The best part about WordPress is that you don’t need coding knowledge or carry out expensive website maintenance – if you plan on starting your own site for a blog or business. Simply create and account and you’re given access to many themes and a built-in Content Management System. What does confuse people is choosing a right theme. This is what sets the tone, look and feel of your site and it even ensures that your site will be responsive on devices. So, how do you get started on your search for a good theme – check out these do’s and don’ts.

Do’s

Understand colour schemes:

The right colour sets so many things right – brand recognition, builds readability and fits your visitor’s tastes. Find a colour that appeals to them. normally light-coloured theme looks better because you can read the text easily, fit design standards. Some themes have a night mode selection – in case you want darker themes. If you are going with a darker colour, make sure you adjust the text, images to match so that visuals don’t get washed out.

Choose technically sound themes:

Some themes are fitted with animations, JavaScript heavy colours, complex layouts. These can prevent your site from loading correctly on most devices. If you do need these additions, then do a test run on tablets, mobiles, and PCs. You can opt for a simpler layout and then add widgets, menus, for smoother navigation and focus on rendering flexible images fluid site grid. To enhance images, videos etc, make sure the theme supports plugins.

Don’ts

Avoid bloating the site:

In an attempt to optimise your site, you could end up adding too many features, widgets, fonts. This distracts attention of visitors and makes the site heavy, where it takes time to load. Some themes have limited options. Instead choose from the premium themes, where you can use CSS to modify themes. It might cost you a bit but at least you get better coding, enhanced security, regular updates and fixes. Widgets can add clutter, so make sure to unregister the ones you wont use.

Failing to install updates, fixes:

Stay tuned to all the new updates that the WordPress site has to offer. Themes have features, settings, security patches that have to be updated from time to time. Without these the site becomes unsafe, then it can stop loading correctly or features may stop working properly. When your site malfunctions in some way, visitors will stop using it. More importantly, take your time browsing through all themes and their settings. Choose one and begin experimenting to see how it all works out. Finally, settle with any one theme and customise as you like.