Tag Archives | Column Layout

Some Things to Watch Out for When Choosing a WordPress Theme

Some Things to Watch Out for When Choosing a WordPress Theme

There are literally hundreds of WordPress themes out there and the quality can vary markedly between different suppliers. Some of the more popular options in the marketplace at the moment include the Thesis Theme, the Genesis Theme, Woo Theme, Elegant Themes or even that vast range of themes available through Theme Forest.

It’s important before deciding on a particular theme supplier to have a look at the pricing plans they have on offer and compare these to the rest of the marketplace. Ideally, a consumer shouldn’t be spending more than $39 on a premium WordPress theme however some themes such as the Thesis Theme do offer extra functionality for the additional cost. It’s also important to watch out for recurring monthly fees – some theme providers will charge a monthly fee for access to all the themes in their catalogue, furthermore some may charge a development fee in case you wish to apply the theme across multiple sites.

WordPress Themes are typically designed as an out of the box solution, they are provided as an out of the box solution for webmasters who have little to no design skills or even to web developers who do not have the time to continually redesign websites. However, due to the fact they are an out of the box solution it’s important to be able to control as much of the layout of the site as you possibly can, this means being able to edit all of the various elements on the homepage and maybe even change between a two and three column layout.

Some WordPress themes also come with pre-installed sliders – a slider is an image board that rotates between different images and is usually found at the top of a page. Some webmasters do not like the slider being positioned so prominently on the page and may in fact wish to remove it – it’s important then to be able to either change the images contained in the slider, or even remove it if you so choose.

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Selecting the Best WordPress Theme For Your Business

Selecting the Best WordPress Theme For Your Business

WordPress and Google update constantly, and so there is a constant change to the themes available for WordPress, and the best themes for your business. The quality of themes available to businesses is always improving for those who want to use WordPress as a CMS system for their business.

The following six design points are mandatory for any serious business looking at WordPress.

CSS menu (not images) – which is better for SEO and page speed
1000px body width – as most screens are now 1200px and anything less is a waste of space.
XHTML & CSS compliant, so that it can be read in all browsers
Any Javascript show degrade gracefully, so that if people have JS turned off, they don’t end up with ugly text all over the place
Menu bar across the top, preferable the right hand side.
Two Column Layout, this will reduce the clutter on your website
Space for your logo in the top left hand corner – the most prominent position
Background colour of the body is white – makes for the most readable content.
Stretchable side areas (outside of the body) – makes your website easy to read on most screens

For bonus points, the best WordPress themes for business also have the following;

Javascript at the bottom of the page
CSS in one file

All of which will help speed up the website. Also, there are a few more factors that need to be taken into account;

Choose a flexible template to match your brand

Look at your competition and see the information they are including in their website. Select a WordPress template that is flexible enough, customisable and can be changed to suit your business. Excessive customisable options, like in the theme “”Atuhalpa”” can lead to confusion, but you do need to be able to change the background, change the colours and easily add a logo.

Javascript and CSS Compressed

There are some good plugins to reduce compress.js and CSS files, but they don’t work with all templates all the time and sometimes they can be a pain to customise. WordPress themes that rely on a lot of additional CSS and Javascript files, across a lot of folders, will slow down your website, and in the long term this may cause you to be penalised by search engines.

Breathing space

Your WordPress website should breath. Too much clutter and you will scare away and confuse your visitors. Every element in your WordPress theme should be given breathing space of about 20%. It should also mean that when you add a widget to the sidebar, whether it is an image or text, it should not destroy the flow of the template.

Based on these recommendations, the latest best FREE WordPress themes for business are;

iblog titan eco idream greener-side Light Word

You can find these themes at the WordPress website.

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