How To Find the Right Design Theme For Your Website

How To Find the Right
Design Theme For
Your Website

Often times the clients I coach or people that
find my YouTube videos ask about what style,
layout or content works best to build an
effective website.
Generally they're looking to build a website to
sell products (physical or digital) or promote
their services or programs.

I build websites on the Wordpress
platform because Wordpress provides
literally hundreds of thousands of
plugins that can be used to give you
the functionality you want, from video
players to social media feeds to
mobile compatibility to forums to
membership sites.
Wordpress has evolved to be the #1
website platform for creating new sites
due to its flexibility and user-
friendliness.

When I build sites in Wordpress, I can
then turn the site over to the client to
show them how to edit, add to and
continue managing their site on their
own.
That way, they aren't stuck waiting on
my team to update their site when
they want to add a few small
details...they have the power to do it
themselves.

I used to custom-design almost every
website I created, because I couldn't
find an existing Wordpress theme that
"fit" a client perfectly.
Now, there are so many beautiful,
flexible, customizable Wordpress
themes available that it is much more
efficient to build a website using a pre-
existing theme.

This means that when Wordpress
updates as it tends to do every couple
months, the site theme often releases
an update to compliment that. This
keeps the website secure from hackers
and adaptable to browser updates,
mobile platforms, etc.
A custom design made from scratch
would require a re-build every time
Wordpress updates. That would cause
more problems and a higher likelihood
of the site "breaking" and not
displaying properly.

The WordPress.org theme directory is
the biggest and most official place to
find free WordPress themes.The
WordPress.org directory has gained in
popularity in the past few years.
This is mainly due to a huge effort by
their review team. Each and every
theme in the directory is now reviewed
and meets specific quality and
security standards.

So if you're someone that wants to
create a new site or upgrade what
you have, you might want to shop
around to see what kind of themes are
available so you can get ideas for
what's possible.
You can search for free themes in the
Wordpress directory. They can be a bit
more challenging to customize
because they may not give you as
many customization options as the
"premium" themes, but if you want a
simple website to get started, they can
be an ideal solution.

If you want something that's
customizable, mobile-friendly and
offers additional features than just the
basics, you probably want to shop for
a premium theme (usually $25-$99).
There's a few in the WordPress theme
marketplace space that I usually refer
to.
What’s
your
theme?

THEME MARKETPLACE
ThemeForest: Think Walmart. This
directory has a massive selection
and cheap prices.

THEME MARKETPLACE
Mojo Themes: Think Target. Still
focused on volume.

THEME MARKETPLACE
Creative Market: Think Etsy.
Handcrafted and more
expensive.

You can also go the route of
independent local shops. Many of
them also sell themes on these
marketplaces above, while a few are
completely independent.
If you go this route, be sure to see if
they offer support, if it looks active, if
they are updating their theme with
new releases regularly and how long
they have been in business. Here's a
few of my favorites that meet this
criteria:

INDEPENDENT LOCAL SHOPS
Elegant Themes
Graph Paper Press
Obox Themes
Okay Themes
WooThemes
StudioPress

Here's a few things you can
keep in mind and think
about as you start searching
for WordPress themes

Unless you want to make a bunch of
design customizations to your
WordPress theme after you install it
(not ideal for most people), it's always
best to select a theme that has the
major features you want.
1 Make Note of Your
Desired Features

For example, do you want to have one column, two
columns, three columns...?
Do you want to customize your colors?
Do you want to have a main image or featured area
on the homepage to display a photo or form for
people to enter their name and email to join your
mailing list?
Does it need to display on all mobile devices?
Make a list of the main features that are most
important and search for themes that meet as many
requirements as possible.
That way you aren't spending time having to
customize the code and design later.

This is especially true if you opt to go with one of
the free themes provided by WordPress.
They can be a bit more challenging to customize
because they may not give you as many
customization options as the "premium" themes
(usually around $25-$99).

For example, if the primary goal of
your site is to collect email addresses
for future promotions then you might
want to use a theme like the Generate
theme by StudioPress.
2 Identify the Purpose of
Your Site

If you want to build a membership site and sell
an information product, or if you want to have
several landing pages for different products or
offers, you might want to use OptimizePress.
OptimizePress It has membership functionality
and integrates with shopping carts and email
autoresponder services.
If you want a blog site, you could go the route of
a free theme and find something that's clean
and efficient without being overwhelming with
tons of features and customization options.

The navigation is one of the most
important parts of your site and one that
many people starting out screw up.
3 Consider your navigation
Navigation

The navigation needs to be concise and make
sense to your visitor. Think in terms of what THEY
want to learn, not what YOU want to share.
How can you organize your content so it focuses
on the visitor finding what they want to know as
quickly as possible?
Too many options can be confusing. Navigation
that's only about you, your experience, your
credentials, your location, your hours etc. may
not be compelling to your audience.

Think about whether they know about you
before they get to your site.
If they do, what questions are they looking to
answer when they find you? If they don't, what
are they looking for that you are offering them a
solution to?

If you consider these factors as you
shop around, you'll be much more
equipped to find something that
will meet your needs and adapt as
you evolve.

If you want a friendly tech team to help you select, install,
customize, and set up your site, you can always contact Tech
Diva Media. You can see our channel and subscribe to it here:
http://www.Youtube.com/techdivamedia
You can find us online at
http://www.TechDivaMedia.com

How To Find the Right Design Theme For Your Website

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