Choosing a theme for your new blog can be exciting and frustrating all at once. There are many different kinds and many different opinions when you ask experienced bloggers. What you need to remember is that “one size does not fit all”. While people will try and talk you into buying professional themes for outrageous amounts, it is perfectly fine to start out with one of the many totally free and gorgeous themes provided by WordPress. In this tutorial, you will learn how to preview a range of themes before deciding which one works best for you.
Before we start, make sure that you have already downloaded and installed your WordPress platform and are familiar with your dashboard. First thing is to go to your “Appearance” menu and choose “themes”. Click the “Add New” button. This is where you can go down the rabbit hole. There are literally hundreds of themes, maybe thousands. You can narrow your choices by looking at the popular ones. Once you pick one , you can click on details and preview to see what your blog would look like.
On the left side, you will see how many ratings the theme has so far. You need to be careful choosing a theme with very few reviews, no matter how pretty. It might have problems and you wouldn’t have anyone to ask for help.
What to look for in themes:
Responsiveness – This is probably the most important thing to look for. A responsive theme means that your blog looks the same all across the board, whether your viewer is on a desktop, laptop or mobile device. Google has started penalizing website that are not mobile responsive. You can save yourself a lot of headache by choosing one that already is. otherwise prepare to learn coding or change your theme at some point.
Simplicity: You want a blog that is simple and easy to use. Being bogged down by a lot of useless frilly stuff may slow your site down, and that’s not a good thing. If it doesn’t load quickly, people will go away and yes..Google will ding you too. Clean and simple is a delicate balance and one you should strive for.
Plugins Ready: One of the reasons l said up above about choosing themes that are popular or have a lot of reviews is that they are also usable with lots of plugins. Remember your plugins help to make for a cohesive website. The more popular themes have had lots of testers before you and any problems would have been shared and most liked fixed thanks to the reviews. Even if you run into problems down the line, you can ask for help. A theme that’s only been downloaded 4 times though? Good luck trying to find help.
One last thing to do is to check how your blog theme looks across several browsers. Try it out on Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc. just to make sure it’s just as nice on each screen. More than likely it will, but you want to be sure anyway.
Once you’ve picked a theme, you can activate it and go live with your posts just by clicking on the instructions of the theme. This usually means replacing their words with yours.
Here are some responsive themes that l like and use. Don’t have too many as it slows down your website. I am cutting down to four. You can always download and install whenever you want. it only takes a minute to download themes.
Accelerate (my favorite, great for blogs)
Radiate (blogs and business)
Capture (fantastic for photography. Simple, clean)
Hueman (great for magazine type blogs)
Customizr (great, but l don’t love it for photography)
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Good resources for y’all wp folks. I don’t have a wordpress blog. I’m a blogger blog fo life lol!
Hey..whatever works right? 🙂 . Choice is always a good thing. I’m sure blogger has changed a lot since l used it.
I wish these tips were out when I first started, I’m sure something was out there if I would have taken some time to do more research. I just went out on a whim and started. Great information for beginners. Thanks for sharing!
I said the same thing too. I think most of us just dive in, become overwhelmed and most people give up. Hopefully, with these tips..people will hand in there. Thanks for the comment.
Yes, the right template is necessary. Many bloggers neglect this fact because it can seem difficult. Great post
I think most people tend to be visual instead of practical.. They go for the pretty as opposed to the tested. You have to start off with a good template for sure 🙂
I think simplicity is key. My theme irritates me, but my graphic designer is my husband and lets just say, I’ve let it go. Something to also keep in mind is that brands really like to partner with simple, but elegant blogs.
Excellent point. There is no reason to bog down your blog. Haha..funny what you said about your hubby and theme 🙂
Great advice. It can be challenging trying to find the right theme. My favorite advice you offered was to chose something simple.
Simple, clean..understated but classy. It is challenging, but something to strive for.
This is a great resource for newbie and veteran bloggers, alike. The theme and overall look of the blog is very important. It should be attractive and inviting and avoid too much clutter which could cause confusion. Thank you for providing this tool!
Thank you for the comment. You couldn’t have said it better. When l hear people paying thousands for themes and setup, l shudder. Ultimately, your content is king. You can dress it up in gold, but if the content sucks, it’s still a waste of money 😉
This is great advice and super helpful for those just starting out. I’ve been with WordPress for 2.5 years but I’m about to take the plunge to Squarespace so I need to find the equivalent of your blog post for that platform! Haha!
Haha! That’s too funny. Hopefully somebody has the same for Squarespace :-). I used blogger many many years ago, but have liked the interface of WP for the past 3 and still like it, so l will stay. Good luck with SS :-).
Having a good theme is really important when it comes to blogging. I have seen some people using unresponsive themes that made it really difficult to navigate on differing devices. I always have the hardest time choosing a theme that I like. I’m hoping to purchase a theme in a few months that I know will really work well for my site and I can keep for a long time. Great tips!
You have said something that l wish more people would think of. A theme that you can keep for a long time! Good for you. A lot of new bloggers go for the aesthetics and that usually means one with 2 reviews and not easy to use and more than likely unresponsive. It seems like a small thing, but is actually one of the most important things to think about. If a viewer can’t navigate the theme on a mobile,they give up and probably never try again.
I was thinking about changing my theme lately. I love it, but I may want to choose something simpler as suggested. We’ll see.
Change is good sometimes. It’s like a hairstyle, sometimes you just want something different, even if it’s just for a little while 🙂 . If you still miss the old one, you can always change back.
I have switched themes a couple times. I find that as I evolved my blog does too and a new theme is in order.
It’s true. As you change, so does your choice of themes 🙂 . It’s a good thing.
Thank you Kemkem. I’ve just uploaded WP & will be looking for a theme tomorrow. I never thought to check how a theme looked in different browsers. I was looking at Studiopress and their Genesis Framework themes however maybe I’ll go for something a little more simple as you have suggested to start off with. Great tips.
Thanks Therese. If you’re new, l would start with the free themes. A lot of them are made by the same people. If you feel you need more, then you can always gof or the “pro” edition and pay at that point. This way, you learn a little bit more and don’t have to depend on others all the time.
This is a great and informative post. I wish I had a post like this when I first started blogging.
That’s what finally got me moving. It would have been nice to have this when l started out too..but we can help others, so it’s all good. 🙂