How To Choose The Right Template For Your WordPress Blog
Finding the WordPress theme that’s right for you is essential.
Blogging has taken the world by storm, and it looks like it’s a trend that’s here to stay. Whether you own a small business or a large enterprise blog, or you are an individual merely sharing valuable tips or opinions, there is room for everyone on the web.
One of the best blogging platforms out there is WordPress. Today we’re going to discuss the importance of choosing the right template when setting up a WordPress blog.
Blog content, of course, is key but it is not the be all and end all. First of all your blog needs to look professional and aesthetically pleasing, and secondly, the features and setup of your blog need to match its intended purpose. You don’t want too many pages if there is no need for them and the layout needs to reflect the content. For example, if your blog is about photography, you will need a layout which allows for large photographs and displays them beautifully rather than a layout with lots of room for text and only small image icons. You also need to consider which features your blog should include. For example, you can include social media sharing icons, newsletter (email) subscription, ecommerce and/or a slideshow.
First of all you will have to choose between a free wordpress.com account or a self-hosted, paid subscription wordpress.org blog. There are some important differences between the two, not only regarding the type of blog hosting but also the choice of templates. Setting up a self-hosted WordPress blog requires some technical knowledge to say the least, and if you don’t have any experience with building websites it is advisable to hire a developer or perhaps ask an experienced friend to help you. You will also need a domain name and separate web hosting of your own. Once you have all of that set up, you will then need to install WordPress, the platform on which the templates are based.
For a self-hosted blog there are many templates available which boast a large selection of features. One of the best websites to browse them is ThemeForest which allows you to view the templates in order of popularity. Remember – if only one or two people have downloaded a theme, it could be likely that it contains a few bugs that haven’t been discovered yet. You probably don’t want to be the first person to deal with these problems unless you have sufficient technical knowledge, so it’s best to go for a popular theme, as chances are the theme has been tried and tested, and is good to go. If the designers of the theme also offer tech support, then you know it’s a serious theme and you have someone to go to in case of any problems.
When choosing a template don’t forget that the versions they show you as a demo can be totally changed, moved around and customised. Logos can be moved from centre alignment to the sides, sidebars can be added or removed, overall colour themes drastically affect the overall impression (dark vs light) and you don’t need to include all types of pages. But be sure that if you require an image gallery, for example, your chosen template has that feature ready.
If you choose to go down the wordpress.com route (which is free until you require more features) then your choice of templates is limited to WordPress’s own themes. While the advantages of using a free service are plentiful you may need to upgrade to paid services once your blogging needs start to grow. For example, if you want to add an online shop to your blog, you will have to upgrade your free account to a wordpress.com Business account which will suddenly cost you over £200 per year! On the other hand, with a self-hosted wordpress.org blog, all you have to do is change your template from a blog to a blog with the commerce function included. In a worst case scenario this will cost you a one off £50-£100 purchase fee, plus your monthly costs of around £5-£10 hosting fees. But if you choose wisely you will find that most blogging themes already have eCommerce functionality built in.
When it comes to customising an existing theme or creating your own, wordpress.com does not allow any changes. Again, you would have to upgrade to an expensive yearly plan, whereas with self hosting you can add any widget, plugin or make changes as and how you wish. For picture-heavy blogs, also keep in mind the storage space you will require as this is limited in the free WordPress option.
We hope this post gives you an insight into setting up a WordPress blog that’s right for you. Let us know if you have any other tips and tricks for setting up a WordPress blog over on our Twitter account, or in the comments section below!