So now that you’ve registered your domain name and picked a niche, it’s time to choose a theme for your blog.
Here’s what you need to do in order to choose the best WordPress theme for your blog.
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Where can you get WordPress Theme for free?
There are many places to get free WordPress themes for free. For instance, you can get a lot of free themes directly on WordPress. Click here to see.
You may need a free WordPress.com account to see those free themes.
Here’s another place to find free WordPress themes:
1. Choose a theme that you like
First of all, you need to choose a theme that you like. What’s the point of choosing a theme if you hate looking at it?
This should be the first thing you look at. Of course, if you’re picky and you like no theme after looking at hundreds, you should lower your standards a bit.
2. List out features that you want in a blog
For instance, the features you want in a blog may be:
- Able to customize and import fonts
- Able to change the color theme
- Continuous scrolling
- Mobile-friendly
- Specific post layout
- Compatible with certain plug-ins
- Social sharing option
- Reading progress bar
- Individual category colors
- Different Currency options (If you sell stuff on your site internationally you may want to have the option for different currencies)
- Woocommerce (This is a plug-in and allows you to sell things on your site. If you want this feature, you may want to make sure that the theme is compatible with Woocommece)
- Alidropship plugin (This is a plug-in for dropshipping from Alibaba so you may want to make sure the theme is compatible with the plug-in)
In most cases, when you visit the theme’s website, you can see what features they have on their page.
It may be hard to find a theme that checks off all your boxes so you may have to compromise a bit.
When you’re just starting out, you may not know what features you want yet. My advice is just to pick a theme and you’ll pick up new things along the way.
You may realize that “Hey, I really like themes that have a reading time feature” so you’ll want to include that on your list when you’re on the theme hunt next time.
You can always change your themes later on if you like. For this blog, I changed the theme maybe 5 times before landing on the current one that I really like.
You don’t want to change the theme on your blog too often but when you got no traffic in the beginning, it’s totally okay!
When your blog gets big enough you can also upgrade to a paid theme or a custom theme where you can hire web developers to design and code the site for you.
3. Choose a theme that is mobile-friendly (responsive)
It’s vital that you choose a theme that is mobile-friendly. Another word for mobile-friendly is responsive.
A mobile-friendly website will have elements that shrink down to the right sizes when it’s viewed from a smaller device such as a phone.
If the website looks broken in mobile view, it’s not mobile-friendly. If the website looks look nice in mobile view, nothing it’s too big or too small as though it’s meant for a desktop view, then it is mobile friendly.
You can typically see that the website is mobile-friendly on the theme website because it’ll say so in the feature section, but if not, you can just assume that it is mobile-friendly. Most themes today are.
Always check to make sure the theme you picked is responsive when you installed it so you can switch to another theme if you realized that it’s not.
4. Go for a theme that is clean and simple
You should choose a theme that is simple and clean. No overcomplicated mess and no too many extras.
You really just want a theme that is easy to navigate and use and clean in design so you don’t have to spend too much time figuring out your theme.
5. Choose a theme with updates
Something you should look out for is whether the theme has updates and supports.
You want to choose a theme that gives updates regularly because if it doesn’t your website may be hacked more easily.
A website theme always has to be maintained and if the devs aren’t maintaining the theme they developed, it is easier for hackers to gain access to your site.
Imagine all your hard work going to waste because someone took over your site.
6. Choose a theme with support
You may have certain questions about your theme. Some elements may not look right, there may be a bug, you may be confused about how to find a certain feature, etc, and having a support team there to help you can be tremendously helpful.
Support may come in the form of:
- An email that you can reach out to them by
- A forum
- A live chat
- Documentation (basically a document that you can read to find out how to fix certain theme issues yourself)
- Comment section
- A ticket that you can open with them
- Social media (Facebook page, Instagram)
- Website
Most of the time, themes are pretty intuitive and you don’t really need to ask for support but it’s good to have that option should you need it.
You may also want to consider how long it takes them to get back to you and provide you with a response.
You can do a test drive and send them an email inquiring about something to see how fast they respond.
You can ask something like:
- Is there a pro plan
- Is there a refund
- How long since the purchase date can you get a refund
- Are they woo-commerce compatible
- Is there a currency exchange feature
7. Check out the reviews
Make sure to check out the reviews to see if it’s good.
Reading the reviews can tell you vital things that you can’t otherwise find on their site.
They’re only going to tell you the best features of their site and not potential bugs and things you need to be wary of.
Keep in mind that some reviews may be fake and may have been made by their competitors.
Look at their overall stars and the number of reviews in total.
The more reviews they have, the more you can be certain that they are legit and the theme is good.
8. Check out what themes other bloggers are using
You can use this website to check out what theme other bloggers in your niche are using.
All you have to do is to type in the URL and if they are using a WordPress theme, you can find out what theme they use.
Some of the biggest names in your niche may use a custom niche that they hired programmers to make specifically for them so you may not be able to know what theme they use.
You can go to Facebook groups for bloggers and see what everyone in your niche is using for their themes.
You can, of course, change the theme color and customize the layout to make sure that you aren’t having the exact same-looking theme as your competitor.
9. Consider paid themes
If you got the budget you can consider paid themes but it’s not necessary.
I started this blog with a free theme and it works just fine. In the future, I’ll have a paid theme if I feel like there’s a need to.
You can buy themes that are already made for you. They typically range between $39–200+ bucks.
If you have someone develop the theme for you from scratch, it may cost you $2000+.
When you’re just starting out, you really don’t know a whole lot about your niche and what your blogging journey will be like.
You want to avoid spending a lot of money on a theme because you may decide 3 months into blogging that this isn’t for you. Maybe you don’t like the niche, maybe you run out of things to write, maybe you find a better niche, maybe you see no future monetary potential with this niche, etc.
The point is, in the beginning, you should avoid paying for a theme and just go with a free one.
I would recommend you to give it 6 months at least before you consider a paid theme.
Final thought
Choosing a theme isn’t as complicated as you think. In truth, almost any theme you choose would be fine.
You don’t need to spend a lot of time choosing a theme. Just get started! 🙂
