Customize
The more features the theme contains, the better. Ideally, it should contain enough features to ensure any color, font, and other changes you may desire.
If the topic does not include the necessary functionality, then you’ll have to install additional plug-ins, edit it manually, or ask for the help of a programmer.
#5 Check the Frequency of Updates and the Availability of Technical Support
I’ve already said about it above, but I want to emphasize one more time: if the topic is constantly updated, it means that the developers track the latest design/market changes and respond to them adequately. The regularity of updates, as well as the availability of free technical support, indicate the seriousness of the approach to the theme. Almost all premium WP themes are regularly updated and have free technical support.