Which WordPress Theme Is Best For Your Blog
“Which WordPress Theme Is Best For Your Blog” is something I have been getting asked a lot lately. As you may have noticed, WordPress has retired many of its older themes. And the new selection of themes is subpar to say the least. There are not many themes being offered at the moment and the ones that are being offered may not fit every blog perfectly.
Since, my theme is one that has also been retired, I have been doing some research into themes myself. And I realised, I don’t have a lot of posts on this topic. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have no posts on this topic. That’s why I decided to share some information on how to figure out which WordPress theme is best for your blog. These are some things you need to think about before figuring out which WordPress theme is most suited for your website or blog:
Your Niche
First and foremost, you need to figure out your niche or niches. I have nothing against multi-niche blogs. But, if you’re a multi-niche blog you need to figure out what those niches are. Look at the theme and think about whether it’s right for your niche or not.
For example, I have a multi-niche blog and I blog professionally. Therefore, I need a theme that will display my latest posts as well as have the option of displaying my services and introduction pages first. I also need a theme with widgets, menus etc. That is what I would look for in a theme.
If you’re a travel blog or website for example, you will need a theme that’s completely different from a hobby or educational blog. Travel sites want to display their destinations, deals etc. They don’t need the widgets option but they do need menus. They also need a theme that offers a lot of images rather than writing.
For a fashion or lifestyle blog, you’ll need a very aesthetically pleasing site. Something that looks classy but not clustered.
Those are just some examples of what you need to look for and why it’s so niche specific. You know your site or blog best, so which WordPress theme to use is up to you. Just make sure the theme offers the options you are looking for in your site.
Your Budget
You budget is a very important part of picking a WordPress theme. Why? Because WordPress only offers very limited options for those on a free plan. Their options for themes are limited as it is but for those on a free plan, the theme options are quite scarce.
If you are planning on making blogging a full-time thing or even a part-time option for income and have enough money in your budget to upgrade to a paid plan, you should. If you can afford a paid plan, that would really increase the amount of themes that you can use for your site. I have noticed most of the good themes are only available to those with a paid plan.
However, not to worry if you don’t have a paid plan. And don’t want to get a paid plan anytime soon. If you’re blogging as a hobby or just starting out it may also not be in your budget to get a paid plan. There are some great options for free themes too. You may just have to customise it a lot more to get it to look how you want it to. So be prepared to put in some time and work. And if you don’t have time to make these changes yourself, I do offer some services where I can personally help you pick a theme and customise it to look exactly how you want it to. Feel free to check out a full list of the services we offer here.
SEO
SEO is a vital part of any website. Especially, if you are planning to get more followers, traffic or make an income off your blog. SEO can often make or break your blog. And when it comes to deciding which WordPress theme is best for you, you need to think of SEO.
SEO measures a number of things on your site that concerns your theme. Firstly, you need to make sure your themes loading times are good. Your loading times need to be below a certain amount of seconds otherwise it will negatively affect your SEO. And some themes just tend to load slower. You want to avoid these themes. It’s best to choose themes that are simple and minimalistic because these themes tend to load much faster.
Another thing you need to look out for is how your text shows up. Make sure your audience can comfortably read it both on their laptop and mobile phones. And make sure to account for older readers that may not be able to read smaller text. Or certain styles of text. Some themes have cursive writing or very small text sizes. Make sure to pick themes that have a good text size and style.
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Conclusion
I hope this post helped you figure out which WordPress theme is best for your blog or site. It’s not an easy task to pick a theme. Especially when WordPress keeps retiring the good ones. But it is still possible to find a good theme that works for you.
What do you think about WordPress themes? Are you fully satisfied with your WordPress theme? Which WordPress theme are you currently using? Do let me know your thoughts in the comments below what your thoughts are. Or simply stop by and say hi!
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You are absolutely right on the subpar themes, Pooja. They are ridiculous! I have the Business plan so I can download themes, but the themes I have tried are still lame. WP has got to do better…
I’m on the Business Plan too and I definitely agree. None of the themes really stand out.
Who can we talk to about this other than those stupid happiness engineers!
That’s the problem. This platform just ignores us creators. So annoying!
Yes they do and it’s BS…
I don’t remember the name of my theme , but I somewhat like it.
In the free options it was the best.
It displays all the blogs of mine at first.
Earlier whol blogs used to come back to back, with the current theme, name and description come first.
Should we keep changing the theme?
Also, yes I would like to change my theme soon, to make it more comfortable for the readers. You made a valid point for the readers and the text. I will see what I can do. What do you think a health blog should look like? Should it be more serious? Or more fun?
I want the experience to be more comfortable.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful blog.
Haha, I thought mine will be the first comment. But well there are more people who wait for the latest blog of their favourite blogger 😊😌
Lol, yes I am very popular… jk jk 😂
Yes, you are indeed very popular, not jk, not jk 🙂
Lol thanks 😊
Yes, I change my theme every year or two so that I can upgrade my blogs look. I think health blogs need to look more professional but also not boring.
Thanks 😊
Okay then, I will see the appropriate theme for my blogs and do the necessary changes.
I will also make it more comfortable to read.
Thanks for the guide.
My pleasure and glad it helped.
I use Sela but my theme has been expired for years. I tried switching themes but didn’t like any of the ones WP offered. I have limited options d/t the premium plan and the choices are rather pathetic tbh. So Sela it is, even if it is expired!
