In order to fully realize a website’s potential, a theme is necessary. Website themes allow you to create a certain look and feel, but they can also extend a site’s functionality with various customizable features.

However, with so many choices available out there it can get hard to choose just one. So why not follow a guide to help you choose you website’s theme. Although WordPress themes are the most popular and highly mentioned, this article can help you choose a theme for a Drupal or Joomla site as well.

Finding Themes

Any WordPress site already comes with some default themes. But why stick with a default when there are so many awesome premium themes out there that are responsive, SEO optimized, customizable and easy to use. Sometimes it is just simply hard finding good website themes. 

That is why WordPress provides a theme directory with almost two thousand free website themes. If you have a Joomla or Drupal site you could also buy themes directly from theme marketplaces such as:

• StudioPress
• Mojo Themes
• Themeforest
• TemplateMonster
• GavickPro
• RocketTheme
• Elegant Themes
• WooThemes

Check out the Top Premium WordPress Themes of 2017

Theme Must Haves

Once you reach a marketplace that you like, then you need to narrow down your choices by looking at a couple of critical elements.

Modern Design and Features

With a new theme comes more modern features and less junk code. Some of those features could include sliders, site-wide search, enhanced functionality, accordion, page elements, social media icons/links, calls to action and many more.

Even if the theme doesn’t have specific features already built in, plugins can solve that problem. However, if they are already built into the theme, then that usually indicates that the developer really put in maximum effort into optimizing it.

Updated

Constantly updating can get annoying but a theme with regular updates is very useful in the long term. So, make sure the theme is in sync with the latest version of WordPress.

Uses HTML 5

HTML 5 is the current development standard because it is considered one of the best tools.

Responsive and Retina-ready

This allows visitors to access your theme with sharp images & a crisp design regardless of screen size or device.  

Customizable

In order to stand out from the competition, your website needs to be unique. Therefore, your theme also has to be unique. By choosing a theme that is customizable both globally and page specific, then you can make the colors, fonts, menus, headers and everything else, your own. 

Compatible with Visual Composer

Visual Composer is a great way for non-technical people to edit and manage the website once it’s built. But your theme could also come with some other type of editor like a Drag & Drop builder or features that make it easy to administer the site. What is important here is that if you aren’t a professional developer, then you could still manage your site, if necessary.

Important Factors

A few factors that should also be kept in the mind when choosing a website theme are: 

• Compatibility with different browsers
• Ability to upload videos 
• Custom error pages
• Blog accommodation
• Compatibility with common plugins
• WPML optimized (for sites with multiple languages)

Web Developers @ Iblesoft

By listing out the criteria you want your site to have and narrowing down the range of themes available that meet such criteria will help speed up the decision making process by a long shot. For example, if you search for themes with a responsive design, Virtual Composer integration and SEO-friendly, then the options available will much easier to choose from.

After you have a couple of themes that meet your criteria then you can choose the one that appeals to you the most. However, if after all of this you still can’t narrow it down to one or you have too many that you like, then you can count on us to help you out because you shouldn’t have to compromise on your ideal website.

We can help you with:

• Theme Integration (Free or Premium)
• Web Development – for a fully functional and responsive site
• Plugin Development
• Theme Customization
• Custom Theme Development
• Website Maintenance & Support 

Just get in touch with us!