Great post down at NetStrife talking about Things to Look for in WordPress Themes. There’s lots of good advice in there which you can really apply to any technology that has stand-alone themes, not just WordPress. So, what does the article recommend? Here’s a quick list:
- Fast Loading Time: You don’t want your blog to feel like a snail, so try to go for a lightweight theme that you can load your own add-ons into.
- Widget-ready: Widgets make it really easy to add your own bits to different sections of the blog. Without these you have to mess with code and that’s not always something users can manage.
- Search-engine optimized: I’m pretty sure that how you rank in search engines is important for you, so try and pick a theme that is optimized for search engines.
- Valid markup: Some may argue that this isn’t necessary especially as widgets you introduce may break your validity, but it’s always good to start from a valid position if you can, making your site as accessible as possible
- Prominent advertisement spots: If you’re planning on selling advertising on your blog, make sure the new theme has allocated a good position for these slots as this is what advertisers will be looking for.
- Clean design and layout: The easier your blog is to read, the more traction it will have with your audience resulting in higher visit rates and lower bounce rates
- Colours that suit your blog topic: This one is easily overlooked. It’s important for your blog’s colour to suit the theme of your blog. For example, pink wouldn’t suit a live event video streaming website, but would look great on website about your love life.
I’ve started getting my themes from FreshPress themes because they score highly on all the points above, but there are quite a few themes out there that will work too.
There’s much more on the post, so pop down and read it.
Thanks so much for the plug. 🙂 By the way, I just found out about FreshPressThemes.com through this post. Thanks for sharing, found some really good stuff there. I like their Fresh Tweet theme.
@Lucas: Thanks for the comment, and the great content you’re providing on NetStrife. It’s one of the few blogs I’m subscribed by email to and end up on the site almost ever day to read your latest posts 😉
Yeah, FreshPress is cool. I’m using the AdMints theme on http://www.cutajar.net/owen and it works brilliantly. I know the guy behind it and try to use his themes on different blogs, partly because I like them, and partly to help test them out for him.