How to Choose a WordPress Theme

Forrest Pykes Mar 18, 2025

Here is the complete beginner’s guide to help you start your blog and see the bottom section to learn how to use WordPress.

All this information is free, feel free to take action and start building something new.

These are just a few of the many problems that every blogger will face during his blogging career. If you are in the same situation and all these problems are worrying you, then you should be happy because you are now just one step away from facing the biggest dilemma of bloggers.

Just like you, when I started blogging, I used to change the blog topic every now and then, which was very bad for branding and good user experience.

  • Which WordPress theme should I use?
  • What features must I have in my theme?
  • What criteria should I look for when choosing a theme and blog design?
  • Can I manage theme settings and add ads?

Still, I wasted countless hours configuring the theme, adding ads, and eventually replacing it with another one.

If you encounter a similar situation:

I recommend taking the time to find a theme that fits your blog and personality, and then setting it up. Once that’s done, just focus on what you do best; which is content creation.

Over time, you can optimize things like ad placement, click-through rate buttons, and more advanced things that will help you get a better user experience.

Also, make sure you start using a page builder like Elementor, which works with any WordPress theme and lets you design beautiful pages. This has become the new standard and you should definitely start using it as soon as possible.

Blog design is very important for branding and good user experience. Also, once you choose a blog theme or website theme that you are happy with, your connection with your blog will be stronger.

If you have noticed, all the popular WordPress blogs or websites have taken good care of their blog themes.

And set a goal for yourself, within the next 1-2 weeks, pick a topic and move forward in your career.

I will do my best to help you choose a blog topic, or if you are building a business or other type of website, I will help you with that as well.

So grab a cup of coffee and let’s get started on one of the most exciting parts of your online career.

We all know that there are many free and paid theme clubs out there, and you will be faced with thousands of WordPress theme options. Some of them are free, while many are paid.

When you choose a WordPress theme for your blog or website, apart from the looks and design, you should also focus on many other aspects such as speed, coding quality, support, upgrades, and ease of customization.

I can definitely give you some options in this post or in a future post.

Now, I will share some tips to help you choose a free WordPress theme for your blog or website.

You can always go for a free theme, but I’ve learned over time that premium themes are usually better because they are constantly updated over time and the support can save us a lot of headaches in the future.

However, you should read my previous guides:

How do I choose my WordPress theme?

For me, there are several factors that are most important, one of which is:

  • SEO: The theme must have a clean code and should be compatible with all popular plugins. Now, many of us cannot know in advance whether a theme is SEO-friendly or not, which is why it is recommended to skip that new, fancy-looking theme and focus on aspects like SEO and speed.
  • Reputation: The reputation of the company is also important because choosing a theme is more like buying a phone, which requires regular updates (OS updates) just like using a phone. A reputable company or developer will ensure that their end users are always well taken care of.
  • Ease of use: This is another factor that will be really useful in the future.

Currently I am using Genesis theme , but in the next few months I will move ShoutMeLoud to Astra theme + Elementor . The development pace of Genesis was quite slow until recently, when WPEngine acquired the company, and now they are releasing new updates rapidly.

However, the Genesis codebase is still a bit old, which is why I decided to move to something more modern, faster, and more futuristic.

Before Genesis, I used a theme framework called Thesis, which was the best at the time, but then the founder lost his vision and many users like me were stuck with a theme that wasn’t updated, which was a pretty rough phase. After that painful lesson, I became very picky about the themes I choose, and I recommend you do the same.

Now, for all those bloggers who are not so good at customization and need to choose a blog theme, here are a few points I am going to point out that will help you decide the best theme for your blog.

There are many premium WordPress theme clubs available today that can help you download pre-designed themes at cheaper prices and make your blog look more professional.

For example, take a look at Astra Themes or MyThemeshop and you’ll be surprised to see beautiful themes for just $50.

Unless your content is absolutely brilliant, even then the subject of your blog plays a vital role in converting every visitor into a regular reader.

With so many options to choose from, choosing a blog theme can be confusing! Here are some tips to help make choosing a blog theme easier.

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Perfect WordPress Theme

With that, let’s learn the art of choosing a WordPress theme.

1. Match your blog type and personality

The first criterion you should consider is the type of blog. If you have a technology blog, look for technology blog themes. If you have a fashion blog, look for fashion blog themes.

This can help you narrow down your search and ultimately choose a theme that matches your blog type and creates the perfect atmosphere for your readers.

For example: if your blog is all about fish, then you could choose a fish blog theme and use an underwater image on your header, or an animated fish widget on your sidebar.

Therefore, it is important to choose a theme according to your niche. If your blog is about fashion, motivation, finance technology, they prefer to choose a professional niche theme.

Likewise, if you are creating a real estate website on WordPress, there are companies that create themes specifically for this purpose.

All in all, the first way to narrow your search is to find topics that resonate with your niche.

Also, check out:

2. Excellent Navigation

The themes come in different layouts and numbers of columns, but choose a theme that allows for easy navigation. Visitors should find it easy to navigate, subscribe to your blog, and find it easy to search for articles that interest them.

A theme with good navigation always helps you reduce the bounce rate. Also, focus on a tidy theme and keep the focus on the content.

3. Easy Customization

WordPress themes should be easy to customize. There are many customizable themes to choose from which can be easily modified as per your requirements and you don’t even have to learn a lot of PHP coding or CSS for that.

Even if you are not a genius at customizing themes, you can use a theme if it provides you with easy customization capabilities.

4. Advanced Features

Many themes offer you useful features like managing ads, different comment styles, custom dashboards, custom error pages, and more.

Or, if the features aren’t available in the theme, since many companies like to keep their theme code as clean as possible, they’ll have a list of selected plugins that add these features.

These features are available in both free and premium themes and you can choose the one that suits your requirements. You can accomplish many of these tasks with the help of WordPress plugins. So, you can ignore these particular features.

5. Support

Always give preference to themes developed by developers who are active in support. Make sure that the developer regularly updates the theme as per the latest WordPress version and the theme must support new features of the updated version like widgets, tabs, etc.

6. Responsive and Mobile-friendly:

I saved the best for last, in 2025 and the years ahead, if a WordPress theme is not responsive, don’t buy it.

A responsive theme will ensure that your content is readable on all screen sizes (mobile, tablet, or desktop). This is one of those features you cannot compromise on, and the good news is that all modern WordPress themes are responsive.

To make your WordPress theme selection process easier, our team has done research and found the best WordPress themes in various niches.

You can browse our WordPress theme directory to find WordPress themes in various fields.

Be prepared to spend $40-90 on a theme and around $100 on various add-ons. If you have any questions about choosing a WordPress theme, let me know.

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