Write this article is to help you read how to choose a WordPress theme, theme (theme) is the foundation and premise of the WordPress site. Choose a suitable high-quality WordPress theme can make building a station with half the effort, if you use the theme is not suitable for the site will greatly reduce the effect. Write this article is to let newcomers understand the role of the theme and how to choose the right theme.
Station building WeChat group often people discuss which theme is better, opinions are divided. Many white people will not use feel that this theme is not good, that theme is not good, change around, thankless. In fact, if you understand the role of the theme and their own needs, it is very easy to be able to choose a quality theme that suits you.
What is a wordpress theme?
It's very easy to build a website with Wordpress, after spending a few minutes installing the Wordpress program, a simple website is basically built. There is a background front-end, can visit, can write articles. However, built out of the site is very simple, very little functionality can only be used to do a simple blog, can be understood as a rough room.
Wordpress themes are actually a folder that contains code and files that serve to beautify a websiteexterior conditionIncrease in the number of websitesfunctionality. A freshly built Wordpress website is the equivalent of a rough house, and a Wordpress theme is actually the equivalent of a set of renovation programs: changing the appearance of the site, adding functionality.
The house has to be renovated before you can move in, so the website has to have a theme installed. The functions of different themes and the degree of customization of the appearance are different, the difference is huge, we must choose the right theme according to their needs.
What is the difference between theme and plugin? We think there is no difference, the theme can achieve plug-ins can basically achieve. 2 are mainly different focus, the theme is mainly responsible for some basic and essential features, such as fonts, color settings, add LOGO, Favicon and so on. And plug-ins are mainly to enhance the personalized features.
What are the general categories of Wordpress themes?
Before choosing a theme must understand what the features and advantages of this theme, the theme that meets your needs is the best theme. We think there are about 3 kinds of themes according to their focus: functional, performance, design.
Functional themes have powerful all features, a theme can top 5 plug-ins. For example, Woomart theme, suitable for multi-category merchandise mall website, comes with excellent super menu features. If you want to do a super multi-category merchandise site can consider it.
Performance-based themes focus on performance and speed, such asAstra, GeneratePress Theme. Lightweight, speedy, comes with some speed optimization features. Generally is like DIY depth of the technical staff will use performance-based themes. They generally need to be used with a page builder or comes with a page builder.
Design theme is mainly good-looking, different from person to person, generally niche but also very special. For example, a member asked if there is a xx theme for sale, and he wanted to use it to make a photo photography website, and he was interested in the template design of the theme as well as the effect of the photo slide show.
How to choose a WordPress theme?
A foreign blogger analyzed 32,499 profitable websites (including making money through advertising and affiliate marketing) and compiled the most used9 WordPress Themes::
- GeneratePressThe total number of such cases is 5,056;
- AstraThe total number of such cases is 2,656;
- Kadence: 2,436;
- FoodiePro: 975;
- Mediavine Trellis: 928;
- Newspaper: 910;
- Acabado: 880;
- Divi: 698;
- Hello-elementor: 523;
BricksThis up and coming theme is also very good, probably because it just caught fire all the above sites don't use it much, I think in another 1-2 years maybe he'll show up in the upper middle of the rankings above.
We have used a lot of themes, no theme can be compatible with all aspects at the same time. Powerful and comprehensive means heavy code and high threshold for use. Fast, good performance means less functionality, page / template design is often general. Suitable is the best, first think clearly about their own needs, and then according to the needs of the popular theme to find the right on the line.
1- One of the first things you must consider when choosing a theme is how you plan to build the page? Will you use Elementor or the Gutenberg editor or the builder that comes with the theme? Will you use the theme's templates directly? This is very important to know how to pick a theme once you have thought about it.
Avada.BricksThemes such as themes come with their own development of page builder (not Gutenberg nor Elementor), GeneratePress and other themes come with Gutenberg page builder, and Astra Pro and other themes do not have a page builder only header footer building capabilities.
Elementor page builder is powerful, easy to operate, strong extension, high efficiency, in addition to the slow point are advantages. Gutenberg editor is just the opposite, in addition to the speed of other aspects are not as good as Elementor, not good to use the site efficiency and low, less functionality.
Avada and other self-developed page builders are even worse in terms of functionality and compatibility, and may not necessarily be as fast as Elementor. Oxygen builder is fast and powerful, but the threshold for using it is high and the compatibility and ecology is not good enough.
