WordPress web development is the most convenient & affordable way to create a business website.
When you choose WordPress to build a website, you can easily say more than 40% on your website development cost.
Why WordPress is ideal for your business website development?
- WordPress is free to use.
- WordPress is easy to customize.
- WordPress developers are available at an affordable cost.
- Most WordPress plugins are free to use.
- It’s easier to redesign a WordPress website by simply switching over its theme.
- Most WordPress themes are inexpensive & mobile-friendly (responsive).
In this blog post, we will talk about WordPress themes.
Although it’s true that all WordPress themes are available at an affordable cost, your website builder still needs to pick one for your website carefully.
A buggy theme can ruin your website. It won’t be wrong to say that a theme can make or break your WordPress website.
Here we have shared 8 characteristics of a great WordPress theme.
#1 Theme support
The most important characteristic of a great WordPress theme is the availability of support. Your website developer must choose only those themes that provide great support.
During your website development, your theme may show some errors or bugs which could be because of any reason such as a server’s incompatibility or some plugin’s conflict.
Whichever the reason, your theme developer must provide you with prompt support to resolve your queries or fix the bugs on your website.
How can you or your website developer check the support of a theme developer before purchasing it?
- You can post a query for them and see how quickly they respond to it.
- You can check the reviews & ratings provided by the existing users of your shortlisted theme.
- You can check the questions asked by other users and the replies of the theme developer.
#2 Responsive design
It’s no more fancy to have a responsive website. It’s rather mandatory now.
A responsive design can help you not only to enhance the user experience of your website but also to boost your search engine rankings.
Before you buy any WordPress theme, you can check it on different devices such as mobiles & tablets.
You can also test the responsiveness of a theme or website with the help of any free online tools such as https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Fortunately, most WordPress themes come with a responsive design only. But it’s still required to check them before you go ahead & purchase them.
Recommended post: What are the advantages of responsive website design
#3 Visual editor
A visual editor helps you to create attractive webpages by a simply drag-n-drop technique which means that you don’t need any technical knowledge to build design-oriented pages.
Here are some of the major benefits that you get with a visual editor:
- It gives you more control over the formatting of webpages.
- You don’t need any coding experience to build attractive webpages.
- You can create good-looking webpages in just a few minutes.
Additionally, most WordPress visual builders come with pre-defined professional templates that you can use to create a conversion-oriented webpage in just a few minutes.
With all the above advantages of a visual builder, you can ask your WordPress developer to choose the perfect one for you.
Which visual builder(s) do we recommend?
- WP Bakery
- Elementor
#4 Shortcodes
Before you buy any WordPress theme, do check if it enables you to use shortcodes.
What’s a shortcode?
Shortcodes allow you to add various functionality to your webpages or blog without actually writing any code.
What’s the benefit of using shortcodes?
You can use a shortcode on several places on your website to display a particular feature and when you want to make any changes to this feature, you don’t have to edit all the pages.
All you have to do is, just change the main feature and the shortcode will automatically display the updated feature on the respective webpages.
#5 Interactive theme customizer
Although most WordPress themes come with a customizer feature through which you can make basic changes to your theme, not all of them are user-friendly & intuitive.
What you can change with a theme customizer?
- Website logo
- The color scheme of your website
- Typography (font family, font size, font color, etc. )
- Website header elements
- Footer elements
- Inner-page formats
If your theme doesn’t provide a user-friendly theme customizer, you may have to hire a website developer to make necessary changes in the CSS files to change the colors & other cosmetic elements on your website.
#6 Import demo data
When you view a demo of any WordPress theme before purchasing it, you can see a fully-functional/ fully-developed website. But when you buy it and install it on your server, you may not see the same version.
What’s missing here?
Data import.
Yes, you do need to check if your theme provides you with an option to import the demo data in just a few clicks. When you have the option to import demo data, you can make your website look like exactly the original theme’s demo.
#7 Contact form
A contact form helps you to receive inquiries from your target audience. Especially if you are a service provider, you do need a form to collect leads & convert those leads into sales.
Why contact form is essential for your business?
- A contact form makes your website look professional.
- It makes it easier for users to contact you.
- It shows that you are available to your customers all the time.
- It helps to build customer data at the backend of your website.
Before buying a theme for your business website, you must make sure that it has a contact form for you to enable and use on different webpages.
Recommended post: 7 Major reasons to have a contact form on your business website
#8 Misc checks
Below are a few more checks that you need to ensure before you buy any WordPress theme:
- Browser compatibility
- Loading speed
- Website performance
- Reviews of existing users
- The last updated date shouldn’t be too old
- Map to show where your business location
- Gallery to show a set of photos (portfolio, gallery, etc. )
- Basic sliders to show offers and other info
Of course, your website builder can fix or integrate all of the above features, but when you get these features in-built with your theme, it makes your life easier.
