Are you having trouble selecting the next WordPress theme for your new project? It’s difficult, isn’t it?
You’ve gone through dozens of themes and selected a handful and now you cannot decide which one to pick.
Ultimately, you pick one – only to find out that the theme is nowhere close to the demo. All your precious hours of research and brainstorming – just went down the river.
Guess what my friend – we’ve all been there.
The root of the problem lies in inexperience. It is not a bad thing.
You fall, you learn. (At least, that’s the jest of what Alfred told Bruce Wayne).
In today’s post we’re going to talk about some actionable tips on buying a WordPress theme. Things to look out for, how to identify a bad theme and spot a less appealing, yet powerful theme.
Buying themes from shady sources
Sometimes we don’t realize what we’re getting into. We all know and love WordPress. If the mother product (WordPress) works so very well, how can its themes not?
That’s a valid argument. Most of the times it pans out, when we go for a popular free theme from the WordPress repository, or a premium one that’s featured in WordPress.org.
In both these cases, the themes have been screen by Automattic’s in-house theme experts, ensuring they follow the code standards.
In reality, people tend to buy themes for marketplaces like Themeforest, or from individual sellers, simply because they have a lot more attractive features and there’s a theme for every imaginable category.
But these themes aren’t screened for quality. You don’t know if they’ve been rigorously tested for bugs – or just patched together to meet the deadline.
They may have poor optimization, buggy code and a host of security loopholes.
Of course, that’s not true with all developers. If you’re going for a popular Themeforest author, or a reputable theme company such as WooThemes, iThemes or StudioPress – you’re in the right path.
Beauty versus performance
There are beautiful themes with poor performance or ones with optimal performance but not-so-appealing design. Your goal is to find the theme that strikes the perfect balance between design and code.
Of course it’s a lot easier said than done.
Design:
When it comes to design, it’s subjective to individual human interpretation. In other words – it’s mostly your choice. However, make sure that:
- The theme’s design complements your product’s design
- The theme’s colour palette (psychologically) matches your niche’s or topic’s mood. For example, if you’re writing about food – either cooking or places to eat, a theme with red as its primary colour would be ideal. This is because the human brain associates the colour red with food.
- The text is legible and readable across multiple browsers and viewports
- Loading the font doesn’t incur too much loading time
- The theme has provisions for a few lines of text, for your landing page’s copy
Performance:
Performance isn’t a relative term unlike design. You can physically measure a theme’s performance with the right tools and expertise.
However, speaking from a WordPress beginner’s standpoint, using Chrome Developer Tools to individually inspect JavaScript elements – is like teaching the alphabet. It takes time and (a lot of) practice.
We don’t have that much time. Maybe we don’t want to get involved in too much detail.
There’s a small trick for that.
Simply scroll the theme up and down, multiple times and carefully notice the smoothness.
If the browser rendering it’s jittering or lagging behind – it usually means that there are multiple JavaScript items running in the background which is slowing down the theme.
You don’t want that. Your readers don’t want that as well!
On the other hand, if the themes loads and scrolls in a butter-smooth manner – that means there aren’t as many JavaScript elements. The ones that are present are well under the recommended limit – one that makes for a proper browsing experience without compromising quality.
A theme with too many features
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
This is the only golden rule that you need to keep in mind when thinking about purchasing a new WordPress theme. Ideally, a theme should serve its intended purpose:
- Adherence to WordPress coding standards
- Customizable
- Responsive design
- Compatibility with major plugins such as Woo-Commerce and WordPress SEO, etc.
That’s pretty much everything a WordPress theme is supposed to do.
If it starts doing other stuff such as multiple custom post types, excessive SEO features (for example, built-in SEO frameworks), additional features such as custom up-vote or “like” buttons – run! Don’t buy such a theme.
The reason behind this is the lock-in effect. Once you start to heavily rely on the theme’s features, the more dependent you’ll be. When the times comes to change (for example, when the theme is no longer under development), you’re going to have to either:
- Lose out on a couple of features
- Start installing (or maybe even building) custom plugins to match the jobs that your theme used to do.
This is called the theme lock-in effect and must be avoided at all costs.
Check the WordPress version
Every day new vulnerabilities are discovered and reported by the WordPress community. Automattic scans these bug reports progressively and releases patches and updates.
A theme that is compatible with an older version of WordPress may or may not be compatible with the new version. But you should not risk it.
Let’s say that some people have found the theme to be working properly with a newer version of WordPress. Would you still buy it now?
The answer – as you’ve might not have correctly guessed – is no!
This is because the new revision of WordPress might have patched a critical vulnerability and adding an old theme could invalidate the preventive measures.
It may very well open another security loophole (since it has not been updated) leaving your WordPress site insecure – even after a patch has been released. In general, make sure that the theme you buy is compatible with then current version of WordPress.
PS: The same rule applies for plugins as well.
Downloading pirated themes
For every new theme released in ThemeForest, a nulled version of that theme is available for download within a few hours. That’s how fast the pirated industry moves.
For those who are new to the topic, a nulled theme is one which has been downloaded and/or modified and then redistributed illegally without the proper permissions.
What most people don’t know, is that the hackers implant malicious code in the theme. That code can do almost anything – steal your email list, send confidential client data back to the hackers servers – you name it.
Best part is, you won’t even get to know!
Not only will you put your site’s reputation on the line, you might also unknowingly hack your customer’s accounts and face a lawsuit – if things really go south.
Make sure the theme is replaceable
This is the bottom line of our post. A theme is a component. It might need the occasional fine-tuning or even a complete overhaul at times.
Bottom line – you shouldn’t get stuck when you want to replace your theme.
“Where will I find this feature” should not trouble you while making the switch. This is why we stressed on point #3 – don’t choose a theme which as an unbelievably large number of features.
Consider using a theme framework
Frameworks provide a consistent base for your themes to work with. A WordPress theme framework usually contains a host of useful functions and does most of the heavy lifting for a WordPress theme. The theme developer simply needs to worry about designing the theme, rather than taking care of the basics.
Frameworks are frequently updated to meet WordPress’ latest security standards. When a framework is updated, it does not affect its underlying theme(s). Rather, it makes the theme compatible with the latest version of WordPress as well.
The Genesis Framework from StudioPress is an excellent example. It is preferred by thousands of clients all over the globe for two main reasons – simplicity and robustness.
People can order custom theme designs and not worry about updating the theme or security. If a theme is built on the Genesis Framework, with every update from StudioPress, the framework gets additional features and improved compatibility with the latest version of WordPress. So does the theme.
A theme framework also makes switching designs extremely simple. Developers can simply pick up the design from where the last guy left, or start working anew. Either way, they’ll have a familiar base to start working with. This incredibly speeds up the development process.
Conclusion
These are some of the most useful tips I’ve come across while purchasing a WordPress theme. I’d also like to mention that if you’re building a personal blog, you should worry less about the theme and strongly consider using a framework.
Get a basic theme which is responsive in nature and has a legible font. Focus on your content – start publishing and promoting your content.
Once traffic starts to flow, you’ll generate enough revenue to hire a proper developer to build you a customized WordPress theme. This will ultimately help establish your brand.
Have you purchased a theme in the past you regret? What’s your WordPress theme buying tip? Let us know in the comment section below!
The post How To Buy A WordPress Theme Without Wasting Your Money appeared first on WP Superstars.