If you're going to build pages with Elementor, don't pick a theme like Avada or GeneratePress with a homegrown page builder. Otherwise the functionality of these themes is just for show, and the front-end containing self-builder code will slow things down.
At this point, you should chooseAstra ProSuch themes, fast, can be perfectly used with Elementor. We strongly recommend the use of Elementor to build the page, because the operation is simple, powerful and efficient, there are many extensions plug-ins, it can be said that there is no Elementor do not come out of the site.
Elementor speed can be optimized, don't worry. We use Elementor to do the website Google speed test computer side 100 points, loaded in 1 second. Mobile 90 points or more, loaded in 2 seconds.
2- Choose a theme also need to take into account the functionality of the page and the use of plug-ins compatibility issuesFor example. For example, if you want to make a website with product filtering, the product list page needs to do very complex product filtering (e.g. filtering based on price, color, size, parameters, etc.). Which plugin are you going to use to realize this feature?
For example, if you intend to use theJetSmartFiltersand other plugins, can only be used with Elementor, Gutenberg editor, can not be used with Avada and other themes that come with the editor. Selection of the theme should also take into account the subsequent plug-in compatibility, expansion.
A good friend usesBricks ThemeBuilt a website with its own page builder and good speed. He reached out to me to say that using TranslatePress was causing very slow speeds, and disabling it brought it back to normal. After testing, I found that it is Bricks theme is not quite compatible with translation plugin at the moment, still in the process of adapting.
2021.01.07 Update: We have encountered a few more theme compatibility issues. Customers chose a very small niche theme, the results with many plug-ins do not match the functionality of the anomaly. Don't use those niche themes, what you want can be realized through the plugin. The team behind the niche theme is only 1-3 people, there is not enough productivity to adapt plug-ins, compatibility is a hard injury.
3- Selection of the theme also needs to take into account the limitations of the theme. The more you optimize, the more limited you become, and mediocrity is the taste of the masses. We can not want certain things, but we should know what we can not get. Some themes are very restrictive and not very scalable.
for exampleShoptimizerTheme, it is fast because there is only one template a design, and comes with commonly used features (no need to install plug-ins to achieve). People specialize in specific designs and features to optimize, so it is fast and high conversion rate, but this leads to only use its design and features.
If you are not satisfied with the design and functionality of the Shoptimizer theme, installing other plugins on your own instead will greatly reduce the speed and conversion rate. There would be no need to use Shoptimizer theme at all.
There is a domestic Factory theme, the design is relatively good-looking, fast, a few more well-known domestic sites also resell this theme. Our research found that this theme does not use Woocommerce plug-in to achieve commodity functions, so fast, but the limitations are also large.
It all Woocommerce-related plug-ins can not be used, Woocommerce has become an ecosystem, WordPress to build e-commerce site without Woocommerce, then may even receive money is a problem.
So Factory theme is not suitable for retail e-commerce sites, nor is it suitable for complex 2B sites. For example, if I want to realize the function of product filtering or posting new products to Pinterest account automatically, Woocommerce website has ready-made plug-ins to realize it. But Factory theme, you have to write your own code to realize.
4- Theme selection also needs to take into account the threshold of useThe target user group of each theme is different. For example, GeneratePress, Woodmart and other themes are mainly oriented to developers, it is difficult for white people to use. They can use good, can make the effect is meaningful.
5- Choose only premium and popular themes. The internet is changing rapidly, so you must choose a theme that is popular and high qualitycover the costsTheme that is stable and up-to-date, fixes bugs in a timely manner, is compatible, and has excellent customer service support.
The freedom of WordPress has resulted in plugins and themes of varying quality that are difficult to coordinate. It is very common for themes to have bugs or conflict with certain plugins, and quality themes mean good customer support. Problems can be solved by contacting customer service, and you can also find many solutions on the Internet.
Niche cold theme once the problem may be disastrous, free theme author is not very happy to spend time to deal with, may not be able to contact the theme author. Paid theme authors are not necessarily happy to care, may be 1-2 people part-time theme care, problems can only be self-inflicted.
Free themes or niche paid themes are basically unprofitable or even lose money, and the team behind them is usually only 1-3 people. The authors produce these themes more for hobby purposes, and the project may be suddenly discontinued without being sustained.
WordPress versions, plugins, PHP versions and the like are always being upgraded, and themes need to be updated all the time to continue to work. So be sure to pick a paid premium popular theme, we recommendAstra Pro ,BricksThe
