five-things-to-consider-when-choosing-a-wordpress-themeSo, you’ve decided to set up a blog. You’ve chosen your name, URL and know what sort of content you’ll be posting – the next step is to make it look as rad as possible. You sit down, log into WordPress and start scrolling through the hundreds upon hundreds of themes available. Some are free, some are so expensive you can’t believe people are willing to shell out that much. Others are visually stunning whilst others are pure, simple and clean.

It’s overwhelming, we know. So here are five things to consider when choosing the perfect theme for your new blog.

1. How many times has it been downloaded?

Depending on how unique you want your site to be, it’s worth checking how many times a WordPress theme has been downloaded – especially if you are having a hard time deciding between two. On the one hand, if a theme has been downloaded many, many times, it generally means that it functions well to user’s needs. However, this also means that there are many versions off the same blog scattered all over the World Wide Web, making yours not so distinct.

2. Is it easy to customize?

Leading on from our first point, if you’re looking to create a blog that is unique to you and your business, checking how simple it will be to make customisations is very important. Some themes allow alterations simply by pressing the “Theme Options” tab, while others require some coding skills that go far beyond editing your teenage MySpace page. If neither you or anyone in your company has the skills to design or edit, it’s worth hiring a graphic and web design company like MeetBob to do this for you as they have the expertise to get it looking just how you want. Investing this time and money is definitely worth the cost in the long run when you have a successful site up and running!

3. Is it responsive?

A responsive web design is one that responds directly to the size of the screen it is being viewed on. Choosing a blog design that does this is important because it means it’ll look pretty whether it is being viewed on a phone or a desktop. Websites that are responsive tend to have a much lower bounce rate than those that are not, which is always good for SEO!

4. Is it usable?

This might sound like a stupid question, but a lot of themes that are available look great when you first preview them but won’t be friendly to the type of content you are trying to post. Make sure you not only view the homepage of a theme you are considering, but that you see what post pages look like too – this will show you how much content you can fit in and if your readers will be able to nav around the site easily.

5. Custom widgets?

Being able to add social media, SEO and other widgets such as a newsletter sign up button is important for expanding your business and potential customer reach. Most WordPress themes allow these additions, but it’s best to double check before purchasing!