Voosh Themes

10 Things To Consider When Choosing A Premium WordPress Theme

Choosing a Premium WordPress theme for your site can be a very frustrating experience. With so much choice out there how do you decide which theme you should go for? There are many factors to take into consideration – in this article I want to cover some of the core things that I think you need to give some thought to when picking a theme.

Taking the time to consider these different factors will help to ensure that you’re happy with the purchase you make as opposed to being left feeling frustrated and annoyed with a theme that doesn’t completely meet your requirements.

It’s likely that you’re going to be working with your WordPress theme on a daily/regular basis so it’s very important that you choose a design you’re happy with.

1. Branding

What type of “brand” does your site have? Is it clean and professional, young and hip, or elegant and sophisticated? It’s important that the theme you choose is consistent with your brand and that it will appeal to your target audience. This sometimes means putting aside your personal preference – there may be a theme that you really like, but if it doesn’t fit with your goals for a site then you may have to leave it. However, this largely depends on the kind of site you’re building – if it’s a personal blog then you probably have much more freedom to choose whatever design style you like.

2. Customization

It’s important to think about the extent to which a theme will require customizing – this could take considerable time and may require a certain skill level that you don’t currently possess. If the theme will require significant tweaking, will you be able to do it? If so, how long will it take you? Is it worth the investment of time? On the other hand, if you think you’ll be unable to do the customization, is there someone else who can do it for you? How much will this cost? Make sure you think carefully about customization before parting with your hard-earned cash.

3. Support / Theme Documentation

Another very important area to research before making a purchase is whether or not support is provided for the theme. If you have any issues when installing and configuring the theme it’s essential that the developer of the theme is available to help you. A lack of support can be a real pain – I recently had problems with trying to set up an affiliate program for Voosh Themes – I used a third-party application and had problems configuring it – the documentation was very poor and I raised a supported ticket, but received no response.

The whole experience was very frustrating and I asked for a full refund after hearing nothing from them for a couple of weeks. Make sure that you avoid situations like this by doing some research upfront – perform a Twitter search about the theme provider and look on Google for reviews and comments – also, check if they are active and visible on their site. Are there lots of ways you can get in touch with them?

4. Price

Another factor that you’ll have to take into consideration when purchasing a theme is how much you’re willing to pay. Themes can range significantly in price, so you’ll need to think about what’s appropriate for you. However, don’t always assume that paying more for a theme ensures that you’re definitely getting something of superior quality. This isn’t necessarily the case so you need to ensure that you do your research before opening your wallet.

5. Theme Options

It’s fairly standard now for premium themes to provide some configuration options in the WordPress backend. These options should make several tasks much easier for you to manage without having to get your hands dirty messing around with the source code. Typical options include things like changing the color scheme, configuring image sliders, Google Analytics support, and much more. Check the options that your potential theme has – are they genuinely useful or do they add little value?

6. Advertising

If you’re thinking about making some cash through your site then it’s important to look at how your theme will support this. Does it allow you to easily add advertisements and banners to your site? If not, how much extra work would it take for you to do this? Would the theme developer provide support in helping you with this? You also need to check if the theme has sufficient space for including banners and ads – if not, you may find that you have to squeeze things in which may suffocate the design and result in a poor user experience.

7. Browser Compatibility

Make sure that you check how your theme works in all browsers. Most quality theme providers will have live demos of their themes where you can check this. I’d recommend checking the theme against all of the major browsers – these include Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Internet Explorer (versions 6-8). Check that the theme has a consistent look between the browsers – it doesn’t have to be pixel perfect in each of the browsers, but you need to ensure that it looks similar and that there are no major issues.

8. Widgets

Do need your theme to be widget-ready? This will largely depend on how you want to customize the theme – for example, if you want to make lots of changes to the theme’s sidebar (without hacking around with the code), you’ll probably want to ensure that is widget-ready. However, if you’re happy to get your hands dirty and dive into the code, this is probably less of an issue for you.

9. Source Code

If you have some coding experience it’s well worth checking out the source code of the theme you’re interested in. How well written is it? Does it use lots of unnecessary code, or is it generally well written? Does it use HTML tables for layout (a big no no!) or does it structure the layout in a more professional manner? If you have little coding experience, is there someone else you know who might be able to take a look for you?

10. Future Use

How “future-proof” is your theme? By this, I mean high likely is it that you’ll still be using this theme in 2-4 years time? This will require some thinking ahead on your part to consider the type of functionality you might need in the future. However, it’s not always possible to predict what you might need, so it’s important to choose a theme that’s flexible and can easily adapt to your changing requirements. Choosing a theme provider who provides high quality support can also be useful here as they may be able to help you adapt the theme according to your needs.

Conclusion

I hope these points help you in making a decision about which premium theme to opt for. I think the key point is to make sure that you do your research before making a purchase – you don’t necessarily have to follow all of the points above, but just giving some consideration to these will improve the changes that you’re happy with the purchase you end up making.

If you’re currently on the lookout for a WordPress theme make sure you check out the premium themes available here at Voosh Themes. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about them – feel free to send me an email at chris@vooshthemes.com.