When a client comes to me seeking a new WordPress website, one of the questions that often comes up is how to choose a good theme. With thousands of free and commercial themes available, it can be challenging to know which one will best meet the needs of a business.
Most people begin by looking at the visual design, which makes sense. An attractive theme with appealing photographs, colors, and page layouts can make a strong first impression. However, there’s considerably more to choosing a WordPress theme than its appearance.
Over the years, I’ve worked with numerous WordPress themes, and I’ve found that some of the most attractive ones can also be among the most challenging to customize and maintain. Others may appear relatively simple but provide the flexibility needed to create a well-designed, functional business website.
The important thing is to choose a theme that supports what you want your website to accomplish, rather than selecting one simply because you like the demonstration.
Following are some of the considerations I recommend when choosing a WordPress theme for a business website.
1. Start With Your Website’s Needs
Before browsing WordPress themes, consider the type of website you want to create and the features it will need.
For example, a contractor may want individual service pages, a project gallery, customer testimonials, and a contact form. A professional services business may need staff profiles, detailed service descriptions, frequently asked questions, and downloadable resources.
A retailer may require e-commerce functionality, while a business that provides workshops or appointments may need scheduling or event management.
These requirements will help determine which themes are worth considering.
Some useful questions include:
- Will the website primarily provide business information, or will it include a blog, online store, or other interactive features?
- Do you need different page layouts for services, galleries, portfolios, and other content?
- Will you need full-width sections, sidebars, image galleries, or custom page headers?
- Do you want to make routine content changes yourself?
- Will the website need to accommodate new pages or features as your business grows?
You don’t need to understand how these features are developed. Your web developer should be able to explain the available options and help determine which features are best handled by the theme and which require additional software.
My recommendation is to define what the website needs to do before becoming too attached to a particular design.
2. Understand the Different Types of WordPress Themes
WordPress has changed considerably over the years. Originally developed primarily as a blogging platform, it has evolved into a flexible content management system capable of supporting many different types of websites.
Today, there are two primary types of WordPress themes, along with themes that incorporate additional design and editing functionality.
Classic WordPress Themes
Classic themes use traditional WordPress templates and commonly provide customization options through the WordPress Customizer, theme settings, menus, and widget areas.
Many established commercial themes also provide their own administration panels and additional layout controls.
These themes can be useful for businesses that prefer a more traditional WordPress editing environment, particularly when combined with an established page builder.
The WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg)
The WordPress block editor, commonly called Gutenberg, provides layout flexibility for themes that don’t include a comprehensive visual page builder. It allows users to create more interesting page layouts by adding common design elements such as columns, buttons, image galleries, headings, and other content blocks without needing to write HTML or CSS.
This can be particularly useful for simpler websites or themes with limited customization options. Block themes extend this functionality by allowing users to modify headers, footers, navigation, and page templates through the WordPress Site Editor.
However, while Gutenberg offers useful design capabilities, I don’t consider it a direct replacement for established visual builders such as Elementor, WPBakery, or Avada Builder. These generally provide more extensive layout controls, styling options, and functionality for creating highly customized business websites.
Themes With Page Builders
Another common approach involves using a theme with a visual page builder, such as Elementor or WPBakery Page Builder.
These provide interfaces for creating page layouts using rows, columns, text blocks, images, and other elements. Depending on the builder and theme, developers can create highly customized pages without writing extensive HTML or CSS.
I’ve worked with several of these systems, and each has advantages and limitations.
For clients who want to make occasional changes, I generally place considerable importance on how easily they can edit content without accidentally changing the design.
There’s no single editing approach that’s best for every website. The important thing is to choose one that’s appropriate for the project and can be maintained effectively over time.
WordPress explains the differences in its Block Themes Documentation.
3. Look for Flexible Page Layouts
One of the most important considerations when selecting a theme is how easily it can accommodate different types of pages.
For example, your homepage may feature a large hero image, introductory content, service highlights, customer testimonials, and a prominent contact button.
Interior pages may have entirely different requirements. A service page might include photographs and text sections, while a project gallery could feature a grid of images with detailed descriptions.
Some useful layout features include:
- Full-Width Pages: Useful for pages with large images, banners, and sections that extend across the available content area.
- Multiple Column Layouts: Allow photographs, text, and other elements to be arranged alongside one another.
- Custom Page Headers: Provide consistent branding while allowing different pages to feature appropriate images or introductory content.
- Gallery and Portfolio Layouts: Present photographs and completed projects in an organized, visually appealing format.
- Flexible Sidebars: Provide room for related links, supplementary information, or other content where appropriate.
- Customizable Headers and Footers: Allow the placement of contact information, navigation links, business details, and other important elements.
