If you’re just about to start building your website from scratch, the chances are that you’ll decide to use WordPress. One of the crucial decisions you’ll need to make is choosing the site’s theme. Selecting the right one among the best WordPress themes out there can be a challenging endeavor, but we’re here to help. Keep reading for a few of our suggestions for outstanding themes that will make the front end of your website look unique and engaging.
First Things First – What Is a WordPress Theme?
WordPress theme is one of the many great benefits of using WordPress. A theme is a set of templates, stylesheets, and code files that allow you to modify the appearance of your site – in other words, to change what’s displayed on the front end, but without changing anything in the core WordPress software. This ensures easy customization and editing, making it simple even for beginners trying to boost their online presence.
Different themes offer different options for layouts, colors, typography, and various other design elements. There are more than 10,000 free WordPress themes you can download from the official WordPress theme directory. If none of them suit your needs and you’re looking for certain advanced features for your website, you can opt for purchasing one of thousands of premium themes from third-party developers.
What’s the Difference Between a Theme and a Template?
Beginners often confuse a theme and a template. The template file is part of a theme – it’s just one of many types of files, such as stylesheets, images, or scripts. You can’t install a template separately – it works together with other files in your WordPress theme. While a theme determines the look of an entire website, a template controls only what one page or even part of a page looks like. For example, a template can determine a footer or a comment section and control what information is displayed on a certain part of a page.
Exploring the Best WordPress Themes – Why Is It Important to Do Your Research Before Choosing
What’s the importance of themes? Whether you’re creating a site for your newly developed small business or you want to create a portfolio to showcase your skills as a photographer, it’s crucial to present yourself in the best way possible, and the aesthetics are the first things that catch the user’s eye when they open your homepage.
Not every theme is suitable for every type of website. What do we mean by that? For example, the website for a travel agency will look drastically different from an ecommerce website, don’t you agree? That’s why you need to dig deep in order to find your perfect theme – the one that will fit your desired style, but also offer features that are necessary for the functioning of the site.
It’s a great thing that many WordPress themes are free, so you can experiment with them until you find the perfect one. However, keep in mind that free themes are limited when it comes to customization, so you might end up with a generic-looking site if you don’t have the tech expertise to make additional changes.
What Are the Factors to Consider When Selecting a Theme?
When you begin the quest to find the theme you’ll love, it’s important to consider not just aesthetics, but also the requirements, limitations, and goals you want to achieve with the website in question. So, let’s take a look at the key factors to consider when it comes to WordPress themes:
- Compatibility with tools you need – Consider if the tools you need, such as SEO tools or analytics tools, can be supported by the theme of your choosing. Keep in mind that it’s always best to pick a theme that is well-optimized for SEO practices.
- Complexity and features – Some themes require technical knowledge to be handled properly, so it’s important to consider this if you don’t have a web developer and designer. Be sure to check if the theme offers all the features you require – whether it’s related to the design or the admin area of the website.
- Mobile responsiveness – We all know how important mobiles are nowadays – more than 60% of web traffic is mobile, which is why you must make sure that your theme functions and looks great on the phone as well.
- User reviews – Themes with a high number of downloads and positive reviews are more likely to work well. The only downside of choosing a popular theme is that your website might end up looking similar to many others, but this can be avoided if you have an expert in web development by your side.
Astra – A Versatile and Highly-Customizable Option
Astra has more than a million active installs, making it one of the most popular WordPress themes out there. It can be a great choice for those who are just starting out and still don’t have a complete image of what they want to create, as it’s very customizable. There is a free version of this theme, but it doesn’t offer as many possibilities as the premium one.
One of the main reasons we love this theme is that it’s SEO-friendly and allows you to implement many search engine optimization techniques. Astra can be used for a wide variety of websites – from small businesses to blogs and ecommerce sites. It’s lightweight and promises fast loading speed as well. If you find yourself with an issue, Astra’s support team is always available and ready to assist.
Hello Elementor – Simple to Use and Offers Great Freedom When It Comes to Design
As you may have guessed, Hello Elementor comes from the same developers who brought us one of the best page builders on the market, Elementor. Naturally, this theme works great with Elementor, whether you opt for Elementor’s free or premium option. Hello Elementor promises great speed and flexibility in design, and it’s also mobile-friendly. The theme is known for its ease of use – it’s more than recommended for beginners.
It comes with more than 300 pre-designed templates that are simple to customize, but you also have the option of creating your own designs with Elementor’s drag-and-drop interface. With this much freedom when it comes to design, it’s easy to implement Hello Elementor to not just simple blogs, but business websites, portfolios, and ecommerce websites.
Divi – Achieving Unique Design Without Writing Any Code
Divi is another well-known theme that features great customization options. It’s one of the most intuitive themes, allowing you to make design edits seamlessly thanks to its front-end Visual Builder. You won’t have to write a single line of code if you opt for Divi, and that’s one of the reasons many love it.
With numerous elements that you can customize to fit your needs – from accordions to carousels – and over 2,200 design layouts that await you, it’s safe to say that you will be able to build something unique with this theme. While you can use Divi for any website you need, we recommend it for blogs thanks to its versatility in design – you will surely be able to create a unique blog. Lastly, don’t worry about mobile responsiveness – it works seamlessly on a mobile device as well.
Ultra – Features Pre-Made Demos to Help You Get Started
Created by Themify, Ultra is quite a user-friendly theme, and it’s one of the top choices for those who don’t have design or coding skills. It features a large pre-designed library of demo sites which you can get up and running in a few clicks, saving yourself time and effort. The demos cover a wide range of niches, so you’re likely to find a look that suits your style. This is what makes Ultra an excellent choice for many different niches – photography, fitness, beauty, games, ecommerce, and many others.
Once you have the site up and running, you can proceed to customize your layout with the Themify page builder, making it engaging for your users. This simple front-end page editing allows you to see all the changes as you make them, making it easy to fix any mistakes along the way.
Salient – Focused on Minimalistic Yet Engaging Design
Salient is a WordPress theme that’s mostly focused on design – but it will be the most appealing to those who are looking for a minimalistic one. While colorful sites with plenty of interesting elements can be great for many types of businesses, those who need a formal-looking, professional site will surely appreciate this theme.
With a minimalistic design, you can focus on highlighting your content. That’s why Salient works great for all sorts of blogs or news sites, but you can also use it to set up your portfolio – the minimalistic design will help emphasize your photos and allow them to pop up on the screen. With more than 250 pre-built layouts and 65+ unique elements, you will be able to create a beautiful website without any coding knowledge needed.
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