5 Factors Of Effective Wordpress Themes

I'll wager my entire life savings that the first thing you ever did was try to install a new Wordpress theme if you're blogging on the Wordpress platform. I'll wager my future revenues that even today you're still sometimes altering themes and wasting a lot of time doing small modifications that when summed up merely sidetracks you from blogging itself.

Yet, it's simple to comprehend why styles beg for so much attention. With the proper style, you can accommodate all the clever little widgets and codes, and might likewise indicate better online search engine rankings and lots of fresh traffic every day.

What factors do you require to consider to make this whole theme-hunting service much easier? Here are five essential ones:

1) Theme Width and Columns

Typically, Wordpress styles been available in 3-column or 2-column formats, with widths ranging from 500 pixels to 960 pixels broad. A 2-column style can look more reader-friendly and compact if you're blogging for non-profit purposes. Considering that you have less pictures of products or links to other sites to show, you can focus specifically on the content without leading readers away from your website.

On the other hand, if you're blogging for revenue, you might wish to consider a 3-column Wordpress theme that will be able to accommodate your Google Adsense, Chitika and Text Link Ads codes conveniently without squeezing whatever in the content location. 3-column styles allow room for growth, however in the occasion that you've filled up all available space with advertisements, then it's time you eliminated the non-performers and use just the marketing services that work for that particular blog site.

2) Use of Images and Icons

A theme with images and icons can look good, but it hardly ever increases your web traffic or subscriber base. The majority of "A-list" blog writers have plain vanilla themes with a basic logo design on top. Lowering the amount of images also means faster filling time and less tension on your servers. This crucial element of server load end up being evident only if you have tens of thousands of visitors a day, however it's worth designing for the future.

A image-laden style likewise distracts readers from the content itself. This is the reason blogs like Engadget and Tech Crunch usage images intensively in the content locations to add value to a post, however the style itself is easy and rather minimalist.

Preferably, a theme ought to allow you to utilize your own header image for stronger branding functions, yet change images and icons with links and text, or just not utilize them at all unless absolutely required.

3) Compatibility with Plugins

Another time-sucking activity is installing plugins that improve the functionality of your website. There's a plugin out there for almost whatever you desire to make with your blog site, however while the majority of them are complimentary and quickly accessible, it's not constantly easy to install the plugins and insert the codes into your Wordpress style.

It may be a headache to even place that one line of code you require to make a plugin work if your style is too complex. This is typically the case with innovative AJAX-based Wordpress themes that have too many files and heavy coding. I've constantly preferred a simpler styles that adhere to the default Wordpress style as much as possible, so I can cut back on the learning curve and just get on with my life.

Keep in mind that the function of your blog is to deliver timely, pertinent content to your readers, Any style that improves the reader or maintains experience is good, any style that subtracts from the experience is bad.

4) Search Engine Optimization

A lot can be stated about seo, however at the end of the day if you have content worth reading ultimately you'll get the rankings you are worthy of. Nevertheless, that does not imply that you do not need SEO; it merely indicates that as far as optimization is concerned all you really need to do is to make certain:

( a) Your tags are formatted appropriately, with the name of the post initially followed by the name of the blog site - some themes can do this immediately without adjustment to the code or usage of a plugin

( b) All your blog site content titles use the H1 tag, with the primary keywords used rather of non-descriptive text for better SEO significance

( b) Your theme has tidy source codes, and if possible all format is linked to an external CSS file which you can modify separately

5) Plug-And-Play Ease of Use

Can the style be installed easily on an existing blog without having to move things around? Can the same theme be utilized and personalized quickly on your other blog sites? These are some extra things you may desire to think about when theme-shopping, especially if every minute of downtime on your blog might indicate lost revenue.

While it's hard to make contrasts due to the sheer quantity of free and paid styles out there, it's still a good idea to have a test blog website. Check any style you intend on using, and make sure your test blog site is also fitted with all the plugins and miscellaneous widgets used on your real blog. The last thing you want is for your readers begin seeing odd error messages on your blog.

At the end of the day, a style is just a style. You may also desire to think about purchasing "plug-and-play" styles for a sensible price.