With modern WordPress, much of this flexibility can come from the page editor or page builder rather than the theme itself.
For this reason, I wouldn’t reject a theme simply because its demonstration doesn’t include every layout you want. What matters is whether those layouts can be created efficiently and maintained without unnecessary complexity.
On the other hand, if a theme requires extensive custom programming to make relatively simple changes, it may not be the most practical choice.
4. Make Sure the Theme Works Well on Mobile Devices
Responsive design is now a standard expectation for business websites.
A responsive website automatically adjusts its layout to accommodate different screen sizes, including desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones.
However, I’ve found that just because a theme is advertised as responsive doesn’t necessarily mean every element will work well on mobile devices.
For example, a desktop layout may feature several columns of content, an image slideshow, and a navigation menu with numerous submenu options.
When viewed on a phone, these elements need to reorganize in a way that remains easy to read and navigate.
Some things I recommend checking include:
- Whether navigation menus are easy to use on smaller screens.
- Whether text remains readable without requiring visitors to zoom.
- Whether buttons and links are large enough to select comfortably.
- Whether photographs and other visual elements resize properly.
- Whether contact forms work well on mobile devices.
- Whether important content remains available and easy to find.
- Whether pages load reasonably quickly over mobile connections.
Don’t rely entirely on the theme’s desktop demonstration. Check the mobile preview and, whenever possible, test it on actual phones and tablets.
Google uses the mobile version of website content for indexing, making mobile usability an important consideration for both visitors and search visibility.
You can learn more from Google’s Mobile-First Indexing Best Practices.
5. Consider Website Speed and Performance
Some WordPress themes include an impressive collection of animations, sliders, galleries, visual effects, and other features.
While these can be appealing, they may also require additional JavaScript, CSS, images, and other resources that increase page loading times.
A theme that looks beautiful in a demonstration may be unnecessarily complicated for a website that only requires a few basic layouts.
This doesn’t mean you should avoid themes with advanced features. However, I recommend considering whether those features provide enough value to justify their effect on performance.
Some areas worth evaluating include:
- How quickly the theme’s demonstration pages load.
- Whether photographs and background images are appropriately optimized.
- Whether the theme loads unnecessary scripts or styling resources.
- Whether animations and visual effects interfere with usability.
- Whether the theme works with your preferred caching and optimization tools.
- How many additional plugins are required to reproduce the demonstrated design.
Website speed is influenced by more than the theme. Hosting, image optimization, caching, plugins, and third-party services also affect performance.
However, starting with a reasonably efficient theme can make optimization considerably easier.
Google’s Core Web Vitals documentation explains important measurements related to loading performance, responsiveness, and visual stability.
My advice is to prioritize a website that works quickly and reliably over one filled with effects that add little practical value.
6. Consider Accessibility and SEO
A good WordPress theme should provide more than an attractive appearance. Its underlying code and design should support accessibility and established web development practices.
Accessibility is particularly important for visitors who rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technologies.
Some important considerations include:
- Proper HTML structure and heading hierarchy.
- Readable text and sufficient color contrast.
- Navigation and interactive elements that can be used with a keyboard.
- Visible focus indicators for links, buttons, and other controls.
- Forms that can be properly labeled and understood by assistive technology.
- Layouts that remain usable when text is enlarged.
The official WordPress Theme Directory includes an “Accessibility Ready” designation for themes that meet certain accessibility requirements.
However, this designation doesn’t guarantee that the completed website will meet every accessibility standard. Content, plugins, customizations, and other website elements must also be considered.
The WordPress Accessibility Guidelines for Themes provide additional information.
Search engine optimization is another consideration. A theme should support properly structured content, descriptive page titles, logical navigation, and the ability to implement appropriate SEO settings.
However, I would be cautious about claims that a particular theme will substantially improve your Google rankings simply because it’s advertised as “SEO optimized.”
A well-developed theme can provide a good technical foundation, but it doesn’t replace useful content, proper optimization, and a sound website structure.
7. Be Selective About Plugins and Built-In Features
Some commercial WordPress themes advertise dozens of included features, such as sliders, forms, galleries, portfolios, social media feeds, and other functionality.
While it’s convenient to have these options available, I don’t necessarily consider the longest feature list to be an advantage.
One concern is that some themes depend heavily on bundled plugins or proprietary functionality.
For example, a theme may provide its own portfolio system or a specialized page builder. If you later decide to change themes, you may discover that the content doesn’t transfer cleanly to the new design.
In some cases, changing themes can leave behind shortcodes or require pages to be rebuilt.
For this reason, I prefer to keep important website functionality as independent of the theme as practical.
