As a newly-registered user, the first theme you deal with is the default theme. Most people want to change or customize it and thus enrich the look and functionality of the website.The good news is that there is an abundance of themes available for WordPress users.
Choosing one of them may turn out to be a bewildering experience. Visual design and appearance often make the leading factor of a customer’s choice, but shiny wrapper is not what you should fancy first and foremost.
So, let us start with the tips. Decide what the most important aspects of your WordPress website will be. Only you know exactly what you want. Is it going to be a brochure, content managed or e-commerce website? What is going to be displayed on the homepage? How do you want it to look like? Do you need a lot of customization options?
WordPress themes may either have additional functionality (e.g. testimonials, work portfolios, widgets, advanced photo galleries, etc.) included or leave some room of creativity. At first sight, the ‘all-inclusive package’ variant looks fantastic but lets us take a closer look. Such themes have a lot of make-your-WordPress-life-easier features built in, which makes a developer’s life easier. Why? It gives him fewer products to support. But this is not your pain. Your pain comes when you decide to switch your theme because your content is dependent on the functionality of the theme. This can be avoided by adding plugins yourself.
Choosy is for wise. Speaking about features, “the more, the better” does not necessarily work here. For instance, content sliders make a remarkable place to show all that you have got. The other side of the coin is that people find them annoying, nobody clicks on them, and they affect SEO negatively. Choose only what you really need.
Wondering why some WordPress theme are free, and some of them are premium? It’s all about love. Seriously. Free themes are a labour of love while premium themes are made for the market, with cold calculation. No matter how romantic it may sound, the consequences are sad. Kind-intentioned developers simply cannot spend hours taking care of themes that make them no money. As a result, free themes lack support and may succumb to malware. Theme Authenticity Checker is a free plugin that can scan your website and detect potentially malicious or unwanted code.
One more minus is that free themes are not always updated. If a theme has not been updated in two years, it may be regarded as an abandoned one.
However, things are not as bad as it seems. WordPress has its coding standard that concerns free themes as well. There are some of them that are regularly updated and even relatively well supported.
As to premium WordPress themes, they always have great updates and support. You may be astonished at the quantity of features and design options they offer. The list of what a premium theme may offer is endless. Similarly endless is the growth of the prices for the themes. Be ready to pay $50 up to $700.
If you need help with preserving the design of your website while changing or upgrading your platform, aisite is ready for you. Although it does not transfer themes separately, it offers packages that have this service included.
There is no perfect theme because no developer knows particularly your individual needs. However, there exist themes that will meet your general needs. If you are on a tight budget, free themes can be a great option for you. Remember that ‘premium’ does not inevitably mean ‘better’. You pay money and expect the best out of the theme, but mistakes happen.
P.S. Left with a strong desire to switch to WordPress? Then, give a try to aisite automated migration srvice and start migration right now.
