Choosing The Right WordPress Theme

Thousands of Web sites all over the world use WordPress as their platform as choice. WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, Web standards, and usability. It is both free and priceless at the same time. It is completely customizable and can be used for almost anything.

That being said, the two questions I get the most often are: "Which plugins should I use?" and "Which theme should i choose?"

In this article, I will be focusing on WordPress theme selection.

There are three different WordPress theme types, each with their pros and cons. Below is a short overview of each theme type, along with its pros and cons.

1. FREE Themes – Each year, thousands of WordPress themes are released, under the GPL(General Public License), and are free for anyone to use. In the early stages of WordPress development, most of the free themes were simple, usable themes with a basic functionality built in. Today, there are many free themes available with features that rival even the best premium themes.

   Pros: Free of cost, no development time, thousands to choose from
   Cons: No support or upgrades(usually the case), unwanted developer or advertising links, Photoshop templates not provided, not always SEO(search engine optimization) ready, could contain programming errors and may have hidden advertising mechanisms built in to the templates

2. PREMIUM Themes – Premium themes fill the void between the free and custom WordPress themes. Free themes are great, but they do not always have the built-in functionality or design features you desire.  Free themes are generally catered for general use, and by users publishing information about a wide variety of topics. Premium themes take it to the next level. Advanced features, multiple page layouts, plugin functionality is sometimes built in and usually an options panel exists giving you a bit more control over your theme.

   Just pay, download, install, configure and use.  What a time-saver!

   Pros: More layout options, advanced features, configurable settings, advertising integration, some themes come with upgrade packages, support is usually available, SEO optimized, time saver, 
   Cons: There is a cost involved, other Web sites could also using this theme(not unique),

3. CUSTOM Themes – If you have the financial resources, you can have an experienced WordPress theme developer build a custom theme to your exact specifications. This way, you get exactly what you want, and it will be unique to your Web site.

   A second route to take is to build the theme yourself. If you have experience developing Web sites, you can learn how to build your own theme, or edit one that already exists. There are plenty of resources, like this one, available on the Web with lots of helpful information.

   Pros: Unique(only you have it), the theme design and layout is exactly how you want it, any functionality you will need can be integrated in to the theme, SEO optimized, theme options panel and support.
   Cons: You must pay for upgrades or modifications. If you built it yourself, you must continually upgrade the theme as WordPress develops.

When looking for a theme, try them out before using them. Most themes can be viewed in a demo mode, allowing you to get a better understanding of how it works.  Some themes only provide screen-shots for a preview. If it is a free theme, you can install it into your WordPress installation and see how it works with your content.

Choosing a theme is always a hard thing to do.