With so many WordPress themes, you can easily become caught up in the theme rabbit hole which can quite literally turn your mind to mush. To make your life easier, here are 9 essential features you’ll want your theme to have.
Make yourself a checklist and if there’s not 9 checks by the end, keep looking for more. Maybe do some comparisons and voila, you’ve got yourself a hot new theme!
Responsiveness
If you’re unsure of whether you need your a responsive design, well, I’m here to tell you that you will definitely need it. Yes, your site will appear perfect on computers and laptops; phones, not so much which would be a big problem. Most people will be looking at your website with their phone, you need a RESPONSIVE design. If it’s not responsive, scrap it.
Browser Compatibility
With so many browsers (Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer), you want to make sure that it’s COMPATIBLE WITH DIFFERENT BROWSERS. If it’s not, you’ll run into a tricky (and rather annoying) situation when your website breaks on certain browsers.
Plugin Support
Some plugins are must-haves. Unfortunately, if your theme doesn’t support them, you’ll be out of luck. So do yourself a favor and make sure the theme SUPPORTS PLUGINS before purchasing.
Translation Ready
There’s an entire audience out there, so make sure they’re all able to enjoy your content. TRANSLATION & MULTILINGUAL READY is definitely something to look into before buying the theme.
Social Sharing
SOCIAL SHARING FEATURES are an absolute must for increasing traffic. Especially when it comes to Pinterest.
Think about it this way; how many times have you found an article through Facebook or Pinterest? Now add on all the other people who might have seen it too. All in all, that article has pulled in a good amount of traffic.
Remember, social buttons increase page views!
Easy Customization
THEME CUSTOMIZER & BUILDERS are a great plus if you don’t feel like dabbling in coding. The drag and drop feature is a lifesaver when you’re not a tech wiz.
Check for different post designs and page layouts. These will give you more options without the hassle of doing it yourself. Along with that, a customizer is great since it allows you to preview the changes before going live and a builder makes it so much easier. Honestly, anyone can work it. Especially when you have youtube to lend a hand.
Quick Load Speed
When looking at themes, check the LOAD TIME. Since google takes into account the load time when indexing your site, you want to make sure your theme is light and quick. If it’s slow to begin with and then you add plugins on top of that, you might end up with a sloth. Still, sloths are cute, so it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
Support
SUPPORT is another great feature of premium themes. If you ever run into problems and need a hand, you can reach out to the developer which can’t be done on free themes.
Ratings
RATINGS & REVIEWS are great to go by when you’re not 100% sure about buying the theme. You can see what people are saying about the product and if the majority of them only have positive things to say, then you can most likely trust it.