The Pitfalls of Choosing a WordPress Theme and a Roadmap to Success, Explained by an App Development Company
A website is now effectively a business card, whether for a company or for an individual. The WordPress theme is what strongly shapes the impression that website creates. As an app development company, we have been involved in building many websites.
Based on that experience, we clearly explain the points that will help you avoid mistakes when choosing a WordPress theme, along with a roadmap that leads to success, for everyone from sole proprietors to corporate staff.
Complete Comparison of 32 WordPress Hosting Services for Individuals, Companies, and Overseas Use
When you think, “I want to start WordPress,” and search for “WordPress recommendations,” you find all kinds of articles covering personal hosting, options for companies and small businesses, overseas hosting, and low-cost servers. Honestly,
- which site should you trust?
- you may just want a simple and understandable answer.
- you may want to get started with WordPress right away.
That is why this article carefully selects recommended choices from 32 hosting providers for individuals, companies, domestic use, and overseas use. It is explained by the SEO lead at an app development company that uses hosting every day.
- What Is a WordPress Theme? Why Does It Matter?
- Endless Possibilities: Types of WordPress Themes and How to Choose One
- Seven Important Points When Choosing a Theme
- Recommended WordPress Themes
- Theme Installation Steps and Cautions: From the Perspective of Server Management
- Our Perspective as an App Development Company: Performance and Security
- Summary
What Is a WordPress Theme? Why Does It Matter?
A WordPress theme is a template that determines the look and functions of a website.
It is the “face” of a website and an important element directly tied to user experience, SEO, and business success. The expression “like choosing clothes” is exactly right: through a theme, you can express the character of your website and deliver the right message to your target readers.
Endless Possibilities: Types of WordPress Themes and How to Choose One
WordPress themes come in both free and paid versions, and each has its own characteristics.
Free Themes
- Advantages: Easy to get started with and available in many varieties. They are ideal for people who want to keep the learning cost low or who first want to try things out.
- Disadvantages: Limited features, difficult design customization, security risks, and the possibility of insufficient support. If you are thinking about long-term operation, keep a move to a paid theme in mind as well.
Paid Themes
- Advantages: Advanced functions, strong design quality, high customizability, solid security measures, and comprehensive support. If you will use it for business, a paid theme is recommended when you consider return on investment.
- Disadvantages: It costs money. In some cases, the feature set is so rich that you may not be able to make full use of it.
Seven Important Points When Choosing a Theme
Matching Your Purpose
For an enterprise site, blog, portfolio, ecommerce site, or any other kind of site, choose a theme that matches the purpose of your website. If it is an ecommerce site, integration with WooCommerce is essential.
Responsive Design
Responsive design that displays optimally on every device, including PCs, smartphones, and tablets, is essential. Considering mobile-first indexing, it also has a major effect on SEO.
SEO Measures
For a theme optimized for SEO, make sure it is written with clean code and supports structured data and schema.org.
★ What Is SEO? The Steps of Search Engine Optimization and the Right Methods
Page Loading Speed
Page speed has a direct impact on user experience and SEO.
Choose a lightweight theme optimized for fast display, and combine it with cache plugins and image optimization. It is important to measure performance with tools such as GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights and keep improving it.
Customizability
By customizing through a child theme, you can prevent your changes from being lost during updates. If you know CSS, HTML, and PHP, even more flexible customization is possible.
Security
Choose a theme that addresses security risks through regular updates. Vulnerability countermeasures are extremely important in website operation.
Support System
Especially with paid themes, make sure a strong support system is provided. Documentation, forums, email support, and more are important when you run into trouble.
Recommended WordPress Themes
This Site Uses Cocoon
“Cocoon” is a polished WordPress theme.
- Responsive design
- Advanced customization options
- Excellent accessibility features
It displays beautifully on every device. Its enhanced block editor enables intuitive page building, and SEO and performance are also optimized, making it suitable for all kinds of websites.
It is also well suited to company homepages, portfolios, and personal blogs.
XWRITE Works Well for Store Sites, Company Sites, and Affiliate Sites
XWRITE is a WordPress theme created by Xserver Inc. It was built for blogs. But when you look at its features, it is recommended for store and company websites and for affiliate sites.
Theme Installation Steps and Cautions: From the Perspective of Server Management
The easiest way to introduce a WordPress theme is to do it from the WordPress admin dashboard.
- STEP.1Log in to the WordPress admin dashboard
Open the admin URL of your WordPress site in your browser and log in. Usually it is a URL such as yourdomain.com/wp-admin.
- STEP.2Move to the Themes menu
From the menu on the left side of the admin dashboard, select “Appearance” → “Themes.”
- STEP.3Add a new theme
Click the “Add New” button at the top of the screen.
- STEP.4Search for and install a theme
Search for the theme you want using keywords and click the “Install” button.
Or, if you already have a downloaded zip file for the theme, click the “Upload Theme” button, select the zip file, and click “Install Now.”
- STEP.5Activate the theme
When the installation is complete, click the “Activate” button. This applies the new theme to your site.
When installing it, keep the following points in mind.
- Compatibility with the WordPress version: Be sure to check it.
- Conflicts with plugins: Conflicts between a theme and plugins can cause problems.
- Use of a child theme: Do not edit the theme directly. Create a child theme and customize through it.
- File permissions: Be careful about permission settings when uploading files to the server.
- Monitoring server resources: Monitor CPU usage, memory usage, and other resources, and adjust the server specs when necessary.
- Backups: Always take a backup before changing the theme.
- Staging environment: Test it in a staging environment separate from production before applying it to production.
In particular, problems caused by conflicts between plugins and functions tend to happen often. For beginners, I recommend using the plugins recommended by the creator of that WordPress theme.
Our Perspective as an App Development Company: Performance and Security
As an app development company, we place great importance on website performance and security.
- Code quality: A theme written with clean and efficient code leads to better performance and security.
- Security measures: Make sure proper countermeasures are in place against XSS vulnerabilities, SQL injection, and similar risks.
- Accessibility: By conforming to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), you can create a website that is easier for more people to use.
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is a set of guidelines for making web content accessible to more people. It aims to make websites easier to use for users in many different situations, including people with disabilities, older adults, and people in low-bandwidth environments. By conforming to WCAG, you can deliver information and services to more people and broaden the audience that can use your website.
WCAG is established by the web standards organization called the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). There are three conformance levels: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA, with Level AAA being the highest level of conformance.
WCAG has four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.
Summary
Choosing a WordPress theme is an important factor that determines the success of a website.
Use the points introduced in this article as a reference, choose the theme that best fits your website, and connect it to the growth of your business.