Choose The Right WordPress Theme

Posted by Jeff

on February 22, 2009

Choosing a theme for your WordPress blog is something that most new bloggers do before even getting their site up and running. With the growing popularity of WordPress, comes so many more theme choices from many different theme authors. Choosing a WordPress theme that fits your design needs or wants is important. But what is more important is choosing one that fits your knowledge level or learning aptitude.

WordPress themes are growing more complex with things like embedded ads or email feed subscriptions in the header or sidebar. Some have built-in plugin support that require certain plugins for the theme to display properly. These are all things that need to be considered before choosing a WordPress theme. If you are a relative WordPress newbie and don’t know how to edit the theme to change the embedded ads, or how to acquire the feed email subscription code and where to place it in the theme, then you may want to choose a different theme. If you have basic HTML or code knowledge and the theme comes with some type of a “Read Me” file or online instructions, then check it out to see if you can handle the task.

Then there is the header, probably the first thing many want to be addressed is changing or adding a custom header to a WordPress theme. Some WordPress themes don’t display the blogs name and tagline (or description) and use an image. When looking at a prospective theme, check the header image to see if the blog name is part of the image. Right click the header and see if you can view the image. If it has the name on the image then you will need to create your own, so consider if you can do that or pay someone to do it. If you already have an image you want to use on the WordPress theme, compare the size and area of the themes header to the image you want to use. Are they similar, or are editing the image or theme’s code going to be needed for a proper fit?

The color scheme of the theme may be something else to consider. If you like a theme but want to change the color scheme, then consider the time it will take you to learn how or how much it will cost to pay someone for the change. Some WordPress themes use background images, so changing those will require some type of imaging software and knowledge. Other color changes will require at least some CSS and HTML knowledge or at least the ability to use Google to learn those basic skills.

Then there are growing popularity of Newspaper style, Photo/Image themes or themes with a Featured posts, or other advanced features. Consider the extra steps involved in setting up and properly using these types of themes. Do you have the ability to resize the images needed? Does the theme come with instructions for it’s setup and use and can you understand and follow the instructions?

These are all things to consider when choosing a WordPress theme. Don’t let your limited knowledge in some of the areas addressed above keep you from blogging with WordPress. Remember that the theme doesn’t hold your content, so changing the theme will only change how it is shown. I always tell new people to choose a decent theme and just get started, learn about WordPress and the look or theme of the blog can evolve and change as your knowledge grows.

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WordPress Theme

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Comments

Comment by Make Money Blog on February 22, 2009 @ 11:21 am

Problem that I find when chosing a theme is that there are literally so many to chose from and a large proportion of them aren’t that good. I tend to go for those that are highly customizable like Flexibility Theme which is absolutely fantastic.

Thanks,

Andy

Comment by Dnepropetrovskih Intimnig on February 23, 2009 @ 3:08 am

As for me, I like to use SEO-wordpress theme. They are very strict and optimized for search-engines!

Comment by Free Xbox 360 on February 23, 2009 @ 6:06 am

I love choosing themes and templates (although I’ve been learning with non WP sites to hand code CSS).
I usually go for the simple themes and enhance it myself if it doesn’t fulfill my requirements for a site.

Comment by resume help on February 23, 2009 @ 12:02 pm

Hi guys
As an ordinary user I prefer to choose the simplicity and less complicated themes (classics as they say).
…and I would rather learn CSS in order manage themes than choose available templates
Thanks for the post
Dave

Comment by Nanny on February 23, 2009 @ 1:47 pm

good post, starting with simple themes is definitely the way to go, i was looking at some that did everything for you, but it was really hard to configure everything.

Comment by Tony Lee on February 23, 2009 @ 7:22 pm

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for providing a blog dedicated to tips on improving our wordpress installations. I’m not an expert by any means, and could sure use a straight forward source to improve and learn more.

You mentioned Newspaper Style themes in your post….I’ve read that these are one of the more SEO friendly themes. What are your thoughts on these templates?

Jeff Replied:
February 25th, 2009 at 2:56 am

Throwing a blanket statement out there like "Newspaper Style themes are more SEO friendly" is just plain wrong. You optimize your WP blog with a few basic tweaks and maybe one plugin. It has absolutely nothing to do with the theme. No matter what theme you choose..

Comment by Dizi izle on February 23, 2009 @ 11:49 pm

look how easy to set the theme, but it’s hard to do,
by the way…thanks you on the info provided

Comment by Best Eye Cream on February 25, 2009 @ 1:32 am

Flexible Themes is indeed useful due to large proportion of available themes….. but you can still have themes according to their categories right?

Jeff Replied:
February 25th, 2009 at 8:15 pm

Not sure what you mean by having themes according to categories?

