Which WordPress theme should you choose for your new website (and which ones should you avoid)?
When it comes to building your own WordPress website (including eLearning and membership sites), one task you’ll face is choosing a WordPress theme.
With over 5,300 themes available in the WordPress Repository alone, and many thousands more available for purchase, the choice is staggering.
Why multi-purpose themes should never be considered
One of the trends in recent years is the offering of ‘multi-purpose’ WordPress themes. These are themes that come packaged with templates and demos to suit all business types.
This means they are often bloated with code and contain features that you are never likely to need or want.
Even if unwanted features can be turned off, you’re still left with a bloated, heavy and slow loading theme.
Themes to avoid – in my opinion – are Avada and Divi. These themes are heavily coded and also rely on theme-specific add-ons which can cause issues if you were to change the theme to a different option.
What’s the answer, then?
You run a business in a specific industry. I can pretty much guarantee that there is a WordPress theme that has been developed to serve your industry, whether it be counselling, coaching or holistic therapies.
There is also the option to begin with a blank canvas theme (such as Blocksy by Creative Themes which I use) and then build the design of your website using the native Gutenberg blocks that are available out of the box.
Whatever theme you choose for your new website, be sure to do some research and don’t be bamboozled by techy jargon and the fancy demo content that many theme creators use.
