Table of Contents
What Am I Publishing on My Website?
Plan your website structure by drafting out a visual map of your website. This will help you decide what your business website homepage will look like. Will you like to display your latest blog content or your business hours? Do you prefer your business website homepage to have a welcome message about your business?
Before you select a theme, there is always a theme preview where you will see how a theme handles Widgets (content blocks or tools that you can arrange, add and remove on your website). There are different areas the theme can include the widgets like sidebar, footer or homepage. Each theme also has Menus where you can organise Posts, Pages, and links on your website. All these options will make it easier for you to design your preferred theme.
What Features Do I Need?
Are you building a landing page for your hotel, a corporate blog, a restaurant website, or something completely different? Each theme has special features for the design of each website. Make a list of the must-have features on your website for easy identification of the right theme. You can use the options in each theme to see the features and layouts you will like to see on your website. When you see a theme with these features, you can go for that theme.
What Feel and Look Do I Want for My Website?
If you need to match a brand logo or you have a specific look in mind, you can filter themes by colour and style. There are some themes that you can even customise their headers and background colours to your taste. If you will like to upload photos on your website, choose a design that will display the most of high-resolution photos. If your website will include little or no photo, do not choose themes that will only look good with many photos.
However, you can decide to do a little more research about how your competition websites look. How do they plan their websites? Check out how they classify their content, calls to action and online store. Always keep these factors in mind while searching for potential themes. To narrow down the number of themes shown, you can sort themes by Type and Features.
Do I Need to Strive for SEO Friendly Themes?
For many people to view your business website, you need to choose themes effective with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). No matter how much time you spent in building such a visually stunning website with excellent posts and pictures, you will need the knowledge of SEO to get the website ranked better in search engines. Use theme designs that are beautiful with easy navigation and a solid hierarchy. The more the themes you use, the more users find it difficult to navigate – avoid using different themes in every category. After selecting the right SEO friendly themes for your website, you need to have ample knowledge of SEO to write your contents as they are going to play the most important role in the ranking process.
Customisation or Default Options?
Default themes may not provide the feel you are looking for in a website. Instead, you will have to tweak your theme in some way to your personal taste. You need to design your theme to make it stand out among other competitors using the same theme. This is why most theme developers provide options for customisation. Look for flexibility and customisation option in the theme you are selecting.
Consider all Costs
While considering all costs, do not compromise paying for a quality theme. There are no shortages of themes in the market – custom vs. premium, free vs. paid, and many more. One of the several factors to consider is the cost. You should remember that you are not just investing your money; you are also investing your effort and time as well. If it will not worth it to spend more time on your theme than working on your products, you can go for the off-the-shelf templates. Although these templates are expensive, they will reduce the amount of time you will spend creating your websites.
To may be thinking of going for free templates to cut costs; this is good but always remember that it may be counter-productive. There are several problems associated with free themes including lack of technical support, poor quality among other issues. Expert developers design paid or premium themes and these themes provide excellent support for websites. You will spend less time designing your websites and more time focusing on your product when you go for paid themes.
Where I Can Find Theme Provider and Customer Support?
Several theme developers are now providing their themes on the internet. Not all these themes work perfectly. A poorly written template will create a lot of problems when creating your website. Make sure you are getting your theme from a reputable and trustworthy hosting company whether it is free or paid. Investigate and read reviews from their current users before you buy from them. Another important consideration for choosing the right theme for your business website is customer support. Make sure they have customer support that will help you fix any issue in no time.
Conclusion
Although you may be excited to finish and launch your website, you need to take your time and choose themes you can try on your website first. Don’t just grab a theme and start your site immediately. You need more time to make the website run successfully. If you rush to finish and choose a wrong theme, you may find running a website harder than you might imagine and you may have to start over again. Take your time and do not rush things to finish quickly. Be patient and do your research to choose the right theme that will serve the right purpose in the future.
