Article Treasures | Good WordPress Gallery Theme: How to Make Sure You Find It

If you have ever tried to choose a WordPress theme to use for your blog or website you know that it can be a hard job. WordPress is extremely widespread and one of the key reasons is the fact that there are loads of great free themes available. This is a great benefit for its users and designers building websites using it. But all of these options can now and again make the decision even more time consuming.

When start looking for a theme you are confronted with difficult decision - free, premium or custom. For many the cost of a custom theme is too high but at the same time paying a small amount for a premium if worth it to get support. Most WordPress sites and blogs start op with a free or premium theme that have been altered a bit to make it distinctive. This can be by changing colors, header graphics etc.

From experience I have leaned that the following tips are worth thinking through before choosing a theme:

1. Will you be making money from the blog or website? If so, you may want to go with a premium theme or a custom theme in order to make the site design professional as possible and to get support on the theme. Unsupported themes can really get you in trouble when WordPress needs to be upgraded! A free WordPress theme will do in case you are just going to play with a personal blog or try out WordPress for a minimal website. The good thing about WordPress is that you can switch the theme later.

2. What impact will the site design have on visitors and your ability to be successful? If you are planning to make a personal website or blog you will be Okay with a free theme in most cases For a businesses attempting to pass on a professional image, spending the money for a professional theme design is more than worth it. Keep in mind that the look and feel of your website is critical for building your online brand.

3. It is worth investigating if many websites use the theme already Many of the good free WordPress themes are used in many many places. In this case it is not as simple as you may think to construct a site that has it's own design. However the model can show to have advantages. Popular themes are popular for a reason and in particular individuals go for a strong community, good support, regular updates and flexibility.

4. Have the theme been optimized for search engines? SEO is important for getting free traffic and you need to be careful with some free themes. Check out the SEO capabilities of a WordPress theme isn't simple unless you already the have files and know SEO, PHP and HTML fairly well! If this is the case you should choose a premium theme from one of the leading theme vendors or if you want a free theme consider one of the large and popular ones

5. How easy will you be able to adjust the theme to your needs? A good "Options page" is crucial for most of us and I would say even critical if you do not know PHP, HTML and CSS very well. In most cases no coding is needed to do the changes you need if just the theme have a professional options page. It is also good to look for themes with page templates, multiple color schemes, tons of shortcodes etc. This will certainly improve your ability to create an outstanding site!

6. What impression will the theme give your visitors and will it match to your brand? From experience I know that when adding a logo to a free theme it may not always work out well. Have your logo and brand goals lined up when you start searching for a WordPress theme for your blog or website.

7. Does the theme have the widget zones you need? Widgets allow you to add and change content in sidebar, footers etc. from the WordPress admin area and it is a huge advantage. If you need this flexibility look for this in the theme you choose.

8. Is support available? Support is critical if you are not a technical genius yourself. Any upgrade of WordPress may require updates in the theme and trust me - keeping WordPress updated is so important for security reasons. Further if you want to do something smart and can't figure it out support can be very useful. Some premium themes will include support from the designer/vendor, which can be a big plus. Some free theme designers will provide limited support and others (vast majority) will provide none. If you think you might need support somewhere down the road, take this into consideration. However if you know WordPress theme development, PHP, HTML, CSS etc. yourself you may not worry about it too much

9. Will the theme fit your monetization plans? Some themes have been specifically build for monetization and will make it a lot easier. Adding AdSense ads, text link ads or selling banners is quite normal and an easy way to earn some money but unless you can edit the theme code you need a theme with preplaced ad spots and a solution to edit it. It is also good if the theme have reserved space for ads as changing the design to squeeze in the ads may not be simple.

10. Even good looking themes may not have good code! Having a website that validate is highly recommended, but most people don't know about this. While browsers tend to ignore coding errors valid code is a lot more likely to provide a sound presentation for your visitors. While users may not notice validation errors I can assure you that search engines will.

Recently Google updated their ranking logic and now it actually take a lot more factors into consideration and adding some keywords is far from enough any more.

11. Does the theme have a hidden agenda? Does the theme contain hidden links, bad code (backdors, file uploaders etc.)? In fact many free themes include some form of hidden links and they are not there to give you any benefits. Choosing a theme from a reputable source or a premium theme this will usually help you to avoid the trouble of hidden links and what may be a lot worse.