Understand the WordPress Theme Basics  & How to Choose a Theme

Last updated on December 27th, 2024 at 01:15 pm

[This article is a part of the WordPress Basics series. This series will help you understand WordPress enough to be confident to use it for your business or hobby without being too overwhelmed with technical stuff.]

This article teaches you the WordPress theme basics, including what it is, what it’s made of, its impact on your business and audience, and the questions to ask yourself before choosing a theme.

On the surface, a WordPress theme is the look and feel of your website. It communicates your brand identity, the vibe of who you are, and how your business feels. But a theme’s impact runs deeper than that. It could affect your site speed, security, and SEO, just to name a few.

What is a WordPress theme?

A WordPress theme is a collection of prebuilt templates and layouts for your site. You can use the default styles or customize them further to fit your desired outcome.

Some themes are optimized for specific functions, such as an e-commerce theme optimized for WooCommerce (an online store plugin). These themes are ideal for creating an online shop.

To choose a theme from the WordPress repository (free), go to Appearance > Themes > Add New Theme on your dashboard. Or, you can go to a marketplace like Envato Market for premium themes. Once you find what you’re looking for, click install and activate.

What is a WordPress theme made of?

A bunch of files written in coding languages that work together to create a dynamic website. This means the website can display content that changes or updates automatically based on user interactions or real-time data. The main coding languages used are HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript: 

• HTML: Displays content on a page, such as text, images, media, forms, and buttons.
• CSS: Applies styles, such as colors, sizes, spacing, and layouts, to the HTML elements.
• PHP and JavaScript: Add logic and functionality to make the content interactive. For example, clicking an arrow icon can trigger the display of the next testimonial card. The key difference between them is that PHP runs on the server (processing data before it’s sent to the browser), while JavaScript runs directly on the browser (handling interactivity on the client side).

How does your choice of a WordPress theme impact your business and your audience?

For your business

• Brand Representation – A theme impacts how your audience perceives your brand visually. A well-designed theme will maintain that perception across your site creating brand consistency and professionalism.
• SEO Performance – A theme created with well-optimized and efficient code will help speed up your site and improve SEO rankings. Poorly coded themes can do the opposite.
• Functionality and maintenance – Themes with built-in features reduce reliance on plugins and could help simplify maintenance. However, bloated themes with unnecessary features can slow your site and cause conflicts.
• Security – Reputable, high-quality themes are usually updated regularly to patch vulnerabilities. Outdated and poorly supported themes can expose your site to cyber attacks.
• Time and cost efficiency – Using a high-quality and highly customizable theme can save you time and development costs. On the other hand, choosing a poorly made theme could be costly and time-consuming to fix.

For the audience

• User experience (UX) – Themes affect navigation, readability, responsiveness, and overall ease of use. A good theme will feel intuitive and easy to browse on any device.
• Loading Speed – When you use a good theme, your site loads fast. This helps boost your site retention (your audience stays) and conversion rate (your audience buys/books).
• Accessibility – A theme that adopts accessibility standards increases the chances of serving people with various disabilities. This means more people can visit your site no matter their abilities.
• Trust and credibility – Professional, aesthetically pleasing themes build trust with your audience, while a cluttered or outdated design can turn them away.

What questions to ask yourself before choosing a theme?

Question #1: Does the design align with my brand?

Decide if the theme’s overall look and feel align with your brand. Do you like the layout design, the features, or the image positioning?

Question #2: Does the theme load quickly? 

This tells you if the theme is efficiently built with optimized code. One easy test you can do is to run the theme demo site through a website performance evaluation tool such as GTmetrix. The higher the grade and percentage of Performance and Structure, the better.

If you’re up for a more technical test, run the demo site through W3C Validator, a tool that validates your code. A few warnings are okay, but errors should be zero or very minimal.

Question #3: Does it look good on all devices? 

Scale the demo site up and down in your browser to see if the theme is responsive. Or view the site on your tablet or phone to check it thoroughly. If the layouts look great with no funky or misplaced elements, then that’s a good sign.

Question #4: Is it customizable enough and doesn’t rely on any bulky page builder to work? 

Focus on getting a theme designed to work with a page builder rather than one that depends on it, especially a bulky tool like Elementor or Divi. Themes that rely on lightweight frameworks or the WordPress Customizer are ideal for performance. 

Question #5: Is it SEO optimized? 

Look for keywords like “SEO-friendly” or “Supports schema markup” in the theme repository. You can also set up standard SEO practices with an SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO or RankMath. Good-quality themes are generally compatible with those tools.

Question #6: Is it accessibility optimized? 

In the theme repository, add “Accessibility ready” into Features to filter for themes that are already optimized for accessibility. Learn about how WordPress evaluates accessibility-ready themes.

Question #7: Is it widely adopted and well-supported? 

Does it have a high rating? This tells you if the theme is highly trusted by other users. It also reflects that the theme is updated regularly, secure, well supported, and will continue to be.

Question #8: For a premium theme: is it worth the investment? 

Mostly, you go for a premium theme because it gives you a specific function you can’t get from a free theme. With it, you usually get more timely and tailored support from the theme developer. If those are your top priority, decide if it’s worth paying for.

My recommendations:

Through my experience, I like to stick with Astra, Neve, and GeneratePress. 

Not only do they look great but also tick all the boxes. They are well-built, highly rated, highly customizable, and well-supported.

You can’t go wrong with any of them if you run a website for your business where your audience can view your information, contact, book, and buy your products or services.

I hope this article gives you a better understanding of a WordPress theme and guides you on how to select the right theme for your business!