When a client comes to me seeking a WordPress website developed they often have questions about what makes up a good theme. Beyond the visual elements, which are important, there is the need for the theme to be suitable for as a website and not just a blog. If you’ve ever browsed the free themes at the WordPress – https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ website you will find many of all types and styling. The majority of these though are not suitable for most websites since they are designed to work as a blog, which is in fact what WordPress was initially designed to be. Since many people are unclear on what is needed for a website, and not just a blog, I thought I would write this post.
Firstly know that a CMS (Content Management System) theme is very different from a WordPress Blog or Magazine theme. CMS themes are defined by their ability to look like a traditional website, which is intended to serve up “static-looking” pages. In this regard you would want to be able remove default WordPress elements like “comment on this post”, and “leave a comment”. Seriously, how many business websites do you see with such elements? None. So yes, a CMS theme is important and luckily WordPress has many good ones being created the last couple of years. The next important consideration is that whichever theme you choose be sure that it is compatible with the latest WordPress version. WordPress versions have changed often lately so this can pose a problem since in many cases a theme that was created for a previous version won’t work correctly in the latest version.
Layout specifics. The first thing you will note when looking at the different themes at the WordPress site is that they are differentiated by colors, columns, width, features, and subject. These filters will help you find one that meets your needs, or at the very least better understand the layout specifics – https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/
For columns, you will see the option of one-column, two-columns, left-sidebar, right-sidebar, etc. For width there is the option of a fixed-width, or flexible-width. Flexible will refer to the width being percentage-based, so variable based upon the viewing resolution. Features is what really will set a theme apart, and a good feature set is what will set apart a quality commercial theme from a free one.
Column flexibility is important, and I touch upon this following. Flexibility of the width is only really important when you are looking to choose a responsive WordPress theme so that it will render well on mobile devices. In most cases a fixed (pixels based) width is all that is needed, and since pixel based layouts are more exacting, the layouts will typically allow for a greater deal of visual customization and stylistic elements than can be found in a variable width layout.
Features, and design specifics are very important. When I evaluate a commercial theme the first thing I consider is what does the website need to work well? If your site intends to have a gallery or portfolio, then you need a theme that provides good gallery and/or portfolio layout options. Firstly you should note that a portfolio and gallery will typically have a very similar look/layout, yet the portfolio typically provides room for a text description, whereas a gallery will generally allow for a title, but not much else by way of text. Ok, so of these, there will usually be a full-width gallery or portfolio (gallery one-column), a two-column gallery (two images per row), three-column-gallery (three images per row), a four-column gallery (four images per row), and a gallery detail page (well, for portfolios typically, but not galleries. In this case there will be just the one image yet ample room for a text description). As you can imagine, the more columns, the smaller the image displayed will be since the image needs to fit into the width dimension of the gallery space.
Another common option with galleries and portfolios is the ability to have the results filterable and displayed in one of two ways. For example a filterable gallery will have links or buttons at the top by gallery category type, such as “trees”, “rocks”, “flowers”, “people”, etc. when you click say “rocks” only the images in the rock category are shown on the page. The other option is the display view. In this case you can select to have just the image shown in a grid pattern, or to have the images presented in a single column with a text description adjacent to each. There are a few variations upon these type of features, but it is important to browse enough of the gallery/portfolio types to get a good idea of what is possible in this regard. Another thing you should consider is how are the large image views displaying when a smaller image representation (thumbnail) is clicked upon? Typically PrettyPhoto or Lightbox is used in one style or another, though some will simply display the image in a new page (yuck!). With PrettyPhoto and Lightbox some will grey-out the background (darken and semi-transparent), others will whiteout the background (lighten and semi-transparent), while others will just render over the background as-is.
Another important consideration of WordPress themes for business is how easily is the content differentiated from page to page. Since WordPress (and other CMS applications) use a templated system, each page type is defined by the template page it is linked to. The better themes will have one or more Home page types (some are easily editable, others not), a contact page (some have google map inclusions, and other features), one or more gallery and/or portfolio page types, and a default page. Note where I say “page” here since a page is not a “post page”. A free or low quality wordpress theme will have the option to create a default page and blog posts (which are linked to a default page), otherwise there is no custom page types. To be clear, custom pages types are important to allow for the WordPress site to look like a website, and to provide visual diversity across the pages.
when looking at WordPress CMS layouts one of the most important features beyond the different page-type options is the ability to have custom sidebars. By default WordPress allows for a sidebar to either be on a page, or hidden (full-width). In this case the sidebar will be on the left or right of the page based upon how the theme was created. A good commercial theme will allow you to place a sidebar on either the left or the right, and it will allow “unique” sidebars across the pages. This is very important since in most cases you will want to feature different content on the sidebars. For example, on your blog post page you will likely want to use your sidebar for post categories, popular posts, archives, and other post related information. Whereas on your contact page you will likely want to use a text widget to include your contact information, maybe a newsletter sign-up form, a picture of your business etc. Whereas on the other pages you may want to include links to featured pages or related content.
Another important consideration is the customization options for the header and footer. A good footer will allow from a one column to four columns of custom content. Here you can add your copyright, privacy policy link, company address, additional navigation, social media icons, etc. A good header will allow for content such as your phone number, social media icons, a tag-line/slogan, etc.
Widgets (plug-ins will provide new widgets in many cases) are another important consideration of the WordPress theme. There are the typical widgets that are automatically available for all WordPress sites, but a good commercial theme will provide custom widgets such as a mini-gallery and/or images for the sidebars, newsletter sign-up form, e-commerce “cart” integration for themes that support this, social media integration, custom menus, calendars, etc.
Plug-ins in WordPress are of many types. If you are unfamiliar with these they are those additional elements that will extend the theme. Common plug-in types are for SEO (search engine optimization), contact forms, spam blocking, xml sitemaps, social media integration, e-commerce, Google Analytics, event calendars, etc. what you need to know is that in many cases plug-ins will conflict with each-other; so not all plug-ins are compatible together since they will call upon common libraries and you will often encounter a “Fatal Error” notice or something similar. In this case my suggestion is to “deactivate” one plug-in at a time for testing purposes and when you define which plug-ins are conflicting do a search online for the conflict between them. Trust me, if you’re having a conflict problem with two plug-ins so are other people and in most cases you’ll find a work-around solution, or at-least find a similar plug-in that won’t conflict.
Finally we need to consider the administrative interface. By default WordPress is pretty easy to use, but when looking at commercial WordPress themes you will find that not all are user-friendly. Typically a commercial theme will have its own theme control panel inclusion. From this you will be able to customize all those aspects that aren’t provided by default in WordPress. It is important to note that many commercial themes will not work, or work well, in the later WordPress versions, which is why you will note that every time WordPress does an update they caution you to backup your database first. Some commercial themes provide good support and will help you update your theme, or provide a theme update which you can install for free, yet some don’t. Some commercial themes provide good documentation on how to customize their theme, data you can important to get your started, and free email support, yet some don’t. And some will provide YouTube videos of how to make changes to those challenging parts, such as the galleries, yet again, some don’t.
My suggestion with WordPress, and all CMS development applications is to take the time to really learn what is available. Choosing a theme is an important consideration, and while the cost is generally minimal, the time required to learn to use it well, and to customize it is important so choose wisely. I always look to see if the theme designes have a forum or a “purchased” comments area. From this you will quickly see the problems others are having with customization, conflicts, etc. As always if you need help with your website I am always pleased to assist you.
