We saw it so often. You have a great blog or a great website and at some point you choose a new appearance. There are a few things you will see, usually in the order: layout/appearance and feeling, user -friendliness and optional space for advertising. If the topic meets your requirements in all three points, you can download and install it. If this appeals to this, this article describes how to find the perfect SEO-friendly WordPress topic!
Find the right SEO-friendly WordPress topic
A SEO-friendly topic has some things to do and many topics miss them. This overview should help keep you out of difficulties if you are looking for a new topic. If you think about installing a new topic, please think of the following points. Note that your new topic should be accessible, compatible, customizable, integrable and standard.
Define your needs
Regardless of whether you are on the market for a free topic, a first -class topic or want to hire a developer to create you specifically for you, the first step is always the same: define your needs. Write down what the topic should do now and in the future. You may not need E -Commerce option at this time, but what is in a year in a year? What should your website look like? Which pages do you need? What types of content are you planning to publish? As soon as you have a clear picture of the requirements, you have a better chance of finding your dream topic.
Find a trustworthy reseller or developer. What is the support?
Should you build a topic yourself? Or will it do a general free topic? The discussion about whether a premium topic is better than a free topic is growing. Both sides have their services. There are many shitty freelancers, but there are as many shitty premium topics. What you should do is find a reseller or developer you trust. Look for social evidence; How many reviews get a topic? Is there an active message board? When did it get its last update?
While topics are initially subjected to security at WordPress.org, it remains important to carry out their own thorough checks. Checking also does not mean that they are great. Topics -reversal sellers offer a lot of premium topics to greatness. But just because they pay for them, she doesn’t necessarily make her better than free topics. Since you only receive the files if you pay for a topic, there is no way to check the quality in advance. Despite social evidence, it is still a jump in the dark.
How flexible is the topic?
A static topic is not good for you if you want to change the page layout in a few months. Make sure you choose a topic that is flexible both in its appearance and its functionality. Make sure that it supports blocks so that you can use the block editor to fill the design. Do not choose a design that screams for pictures with full width if you only need a well -presented place to write your poems. Check what happens to a topic when you switch off all the solid images. Does it still work? And is it possible to change colors, fonts and other visual elements? Many topics like In total or GenerateCome with a series of demo examples that give you an idea of all the different styles with which you can handle.
Your SEO-friendly WordPress topic should have space for widgets and support the pictures presented and offer multilingual support. Many topics have a side builder on board; These help you create your tailor -made layout. But this is something you should be careful with, as it can generate less as a star code that hinders your SEO. Check whether your topic works well with builders like Elementor. Modern topics such as the twenty -five standard theme also work with block patterns with which you can finish your design.
Make sure that your WordPress topic plays well with third-party plugins to increase the functionality and SEO of your website. Topics are often equipped with integrated functions, but they can sometimes collapse with essential plugins. Make sure that your selected topic is flexible and well coded to work smoothly with popular plugins such as Yoast SEO, WooCommerce and elementor. With this compatibility you can improve your website without dealing with conflicts or performance dips. By checking the plugin support, she ensures that you can easily add functions while your website is carried out safely and efficiently.
Which contributions and page templates support the topic?
Another possibility of keeping things flexible is that an SEO-friendly WordPress topic offers several contributions and page templates. In this way, you can start with a basic template with a main content area and a left sidebar, but have flexibility to change into a content area with full width or one of the many other options. If one topic has only two options, this could be problematic in the future. Choose a topic with enough sensible templates.
Does it work as a parents/children’s topic?
Parents and children’s topics are a great combination. If you use one of the themed frameworks like Heavy-Hitter genesisYou know how powerful these are compared to regular topics. A child topic receives its functionality from a higher -level topic. So if you make changes to your child’s topic, the parent will not see them. You will not break the overarching topic if you make a mistake. The same applies to updates; If you update your overarching topic that happens frequently, the changes you made on your topic will not be deleted because it is a child and does not contain the functionality.
Whether you need a topic framework depends on your requirements. Almost all WordPress projects benefit from a subject framework, but it could be exaggerated if you only need a small amount of its functionality and know exactly what kind of topic you need.
Pay attention to the topic of the topic
Many topics are bloated, which increases the loading time. If the developer of a certain topic contained everything except the sink, you may also receive a feature-complete product, but also an extremely complicated one. Try to find a topic that offers everything you need instead of everything there is. Your topic should be slim and mean.
