How to choose a WordPress theme for your business ?

Thinking to start a new online store? Want to promote your business? Showcase your artwork? Want to contribute to social well-being? Well, all of these purposes need a web presence, more than it was needed in the past when physical address was considered to be the most important aspect of reliability of an entity. Now, individuals quickly open a web browser, enter the URL and get all the information they need about you or purchase the stuff they need without leaving the comfort of their home or office. As we know, PHP/HTML built static websites are now the talk of the past. CMS based websites have now taken over the web worldwide. We will talk about a specific CMS; WordPress or WP, which is the most, used CMS to create websites of all kinds. In this post, I’ll try to help you with selecting the best WordPress themes for your websites.

Why selecting a WordPress theme is difficult?

1. Availability of thousands of themes, in most cases, identical except a few features and appearances.
2. In most of the cases, the person wishing to get a website built is not familiar with those tech terms, nor has time to learn and play with web languages.
3. Most of the WordPress theme developers are tempted to hype theme, with unnecessary features and widgets to make the theme look some kind of next Gen invention and make a fortune by selling it. They sacrifice usability, interactive elements and good support.
4. Most of the WordPress theme developers focus more on the aesthetics and very minimum attention to the marketability of the website which will be built from their themes.

Well, I’m here to help you decide on the best theme for your business or in fact, any purpose you’re willing to spend your hard-earned cash. I’ll give you some very easy tips and tools to select the best WordPress theme for your website. So, please continue reading.

Take your time to answer these 3 questions and you’re half way done.
Your target audience.
This is the first and most crucial element which will shape your website and its appeal. For example: If you wish to target children under 14 years of age, comic and toon elements with funky colors will make the most impact. If your target audience is in their late 40s and 50s, calm colors with least animations are preferred. Sports website must display some aggression, vibrant colors and a lot of pictures. Apart from that, always try to accommodate colors of your company logo; this helps visitors to relate the content of the website to your business.

More words or more pictures?
A picture is worth a thousand words. This can be true for websites aiming to showcase, sell or promote artwork, photography, restaurant, real estate or any other stuff which can be recognized and related to its actual picture. Other than these categories, excessive use of images, pictures, and graphics distracts the attention of the visitor and fails to engage him/her. This is the same case with using excessive word description; this bores the audience and forces them to leave for another similar website (your competitor wins!) The best strategy is to use the combination of words and pictures to keep the website lively, joyful and informative at the same time.

Character of your website.
Now, what I mean by the character of your website is: Is it serious? Fun and easy to stay a little longer with? Or highly customized and candy for eye?

1. Serious WordPress themes are suitable for business practices like, Health insurance, Loan and finance, healthcare services, education services, NGOs, etc. where the audience is aimed at getting information on services that have a direct and prominent impact on life, finance and well being. Serious websites are comparatively more trusted and should aim for building reliability of the content of the website and services of the business.
2. Fun and easy WordPress themes are those which appeal the visitor to stay a little longer, browse through its various pages and they offer a kind of relaxation. The best example can be a website that lists food recipes. A visitor may come to find a certain recipe, finds and notes it, but he will surely browse through some other recipes as well if presented with good pictures of the food. These websites are suitable for Restaurants, travel and tourism, most ecommerce stores, social networking, dating, image sharing etc.
3. Innovative WordPress themes are primarily one product or service websites used by Individual inventors, re-sellers, marketers or franchises. The main purpose of such websites is to attract as many visitors as they can, list all the features and benefits of the product or service and convert into sales or at-least generate an inquiry.

Now, after brainstorming these questions, I’m sure you have a fair idea of what you need from your website. Now let me give you some quick tips and help you actually select the best WordPress theme for your website.

1. Mobile Responsiveness: We are in the age of cellular evolution. According to a survey, 68% website traffic now comes from mobile devices. You can now comprehend the outcome of the website which doesn’t display properly on such devices; you’ve lost 68% potential leads.
2. Search Engine Optimization: SEO stands for helping your website to be on the first page of any search made by a visitor on search engines and is relevant to the business or the content of your website. 71% web users use search engines to search what they are looking for rather than manually typing the URL of your website, nobody can remember hundreds of URL for services or products they need once in awhile.
3. How much do you know about website technologies: 57% website owners do not know what the website is built out of in case of static websites? 22% website owners are at intermediate level and can do some basic edits and changes to their websites. Remaining 21% can do whatever they want for their websites. 66% individuals who own WordPress websites can maintain and manage their websites very well and save money they would otherwise pay to web developers. It was a sole and tedious task of seasoned web developers to manage, maintain and update the website before CMS based websites like WordPress came into play. WordPress websites can now be managed, updated with very little or no knowledge of web technologies. You should consider this.
4. Now, let us begin the search. There are multiple theme selling platforms on the web, which have thousands of WordPress themes of all kinds and shapes to suit your needs. The idea is not the biggest theme selling website or how many themes they have, rather visit 2-3 such sites, select 5-6 theme based on the category of your website. The real deal starts here. You MUST check the reviews, discussion board and updates made to the theme by the theme developer. Reviews will help you figure out the experiences of others using the same theme. Discussion boards primarily have the question asked by the theme users, problems and bug reports and theme developer’s responses’ to them, here you can determine if the support provided by the developer is up-to-date or not. Having a look at the update list to the theme, can give you an idea about how active the developers are and their efforts to keep the theme in accordance with latest web advancements and problem solving.
5. The other selection criteria should be additional focus on the look, feel and aesthetics of the theme. Try to find a theme that offers: various color options, font options, and overall feel of the theme to convey the CHARACTER of your website. WordPress themes and templates can always to be altered, customized and updated to meet changing needs of website owners and according to changing tastes of customers.
6. Good documentation, good support, and specific features you might need in the future are worth considering as well.
7. We live in the world of social media where we have more virtual friends and colleagues than we have in a physical society. Social media integration is also important as it was ever before. Consider this, a visitor comes to your website, uses his/her social media login and finds some friends already using your website. Bang, you’ve won another lead. Apart from this, when they use social media to login to your website, your website is also published on their social accounts, where other potential leads might be waiting for a reference from one of their friends.

Happy hunting for the best themes. If you do not wish to get lost in the sea of WP themes, which offer only a few of above mentioned features and benefits, you’re always welcome to check out our themes. Our themes come with lifetime free support and it will be very quick as well. Not happy with some elements of our theme or need something extra, we’re here to customize it for you. Did I mention some of them are free too and are approved by the WordPress.org? Well, they are!