Choosing the Best Theme for Your Blog

Blogging, Design & Photography, How to Start a Blog

May 8, 2019

So, you’ve started a blog and you’re ready to make the switch from your free theme to a paid theme that makes your blog look more professional.

Yay! This is such a fun process! But how do you go about choosing the right one for your blog?

There’s tech to consider and the look, obviously, and things like customer service and ease of use to think about, too.

That’s a lot of things to consider, so, where do you start?

I’m going to walk you through the process I used to ultimately choose the theme for my blog (Glam from Restored316) why I chose it and what I would recommend moving forward.

Free vs. Premium themes

One of the biggest questions that people ask in the early stages of blogging is, “Do I really need a premium theme for my blog?”

And the answer is no. But, the free themes do have serious limitations.

Free themes are typically difficult to customize which means that if you want any kind of customization in your theme, you’ll need a little bit of coding knowledge. And even if you do have some coding knowledge, it’s just faster to use a premium theme.

Plus, if you don’t want to deal with the code, you’re fresh out of luck. The free themes don’t come with any updates or support. And as the internet updates and changes, your theme will need to do the same. You won’t get that with a free theme.

On top of that? You don’t get support or help when you need it.

Just a few other notes about free themes: They aren’t optimized for SEO and there are things included in the themes that can’t be removed.

Free wordpress themes are just, overall, hard to work with and frustrating to figure out.

So, let’s figure out the best theme for your blog, ok?!

How to find a blog theme that you LOVE

Odds are if you are in the market for a paid wordpress theme, you’ve been looking at a ton of blogs to find one. Take notes of the websites that you love. Even better, create a Pinterest board with some of your favorite themes, websites and features.

What do they have in common? Is there a slider at the top? A full width banner? How about your Instagram feed?

Keep a list of the things that you like about each, this will help you narrow down a theme later!

Know your niche, your focus and your goals

Most paid themes you can totally customize for your niche and for your preferences. But, you should consider your niche while you are shopping for themes.

For example, for a niche that is heavy in photos like food or fashion might want to look for a theme that places less focus on the website and colors itself and more on your colorful photos.

I think all niches work really well with a photo heavy theme, so no worries if you aren’t in the food/fashion niche. Photos are definitely something all blogs should have!

Let’s talk blog theme tech

1. Mobile responsive

Did you know that mobile devices (excluding tablets) account for around 47% of internet traffic globally? (Statista)

That number is only increasing at this point, so it’s safe to say that your website needs to look stellar on cell phones. It’s not optional! So, when you’re looking through themes, make sure they’re mobile ready!

2. SEO optimization

Ya’ll, SEO optimization is something your blog needs whether or not you know what it is. And I don’t know a lot about it, but I do know that I need a theme that helps make figuring out SEO easier.

So, making sure the theme you choose is optimized for SEO is going to make ranking and learning about search engine optimization that much easier in the future!

3. Setup guides & documentation

Setup guides were something that I didn’t think to look for before I purchased my theme.

Once I got the theme uploaded to my website I realized that I was in way over my head. I had the theme, but I had no idea how to make it look like the demo site!

Themes are relatively user-friendly, but you need some sort of guide to help you get everything looking just like that demo site. The best developers provide some sort of set up documents to help you get the job done.

I was lucky that StudioPress and Restored 316 had the tutorials or my website would look like garbage! They made set up simple and easy.

I didn’t know that there were help documents for the first time I set up my theme and it took me FOREVER. Trust me, the set-up tutorials are a lifesaver!

4. Can you customize it?

Odds are you’re going to want to make a few updates to your theme. Choose a theme that allows for simple changes like image size, color and layout. These are the edits that make a theme go from demo site to custom site!

5. Parent themes vs. Child themes

Some themes will require both a parent and a child theme. Here’s what you need to know about parent and child themes.

Parent themes, like Genesis from StudioPress, are the framework. It’s like the blueprint for your website.

Child themes are like choosing the paint, flooring and lighting in a house. It’s the appearance aspect of your website.

Not all WordPress themes will require a parent and a child theme. And as long as you paid for the theme, you are probably going to get updates to theme and get support from that company.

The thing that I love about having both a parent and child theme is if I ever decide that I don’t like the appearance of my website, or it doesn’t fit my niche anymore, I can change it. And since the parent theme is the structure of my website, switching is easy!

Best WordPress Themes for Bloggers

Before I purchased my theme, I did a TON of research. These themes check all of the boxes from above. They are: mobile ready, SEO optimized, have setup guides and can be customized. So, you can choose the one looks perfect for your blog and can trust that it will work well!