Prioritize security
Do not overlook the importance of security when choosing a WordPress theme. It is important to select a topic that is well maintained and regularly updated to fix weaknesses. Check whether the topic has a solid call by reading user ratings and checking update protocols. Make sure that it meets the safe coding standards and supports the two-factor authentication and other security measures. The use of topics directly from the official WordPress repository or trustworthy marketplaces adds an additional certainty. Always test the topic with security plugins like Sucuri to identify potential problems before you go live.
Check the speed of the website and the mobile phone system
Your website should be mobile -friendly right from the start. The topic should be invited quickly and an excellent side experience that is reflected in strong core -web -vital results. If you choose an easy, efficient topic, you can achieve this.
Start with the assessment of the reactionability of the topic. Use tools like that Google Lighthouse Check compatibility on different devices. Also enter the demo site -URL of the topic Google Pagespeed Insights Uncover load problems that could affect performance.
Remember that these tests offer a starting point, but they only offer part of the picture. Test the speed of the topic on your actual server setup for a complete assessment, since the server performance can significantly influence loading times.
Is the topic really SEO-friendly?
While Yoast SEO fixes many SEO problems from WordPress, a good topic helps a lot. Most WordPress topics will claim that they are SEO-friendly, but check them. One of the good examples is twenty -five, which offers a clean design that works really well. Find out whether the code of the topic is beautiful and clean or an intangible mess. Has it been updated lately? And will it be supported in the future? How many JavaScript libraries depends on the topic? Does it support scheme.org structured data? If you have a free topic in mind, make sure that there are no hidden links to the developer’s website, as this can affect your SEO efforts. In general, they hold The documentation of Google Search Essentials Think about SEO-friendly WordPress topics.
Is the code of the topic valid?
Some themed authors are more designers than coders, so they sometimes chop around until it finally looks as they wish without worrying about whether the code they have written is valid. If this is not the case, current or future browsers may have problems making the content correct. You can check whether the code is valid with the W3CS Validator.
Test, test and test again
As soon as you have selected your preferred new SEO-friendly WordPress topic, it is time to get it going. Start with a development setup to test your new topic during and through. Perform every kind of test that you can imagine. This could be a security check Sucuri plugin Or a theme check with the Theme check plugin. Download your website with dummy data from wpest.io To see if every element is shown and works. Pagespeed and mobile freezing tests testing to determine whether problems arise. Fix the problems or find a new topic.
Bonus tests
This is only to get you up and down. There are a lot of things you can check before installing your brand new topic. Start with these three checks if you want:
Hook
WordPress plugins use so-called “hooks” to carry out their defined tasks. These hooks enable, for example, to add additional edition, tracking codes, etc. Many problems with plugins occur for you when a subject author forgets to add these hooks. How to check for you:
1. In Header.php it should have a small piece of PHP code that looks exactly the same wp_head(); or that do_action('wp_head');Usually just before a piece of HTML that looks like this: .
2. In footer.php, it should have another small piece of PHP like this wp_footer();or that do_action('wp_footer');
3. In comments.php and/or comments-popup.php there should be such a piece of code: ID); ?>Shortly before the HTML tag.
Template files
Another wise thing to do when you’re changing themes is to compare theme files. If, for instance, your current theme has an author.php file, which contains the template for your author profiles, and your new one doesn’t have that, that might be an unpleasant surprise when you install the theme. The files you should be checking for in your old and new themes:
- home.php: the homepage template.
- single.php: the template for single posts.
- page.php: the template for pages.
- category.php: the template for category indexes.
- author.php: the author template, used when someone wants to find all posts by a certain author.
- date.php: the date template, used when someone tries to look at, for instance, a certain month of posts on your blog.
- archive.php: this template is used when either category.php, author.php, or date.php isn’t there.
- search.php: used when someone searches on your blog, a very important template to look at if you’re concerned about usability, and whether people can find posts on your blog.
- 404.php is used when WordPress can’t find a certain post or page. It’s a very important template file to have!
How is your theme handling titles?
It’s essential to modernize how your theme manages page titles. While older practices involve directly altering the header.phptake into account add_theme_support('title-tag'); In your topic functions.php. This setup enables WordPress and plugins such as Yoast SEO to optimally process the title to ensure a flexible and SEO-friendly title structure.
// Add to your theme's functions.php
add_action('after_setup_theme', function() {
add_theme_support('title-tag');
});
Now Yoast SEO can take care of all titles. We have a great article about creating good titles if you want to learn more.
A guide to find SEO-friendly WordPress topics
If the topic you look at fits your goals and points in this article, you should be fine. For those among them with more technical skills, it is also an option to become headless with WordPress if you want more flexibility. Good luck with your new topic!
Read more: Do you need help at WordPress? 10 tips to avoid frequent mistakes »