When it comes to creating a website, the styling and theme of that website is very important. Especially using website builder like WordPress that has numerous themes to choose from.
Funny enough, Websites are created to be simple and Unique for good user Experience. So many WordPress users get confused on what perfect theme to choose for their website, to make it extremely unique.
At the end of this article you will be satisfied with whatever decision you make with the perfect theme for your site.
To start off, we need to know the following truth about WordPress theme to guide us properly
“Not all themes are for your Website”
MR A TO MR B: I saw this this theme is beautiful.
MR B: But holdup. It’s Not for your kind of Website.
MR A: Why
Websites are built on different Reasons and Purpose. This Purpose ranges from
Blog
E- commerce
Education
Entertainment
Food and Drink
Holidays
News
Photography
Portfolio and the list goes on
Themes are designed to fit this list of purposes mentioned above. Although many theme Developers will tell you that you can use their themes for multipurpose. But to be sincere, would it be perfect for such purpose?
That is a question that would be answered as you read on.
It is Advisable you consider the purpose your website is created, before you choose any theme. Put that in mind.
Ok Now, I know What Theme is for my website. What Next?
Yes, there is always a next in this case. Because we aren’t done Yet.
What feature does your desired theme have?
Every theme created have features that gives more user experience to your website.
What are this features?
— Accessibility Ready —
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This means that your website appeals to every kind of user. It is very important for several and diverse users. Ranging from mobile and desktop users. Especially users who rely on assistive technology to navigate a site.
— Custom Background, Colour, Header and Menu —
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This refers to Background of your site. It could be an image background or a video background in terms of building a landing page.
In terms of Colour, do note that not all theme in WordPress allows you to change your colour to your desire colour. Except you purchase the pro version. So you have to watch out for this when choosing.
When it comes to Header, what kind of access does your desired theme grant you. Because some header theme may not grant the access of social media plugin which you may so desire.
The menu is very important. It serves a navigation for your users to know what its install for them. Although this is one of the basics that is available for all themes. So no worries.
— Editor Style —
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This is quit another thing to look out for. This has to do with coding to enhance the way your site looks. This coding is applied using editor style, which can make changes to your site colour, font size of your theme and lots more. So you have to watch out for this too.
— Featured image Header and Images —
Most themes if not all, have got this feature. So no worries here.
— Flexible Header —
A theme having a flexible header is very important in terms of placing ads. If your desire to place ads on your Header, you should consider this
— Footer Widgets —
Also, most themes support customization for footer widget, as well as other theme do not allow this customization.
I believe you would want to customize your theme footer, and If I am speaking your mind, you should consider choosing a theme that supports this feature.
— Front Page Posting —
This is an option that allows you Set Front page displays to a static page (Home Page). And if you do not set any landing page to be static, you will be able to feature posts on your front page.
— Full Width Templates —
What this does is that it provides a perfect template for video, photography and portfolio sites. With full width you content do not get to be in a box format. It usually comes with enough and flexible space dedicated for background images, slideshows or videos.
— Post Format —
Post Format is a piece of meta information that can be used by a theme to customize its presentation of a post. The Post Formats feature provides a standardized list of formats that are available to all themes that support the feature
— Threaded Comments —
Conversation threading is a feature used by many email clients, bulletin boards, newsgroups, and Internet forums in which the software aids the user by visually grouping messages with their replies. These groups are called a conversation, topic thread, or simply a thread. That’s according to wikipedia
— Translation Ready —
Translation ready themes contains a .POT file. and sometimes with an English version of .mo and .po files. These files can be used to translate the theme into other languages.
Having said this
Your Desired theme must be able to meet up with the feature you want in a theme. This suffice to say that when you want to choose your perfect theme make sure you watch out for its features.
Another Thing you have to consider at this moment is;
— What is your Desired Theme Layout —
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When using a theme, it’s important to know what your desired theme Layout looks like. What are this layout.
They include:
Grid Layout
One, two, three or four Column
Left and right Sidebar
when choosing a WordPress theme you can search by using filter based on the feature you want and a sample of this filter is shown below
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— Conclusion —
Making your website unique has a whole lot to do with the kind of features your theme have got to offer. Do ensure you put this into consideration. Because it’s not just all about the catchy colour, or how appealing the user interface of the theme looks like. it is all about what it has got to offer.