WordPress itself recommends that themes primarily control the presentation of content, while plugins handle functionality that should remain available when a theme is changed.
You can learn more in the official WordPress Theme Handbook.
That said, there’s nothing inherently wrong with using a commercial theme that includes specialized features. The important thing is to understand its dependencies and consider how easily the website can be maintained or redeveloped in the future.
I would also avoid installing numerous plugins simply because they’re available. Every additional plugin introduces software that may need updates, configuration, and compatibility testing.
8. Evaluate Theme Updates, Support, and Documentation
One of the most important considerations when selecting a WordPress theme is whether it’s actively maintained.
WordPress continues to evolve, and themes need periodic updates to remain compatible with new versions of WordPress, PHP, and commonly used plugins.
I’ve worked with websites where a commercial theme was no longer supported by its developer. In these situations, routine WordPress updates can become challenging, particularly when the theme relies on older scripts or bundled software.
Before choosing a theme, I recommend reviewing:
- Recent Updates: Has the theme been updated within a reasonable period?
- WordPress Compatibility: Does the developer indicate support for current WordPress versions?
- Developer Support: Is support available, and does the developer respond to reported problems?
- Documentation: Are there useful instructions for configuring and customizing the theme?
- User Feedback: Do reviews or support discussions indicate recurring problems?
- Plugin Dependencies: Are required plugins maintained and updated?
- Licensing: Are ongoing updates and support included, or do they require an annual renewal?
Don’t assume a commercial theme is automatically better than a free one. Some free themes are well developed and actively maintained, while some premium themes provide poor support or unnecessarily complicated administration.
The official WordPress Theme Directory is a useful starting point because themes submitted there are reviewed against established requirements.
For commercial themes, I recommend spending some time examining the developer’s documentation, update history, and support arrangements before purchasing.
9. Consider How Easy the Theme Will Be to Maintain
A theme may provide excellent customization options, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be easy for the website owner to manage.
This is an important distinction, particularly for businesses that want to make occasional changes themselves.
For example, adding a new blog post or updating a paragraph of text should be relatively straightforward. However, editing a complicated layout with numerous nested elements may require more experience.
Some themes provide extensive administration panels with hundreds of settings. While developers may appreciate these options, they can be overwhelming for someone who simply wants to change a photograph or update their business hours.
When evaluating a theme, I look at how easily common tasks can be performed and how consistently the website’s design can be maintained.
It’s also worth considering how customizations will be preserved when the theme is updated.
For classic themes, developers often use child themes to maintain custom code and design changes separately from the original theme files. Modern block themes also provide ways to customize layouts and styles without directly modifying the parent theme.
WordPress explains these techniques in its Child Themes Guide.
Another consideration is whether a developer will be available to assist when more extensive changes are needed.
Not every business owner wants to learn how to customize a WordPress theme, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In many cases, having someone experienced maintain the website is more efficient than spending hours learning the technical details.
10. Evaluate the Theme Before Committing to It
Once you’ve narrowed your choices, I recommend spending some time testing the themes before making a final decision.
A theme demonstration is designed to showcase its best features, often using carefully selected photographs and professionally arranged content.
Your website may look quite different once your actual text, images, and other material are added.
For this reason, I would consider the following:
- View the demonstration on desktop and mobile devices.
- Examine the homepage and several interior page layouts.
- Test the navigation, galleries, forms, and other interactive elements.
- Consider how your own photographs and text will fit into the design.
- Review the theme’s customization options and editing interface.
- Check whether required plugins or premium features involve additional expenses.
- Review the developer’s documentation and recent support activity.
- Where practical, test the theme on a development website before using it on your live site.
For an existing WordPress website, I would strongly recommend making significant theme changes on a staging or development copy rather than experimenting on the live website.
Changing themes can affect navigation, widgets, page layouts, and other design elements. Testing first helps identify compatibility problems without disrupting your visitors.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a WordPress theme is an important part of developing a business website, but it shouldn’t be based entirely on appearance.
A good theme needs to support the website’s content, provide suitable layout flexibility, work well on mobile devices, and be reasonably efficient, accessible, and maintainable.
It’s also important to consider the theme developer’s reputation, ongoing support, software compatibility, and how easily the website can be updated in the future.
Personally, I prefer a theme that provides the flexibility needed to create an attractive, functional website without introducing unnecessary complexity. I would rather work with a well-maintained theme that does a few things exceptionally well than one that includes dozens of features the business will never use.
And remember, you don’t need to become an expert in WordPress themes before beginning your website project.
A good web developer should help you understand the available options, recommend an appropriate theme and editing environment, and explain any limitations that may affect your website over time.
The goal is to choose a theme that works for your business, not one that requires your business to work around the limitations of the theme.
