WordPress Themes - Build WP site

What are WordPress themes and why you should care?

WordPress theme is a layout that will help you to design your website with ease.

Here I share a few of my favorite themes that are easy to use, fast loading, and help you to start building your website so you can share it with the world.

There are free and premium options.

Free or Premium WordPress theme? Which one should you choose for your site?

I personally recommend going with a basic free WordPress theme and focusing on the content and visibility.

Always get your theme from trusted sources like WordPress dashboard or WordPress.org

Make sure to read reviews and see if there are some problems lately, especially with other plugins or the latest WordPress update. Go with something else in meanwhile.

Find out more free themes on WordPress.org, and sort them by popularity.

Make sure to choose a theme from a reputable developer. Read reviews, visit their website, and Google them if you have to.

If they have a demo website available, you can run it through a speed test (use it as a guide, not as a gospel).

When you download the theme you can scan it with the online scanner.

Premium options

There are a lot of paid themes out there, but I recommend to by from well-established developers.

Don’t get fooled by pretty designs.

What not to do when choosing a theme

When you start looking for themes, you may end up searching for coupon codes and free premium themes, and so on.

Somewhere down the line, you will get advertising or offer Premium themes like Divi for a very low price, without a license key.

In some cases, they may offer you a bunch of themes or other digital assets.

This is risky and I recommend staying away from this type of offer. The reason for this is that themes are most likely stoled, nulled, and sold with malicious code.

Using themes or plugins of this kind will always put your website and your reputation at risk.

FOCUS and keep in mind that security is one of your top priorities.

You want to keep your website as secure as possible and your website visitors, your subscribers, and your clients too. You don’t want to be found as a spammer etc.

Just go with a free theme like Neve that you get from a trusted source or get an affordable high quality, fast-loading theme like Generatepress.

When you buy a theme from the developer, you are supporting their work. If you buy a theme from scammers, you are supporting their ‘work’.

What to look for when choosing a WordPress Theme

Great WordPress themes are optimized to perform well on search engines and are user-friendly.

Most themes in this list are free but have also premium versions available.

Look for a theme that is:

Secure and reliable
Mobile friendly
Fast loading
Clean and Simple
User-friendly (not messy, hard to understand or navigate or customize)
Customizable
Is kept up to date by its developers
Has support, documentation, or a forum

What theme should I use for WordPress in 2024?

My personal experience is the simpler the better. The website should be clear, easy to read, and easy to navigate.

That is not an easy task and when trying to design a website like a pro..it usually ends up looking awful (I have done that too).

What you need is a fast website setup and a focus on goals that will drive your results.

What matters the most is the content, your message (+ products and services you are selling) to make the world a better place.

Themes that will help you accomplish this are:

Neve best for beginners

Neve is created by Themeisle it is a clean and simple theme that is customizable for different needs.

They also have starter sites. It will be much easier to build a site if you like the options they offer.

I use Neve for many of my websites too.

You can find a free Neve theme in WordPress Dashboard (Appearance -> Themes ->Add New -> Search -> Neve), then install and activate it.

After that, you can start customizing it.

Free Version available.

Pricing

Pros

Fast loading theme
Easy to use as a beginner

Cons

To get the most out of it you need to get an Agency plan (paid annually)

To see up-to-date pricing

Go to Neve Pro>>

Generatepress is best for building what you want

Generatepress theme is fast-loading and also very popular. I have used it for 5+ years.

The theme is free, but there is also a Premium version with more customization options and starter templates.

The Premium version of GeneratePress is a plugin.

It will give you even more customization options but also gives you the ability to use the site-library of Pre-built themes that is exclusive for Generatepress Pro members.

You can find a free Generatepress theme in WordPress Dashboard (Appearance -> Themes ->Add New -> Search -> Generatepress), then install and activate it.

After that, you can start customizing it.

If you love it then you can consider getting a premium generatepress theme, which is totally worth the money if you like your site to be a certain way.