Incredible Mag

Things to Look for in WordPress Themes

<p>Blog Themes&colon; Is There Really a &&num;8220&semi;Right Theme&&num;8221&semi; for My Blog&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>WordPress themes<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; there are literally tens of thousands of them available today&period; Nevertheless&comma; not all of them can suit your blog perfectly&period; Some may be too &&num;8220&semi;busy&&num;8221&semi; for your blog&&num;8217&semi;s topic&comma; while others may not have all the features that you need&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even though there are lots of themes out there&comma; you can&&num;8217&semi;t just pick a random one and use that on your blog&period; You have to choose carefully&period; How&quest; You should look for certain things in the theme&comma; and of course weigh the pros and cons of the theme&period; Does it have this&quest; Does it have that&quest; Are the footer links a hindrance to my success&quest; Questions along those lines&period; &semi;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Today&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m going to focus on what things you should look for in WordPress themes&period; These are the things that I usually look for&comma; so if you think I missed something&comma; feel free to add more to this list by commenting&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m always open to suggestions and all that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-213" title&equals;"web design concept" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;incrediblemag&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;07&sol;web-design-concept&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What to Look for in WordPress Themes<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Fast loading time<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; While the loading speed of blogs is most likely affected by the widgets and &&num;8220&semi;accessories&&num;8221&semi; being placed by the owner&comma; themes also play a role in increasing the loading speed of a blog&period; If the theme uses too much images &lpar;or images which are big in file size&rpar;&comma; then don&&num;8217&semi;t consider using that theme&period; Your visitors would be bored to death waiting for your blog to load and that&&num;8217&semi;s not a great thing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Widget-ready feature<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; Almost all the WordPress themes today are widget-ready already&period; However&comma; there are still some which are left behind in time and don&&num;8217&semi;t have the capability to have widgets placed&period; If I were you&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d choose a widget-ready theme to save myself loads of time in configuring&sol;styling my blog&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Search engine optimized code &&num;8211&semi; Well&comma; let&&num;8217&semi;s face it&comma; not all of us can read and understand the coding structure&period; To give you a hint&comma; view the source code and see if the content appears somewhere on top of the code &lpar;not necessarily the first&comma; &&num;8217&semi;cause the header appears before the content itself&rpar;&period; Make sure that the sidebar stuff don&&num;8217&semi;t appear first than the content itself&comma; otherwise your blog might have problems getting into good positions in the SERPs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;Valid markup<&sol;strong> &&num;8211&semi; It&&num;8217&semi;s not really necessary&comma; but some people consider valid XHTML&sol;CSS markup when judging a site&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know why&comma; maybe they&&num;8217&semi;re just obsessive-compulsive or what&period; Some people also believe that Google &lpar;as well as other search engines&rpar; prefers blogs which have a semantically valid code&period; I myself don&&num;8217&semi;t believe that but just to be safe&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s better to have a well-coded theme&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Prominent advertisement spots &&num;8211&semi; Some blogs may not need ad spots&comma; but since most of you are internet entrepreneurs and would like to make money&comma; then choose a theme which allows you to place ads on visible and prominent spots&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t get a theme which has a little 88&&num;215&semi;31 ad space near the footer&excl; Try getting a theme which has a place for a full banner &lpar;468&&num;215&semi;60&rpar; or maybe a 125&&num;215&semi;125 square ad&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<span style&equals;"text-decoration&colon; underline&semi;">Clean design<&sol;span> and layout &&num;8211&semi; I am not a fan of &&num;8220&semi;busy&&num;8221&semi; themes&comma; so clean and simple designs work well for me&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s better to have neat layouts since most people are going to your blog to read your content&semi; they most likely won&&num;8217&semi;t care if you&&num;8217&semi;ve got a very extravagant background image&period; Besides&comma; the neater your blog&comma; the easier it is for everyone to read your posts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Colors which suit your blog&&num;8217&semi;s topic well &&num;8211&semi; If you&&num;8217&semi;re writing about business&comma; then avoid using rainbow-colored themes&period; That would make you look like a total idiot&period; Make sure that you&&num;8217&semi;re going to be using a theme which matches your blog&&num;8217&semi;s topic very well&period; For example&comma; if you run an environment-related blog&comma; then green is your best bet&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;These are the things that I usually look for in free&sol;premium WordPress themes&period; Hopefully you&&num;8217&semi;ll be able to choose more wisely now&comma; eh&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Please take note&comma; I highly suggest that you get a custom theme done instead of downloading free themes from a theme site&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re still having second thoughts&comma; I suggest you read this post from ThouShallBlog&period;com&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Summary<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Clean layouts&comma; feature-rich &lpar;but not overdone&rpar;&comma; and optimized themes are the best choices&period; Make sure that you choose a theme that suits your topic well &&num;8212&semi; like&comma; don&&num;8217&semi;t use a cartoony theme for a real estate blog&excl; Choosing the right theme will make your blog more reader-friendly and people will really feel what you&&num;8217&semi;re writing about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>P&period;S&period; As I said&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m going to hire a designer to create themes for me and I&&num;8217&semi;ll be distributing them for free &lpar;of course with my link&period; &colon;twisted&colon; &rpar;&period; Let me know what style of themes you prefer&period; Grunge&quest; MMO-like &lpar;with ad spaces and all that&rpar;&quest; Abstract&quest; Kiddish&quest; Colorful&quest; Just leave comments on this post&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>P&period;P&period;S&period; I promise to publish a post which is more internet marketing or probably entrepreneurship inclined during the weekend&period; This week&&num;8217&semi;s just very hectic for me so I ended up writing something about blogging&period; Nonetheless&comma; this one&&num;8217&semi;s still a useful post for you since most of you are bloggers anyway&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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