Comment by Digital Camera News on February 25, 2009 @ 1:54 am

Newspaper and magazine themes are becoming very popular. The problem you mentioned about resizing has been overcome with addons. The first picture in an article is automatically resized as a thumbnail for the main page. You can see an example of what the addons do on my site.

Jeff Replied:
February 25th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

Yes I have seen those too but still most WordPress newbies have issues with just the basics. The point is trying to keep it simple to start and not get overwhelmed with extra steps when making posts.

Comment by mariayahek on February 26, 2009 @ 4:14 am

I will use newspaper theme, because it’s not complicated…

Comment by Michael on February 26, 2009 @ 8:04 am

This post is very informative for those who have never blogged with WordPress. WordPress themes are getting complex these days.

Comment by mada on March 3, 2009 @ 7:15 pm

Thanks for a very well written article !!!!

Comment by kvint on March 6, 2009 @ 3:33 pm

thank you for the info!I will use newspaper theme.

Comment by kampanye damai pemilu on March 20, 2009 @ 1:15 am

i like to use an unique wordpress theme design
what do u think about SEO wordpress theme ?
is it so important ?

Comment by Confronta ADSL on March 20, 2009 @ 2:32 am

I think using an unique wordpress design is very important to increase blog authority… but otherwise is not so easy to find an unique theme, even if you want to purchase a premium theme… Flexible Themes are great but everyone is purchasing one of them, so at the end there are so many similar blogs…

Comment by Brad on March 20, 2009 @ 1:07 pm

Even though there are so many WordPress themes available out there, it is hard to find theme that matches our exact requirement. I was looking out for a wordpress theme with featured video or articles rotation but found it very hard to customize such theme. The simpler the better. Use the default theme and customize.

Comment by quick income blueprint review on April 10, 2009 @ 6:36 am

There are so many good free wordpress themes available, I don’t see why anybody would want to build their own, unless they had a specific idea in mind or something. I always use one of the free ones and its worked for me. I didn’t even think that seo would be affected by the template layout?

Comment by George Packard on April 11, 2009 @ 2:30 am

Thanks for adding your thoughts on wordpress themes. One challenge I have are the numerous choices when starting a niche blog.

Comment by garminnuvi on April 11, 2009 @ 3:18 pm

I’m finding for good seo theme. but almost best seo theme is worst in design.

Jeff Replied:
April 11th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

The theme has nothing to do with SEO PEOPLE!!!

Comment by warrio on April 20, 2009 @ 12:33 pm

Most of time, choosing the correct wordpress theme is some what difficult. Because we have two options as free or premium one. When we plan a commercial wordpress bog we must choose a premium theme and for personal wordpress blogs we can go for free themes.
I guess that’s the good practice as this valuable post said to select the correct wordpress theme.

Comment by Internet Marketing on May 12, 2009 @ 10:03 am

I remembered the early times that I am using very unrelated theme for my wordpress. Haha, I even remember that I am using a Health looking template for my Marketing blog.

Comment by Photo Retouch on May 25, 2009 @ 11:24 pm

Picking the correct theme depending on your site content is one of the things most bloggers don’t consider about. if its flashy and trendy that’s what they use. Which should not be the case if you ask me. the theme should match the content. Then only the theme and content both will have a good value.

Comment by photo retouching on May 26, 2009 @ 10:18 am

i think coosing the theme in wordpress is not that big matter to me but i really care how my content is and what exclusive and new i write ..

Comment by Dmitriy on July 30, 2009 @ 6:17 am

Find the right theme – this is the first that should make you. But now there is an opportunity to make a desired WordPress theme. So it is no longer a problem. Divine “Personal” is the best tool for this.

Comment by photo retouching on August 23, 2009 @ 6:42 pm

i love wordpress blog .. i own a photo retouching and digital cameras site on word press .. actually it gives me all my needs and contorl in the site

Comment by lapel pins on September 22, 2009 @ 9:46 pm

I’ve read that some themes can hinder SEO, some themes double up the meta tags, etc. depending on your plugins. There’s a great plugin called all-in-one SEO that seems to work great.

Comment by alara on December 10, 2009 @ 4:10 am

I’ve used one theme randomly, but ı faced with many problems to handle data and edit lines, tabeles etc. Therefore, i changed it and now there is no problem with wordpress.

Comment by Sonal Sinha on June 23, 2010 @ 8:46 am

There are a lot of really nice looking free WordPress themes available online. And with some customization you may be able to find one that works for you. The problem is finding one that is coded properly. Below are three free theme sources that I trust.

* Courtney Tuttle SEO’d Themes
* Free WP Themes.net
* WordPress Themes Base
* 100 Amazing Free WordPress Themes

Regards,
Sonal Sinha

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