When you’re starting a new blog everyone tells you to go with WordPress because it’s the best content management software in the world, but they stop short of telling you which theme to choose. This isn’t a good thing because the wrong theme could seriously hurt your efforts. If you get the right theme you stand a much better chance of succeeding, but what is it you should be looking for when you choose one? Take a look at some of these things you should be ticked off your list when you are hunting for a great theme.

Recommended reading: Custom Website vs. WordPress Themes: Which one Should You Pick?

Check your browsers

If you don’t want to annoy lots of visitors you must make sure your website looks good in all browsers. Some theme developers are pretty lazy because they don’t even check when they’re writing the code. If you think about it you will get people coming from all different browsers and devices because we’re not all using the same things. I should also mention the benefits of using a responsive theme at this point because it means the design of your blog will look great when someone is browsing on a tablet or phone.

Speed is crucial

When someone lands on your website they might only stick around for a few seconds if your site takes a long time to load. Your income will be affected in a negative way if people can’t access your website instantly and it will get worse with each split-second that passes. If you run an eCommerce site using WordPress you could be affected even more. A skilled developer will design the site so it flows smoothly because the code will be perfect instead of it slowing everything down.

Plenty of options

If you were a competent designer you wouldn’t be reading this article in the first place, so I doubt I’m wrong in thinking you can’t design your own website without a little help. Some developers make it easy for complete design newbies make changes to their site because of the options built into the theme. It means you don’t need to play around with code when you want to change something as simple as the font size. Look for the theme with lots of options because it will be worth the money.

Regular updates

Your pretty website could easily be hacked if it’s not updated regularly and it’s something you must watch out for. I guess the main culprits in this instance are free themes because developers tend not to keep them updated if there isn’t much money in it for them. You can’t really blame them for not wanting to waste their time. If you need help finding a theme that is updated regularly you should look at the most popular premium ones first because they will get worked on all the time.

Sexy out the box

As time goes on it’s nice to make little changes to your design, but in an ideal world you would choose something that is sexy straight out of the box because it makes everything a hundred times easier. Bland-looking themes will probably scare half your visitors away, but a beautiful theme will attract them to your site even if it’s not completely unique. Luckily you don’t need to go far to find sexy themes these days because they have improved considerably over the years.

Don’t spend too long

You don’t need to spend months hunting for a great theme. As long as it ticks all the right boxes we’ve just spoken about you should be good to go. Now you’re left with the task of building your dream business which is even harder than choosing the right theme.

Author Bio:

Shruti Vaghe, is a freelance blogger who often writes for Trice Web Development, a professional website company in Toronto. She likes to blog and often shares her thoughts and views on how a website should look. In her free time, she likes to indulge in traveling and adventure sports. You can follow her on Twitter @ShrutiVaghe.