How to Choose the Right WordPress Theme
Picking a WordPress theme feels a little like picking paint colors. There are thousands of options, they all look great in the demo, and it’s hard to tell which one you’ll actually be happy living with.
Here’s the thing most people don’t realize: your theme affects a lot more than how your site looks. It affects how fast it loads, how easy it is to edit, how secure it is, and how painful it’ll be if you ever want to change it.
I’ve rebuilt plenty of sites that started with the wrong theme. So here’s what I look for, and what I steer clients away from.
Start with what the site needs to do
Before you fall in love with a demo, answer a few questions:
- Is this a simple business site, a blog, a store, or a membership site?
- Who’s going to edit it? You, an employee, or a developer?
- Do you need WooCommerce, a booking system, or other specific plugins to work with it?
A theme that’s perfect for a photographer’s portfolio might be a terrible fit for an online store.
What to look for
1. Lightweight and fast
Some themes load a mountain of scripts, sliders, animations and fonts on every page, whether you use them or not. That slows your site down, and slow sites lose visitors and rankings.
Look for themes known for being lean. Kadence (which this site runs on), GeneratePress, Astra and Blocksy are all popular, well-built options. Before you buy, run the theme’s demo through Google PageSpeed Insights. If the demo is slow, your site will be too.
2. Works with the WordPress block editor
WordPress has moved to blocks, and that’s where it’s headed. Choose a theme that works well with the block editor, so you can edit your pages without fighting the theme or depending on a heavy page builder.
3. Actively maintained
Check when the theme was last updated and whether it’s tested with the current version of WordPress. A theme that hasn’t been updated in a year or more is a security and compatibility risk.
On WordPress.org, the theme page shows the last update date and active installs. For premium themes, look at the changelog.
4. Real support and documentation
When something doesn’t work, can you find an answer? Good themes have documentation, an active support forum or help desk, and a community using them.
5. Easy to customize
Can you change colors, fonts, header and footer layout from the Customizer or site editor without touching code? You shouldn’t need a developer to change your logo.
Red flags
- Themes that bundle a pile of plugins. “Includes 12 premium plugins!” sounds like a deal. It usually means 12 more things to keep updated, and some of them may stop getting updates when the theme author moves on.
- Locked-in page builder content. Some themes build everything with shortcodes or a proprietary builder. Switch themes later and you’re left with a page full of code gibberish.
- “Nulled” or pirated premium themes. Never. They’re one of the most common ways malware gets onto WordPress sites. If it’s free when it shouldn’t be, there’s a reason.
- A demo that only looks good because of the photos. Picture it with your own images and content.
Switching your WordPress theme on an existing site
If you’re changing themes on a site that’s already live:
- Make a full backup first. (Here’s my Backup Checklist.)
- Test the new theme on a staging copy, not your live site.
- Check menus, widgets, headers and footers. These often need to be reassigned.
- Look for leftover shortcodes from the old theme on your pages.
- Check it on your phone. Most of your visitors probably are.
The bottom line
The best theme is the one that’s fast, well-maintained, easy for you to edit, and doesn’t lock you in. Fancy demos are nice, but you’re the one who has to live with it every day.
If you’d like a second opinion before you commit, or you’d rather have someone set it up right the first time, that’s what I do at That One Web Guy.