What is a WordPress Theme?

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A WordPress theme is the coded instructions that are layered onto the WordPress platform. These instructions provide the layout of each page, colours & fonts and so much more.

What is a WordPress Theme

Are you confused? A lot of people new to websites think WordPress is already set up, and ready to go. I’m sorry to say this is not the case.

If you want something that is more complete, “straight out of the box,” you would be better to read my article about alternative website platforms and choose one from the list I’ve given.

So, back to themes! Imagine that WordPress themes are like decorating your empty bricks-and-mortar shop. The empty rented space is the website platform, and the theme is the interior design, chosen to match your branding. Without a theme, you have the bones of the shop but you still need to give instructions to the design team to make it come alive!

A theme gives your website all its core appearances. It tells WordPress the branding rules you have chosen. Themes will determine your website’s page layouts, colours, fonts, headers and footers, its appearance, and often the functionality, or what the website is able to do.

Do I need a WordPress theme?

Yes, you will need to choose a theme for your site. Once chosen you will import the theme and then activate it.

The theme you chose doesn’t have to look perfect straight away as you can easily customise any changes required such as the colour palette, fonts, and sizing of the type.

Once the Theme is installed you will find a tab on your WordPress called “Appearance”. All the options to personalise your Theme are found here. You can also download multiple themes and easily change between them to see what they would look like with your own branding.

Can I choose a free WordPress Theme?

Absolutely! There are thousands of themes, some premium and some free. If you find a free WordPress theme you like, take a look at it. If it has the features you need, is mobile responsive and fast then there is nothing wrong with using it.

I have made a list showing some of the differences between free and premium themes. Please note, the negative attributes may also apply to a premium theme. You should always investigate all themes.

Remember, if you want a simple “no fuss” website it may be overkill to pay for an overly cumbersome “decked out” premium theme that will be slower than a simple free theme.

Free Theme	Premium Theme
Cost $0	Annual charge $25 – $100’s
No technical support	Expert assistance available
The theme may not get updated	Theme maintained for SEO and security issues.
Simple structure & layout	More sophisticated layout
It may have limited features	Able to be customised with more features
May not be mobile responsive	Will be mobile responsive and google compliant
May not be coded for speed	Will be coded by experts to be fast

Where do I get a Website Theme?

There are millions of options when it comes to purchasing Themes depending on your budget and how much time you have to flick through and try out the choices. For the purpose of this article, we are going to look at free or low-cost industry-leading themes.

In each niche, there are a few standard themes that get used time and time again by bloggers. With customization each website looks unique but choosing the same theme is a choice because it is known to work well for that niche and perform optimally for followers and in google searches.

• WordPress Free Themes
• Feast Design & Co
• Elegant Themes

WordPress Free Themes

When you take a look at your WordPress dashboard you will notice under the “Appearance” tab you have the title Themes. This will tell you how many themes are already pre-loaded on your installation.

Free Themes From WordPress.org

You can also look for popular themes by clicking the button that says Add New.

Here you can scroll through all of the 6000+ wordPress.org themes. Take a look at all the themes.

As you see a Theme you may wish to try out Click on the Install button.

Continue this process until you have selected all the Themes you like.

Then;

1. Go to Appearance → Themes in your WordPress dashboard.
2. Hover over the Install button of the theme you would like to try.
3. The Install button will change and will now say Activate. Click that. The new theme will now be live on your site.

In the picture for WordPress.org Themes, you will notice I have shown Kadence Theme. This is not an accident. It is my belief this is one of the most customizable website or blog themes for almost all uses.

This Theme is super fast and has so many different themes inside the main Theme to choose from. Knowledge of the Gutenberg editor will give the user a head start on building a website with Kadencewp. Kadence is built by selecting blocks that have various functions to produce a home page and subsequent pages.

I wouldn’t recommend it for a food blog because food blogs already have an industry leader that outperforms all other Themes.

Feast Design & Co

If you are planning to start a food blog and want to start on an equal footing with the big players your Theme is important. The Feast Plugin is the industry standard. As it states on their website their theme “helps you set your site up to compete with the multi-million dollar recipe sites, putting you on equal footing in terms of SEO, accessibility and user experience”.

This is 100% true! If you look at the top of the food blogger leader board you will find recipe blogs designed using Themes from Feast Design & Co.

You get access to;

1. Foodie Pro v.4.4.4
2. Brunch Pro v.4.4.4
3. Cook’d Pro v.4.4.4
4. Seasoned Pro v.4.4.4
5. Cravings Pro v.4.4.4
6. Genesis 3.3.5

Feast themes operate more like a plugin and are updated through your WordPress dashboard like other plugins.

The Feast theme is billed as an annual subscription and costs $249/year. Canceling the subscription will avoid any additional charges and allow the user to continue the use of the installed theme. Canceling the subscription will result in no further theme updates or tech support.

Elegant Themes

The Divi Theme is the flagship product of Elegant Themes.

At the moment it has the reputation of being the most popular theme. It’s versatile enough to use for any website or business, and there is loads of customization available. The pricing is reasonable too! 

With Divi, you can select to pay an annual fee of $89 per year or a one-time fee for lifetime access.

The lifetime fee is just $249 which is less than 3 years of paying the annual fee. If you are planning on keeping your site up and you like the theme lifetime access seems like a good option.

Personally, I don’t find Elegant Themes as user-friendly as the two previously mentioned themes. I also think it may fall into the category of “overkill” for most blogs or “side hustles”. Is this your first time building a website? If so I would recommend either Feast Design Co or the free WordPress.org Kadencewp.

Are you pumped and ready to choose your theme? I hope this article helped you learn what to consider when selecting the perfect WordPress theme.

Essentially the theme is what makes our website or blog look pretty and gives it functionality? Plus a theme is like a dress, try on as many as you like until one is the perfect fit!

You may also like to read our article on setting up an email address and WordPress User.

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