A lot of the expired themes are actually really great. I don’t know why they take them down.
I agree. When I first joined WP there were a lot of really good free themes that worked well. So typical of WP to muck with things that don’t need fixing or changing.
Yes, I remember when I started there were like 200 free themes being offered. Slowly it became less and less and now there are barely any left.
Lmao there’s definitely not 200 free themes to be found anymore. Thanks for the chuckle 🤭 I remember when there’s were pages of free themes and the themes were really good.
Lol good old days 🥲
This was very informative. Thank you.
My pleasure, thanks for reading.
Informative as always Pooja!
Thanks so much!
Great post Pooja. I have had the same theme all along, it’s simple and clean. Some themes that I visit are difficult to navigate so I can how this would be a problem.
I agree, simple themes are always my favourite.
Thank you for sharing, Pooja!
Happy to do so!
Well, I didn’t think about these things when I chose the theme for my blog but as you said that there are very limited options for free yes it’s true and i think my current theme is pretty good according to me.
I also changed the size of the text so, it will be more comfortable for the readers to read. And color combination.
Should I do something else?
I think that’s great for now. I would just recommend keeping an eye on your theme to make sure nothing malfunctions cos that happens with WP sometimes.
Thanks for the advice <<3
You’re welcome.
Very great blog and advice about WordPress themes and selecting the best for your niche market. Mine is okay since my niche or topic of interest is fashion & style🔥🔥🔥
These are very useful tips for all bloggers be it professional blogging or personal blogging🙌🙏
Thank you so much. Yes, your theme is good for fashion/style. 😊
Thanks🔥🙏
My pleasure 🤗
It takes me a while to experiment with all the freebies until I find a simple one that allows a header picture and full read instead of a few lines and click for the remainder. Not interested in the pay ones.
Yes, the header picture is something I always look for in a theme too. The paid themes aren’t that great either lol.
The information was informative .
Glad to hear that.
Very good info! I’ve changed themes like clothes haha, but I’m warming up to the block editor (I believe that’s what it’s called) and will keep my current theme for a while. 😊
Yes, it’s good to change themes that’s how you find the right one. I’m still using the classic editor lol 😂
This is insightful.
Thanks for sharing.
At least I have learnt that your theme delayed visibility or loading can affect your traffic growth.
🥰✌️
My pleasure. Glad this helped you learn that 😊
Great post and advice as always Thankyou for sharing. It’s funny how sometimes we don’t look at simple things like smaller or larger texts which could have an effect on readers (Guilty) and totally agree certain themes can really slow down your loading times which can have damaging effects on your SEO
Thank you so much. Yes, sometimes we forget the little things but those are actually quite important. Some themes are definitely quite slow.
I want a pretty theme, but I don’t know how to customize mine enough to be beautiful and I’m way too scared about SEO because my blog isn’t organized enough for that.
Yeah customising sites is not easy at all. It takes me a few days at least. And SEO can be difficult too but once you get into it it’s not too bad.
How do you know your work is worth doing SEO?
Well, I think all sites are worth it because most sites aren’t very SEO friendly but it’s not too difficult to change that.
Ooh ok
I recently changed to Kadence and that was the best decision I ever made! My site has never been better!
That’s great, your site looks wonderful!
Good tips as usual Pooja. I changed my theme not to long ago to Lovecraft. Strange name I think, but I like how my site looks with it right now.
Lovecraft is one of the themes I really like. It’s simple and beautiful.
I agree.
It takes a very long time to find the right theme! Thanks for this post.
Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Thank you.
My beautiful theme was retired as well and I loved it because it offered a lot of possibilitis for customisation that I can’t seem to find in other ones…. I’ll have to dive deep into it and I’ll probably find something that suits me, but the thought of spending that much time on it is not very motivating ahah! Thanks for your tips, I’m sure it will help me be a bit more selective!
Sorry to hear that, it’s the same story with my theme. Thank you and good luck with picking a theme!
This was really helpful, Pooja. I’ll look into my site and figure out what needs to be adjusted
Thanks and glad it was helpful.
Lot’s of great information. Sad they change themes when people love their themes.🥹
I know, it’s so frustrating 😥
I agree there are limited options in free themes. Also, free themes have restrictions like we can’t customize much and there are no plugins.
Yes, that’s very true.
I chose “publishing” as my theme, but now the theme has lost its ability to count words, which is a function available before but not anymore. I am having a very basic paid plan, but I guess if I really want good gadgets and jetpacks etc., I will have to go for a more expensive plan. Thank you for sharing since you always have nice suggestions…
That’s awful. Sorry to hear that. There are some lovely themes even with the free or basic plans. But yes a lot of features are now only offered with paid plans. It sucks because when I started there were hundreds of free themes. And so many free features.
I have a poetry site and use the free template rebalance; I have added some widgets to it and experimented with the background color and fonts. It’s just the perfect thing for me.
It is too bad WordPress retired his themes.
Yes, it is. I very much liked some of the old themes. Yes, your theme seems to suit your niche very well.
I love looking at the different themes and switching it up from time to time!
Same!
Great post! Thank you for the tips. I’m on the free plan and I haven’t changed my theme in a while. Do you think I should change it, or is it good as a lifestyle blog?
Thank you so much. If you’re happy with your site I would recommend not changing the theme since changing it can sometimes cause glitches.
Yes im happy with the theme