Content Management System: How To Choose A WordPress Theme For Your Business
Many small business owners have shied away from getting a website because they feel that it will either cost a lot of money or require advanced coding skills. However, these perceived barriers are a thing of the past. Today there are a number of open source content management systems that are free, easy to use, and very powerful in what can be done with them. Among these, WordPress is the most popular and perhaps has the greatest choice of themes to choose from.
A theme establishes the look and structure of your website. For example, a law firm website would have a very different look than a restaurant website or a site for a hardware store. There are hundreds of different types of businesses and WordPress literally has thousands of different themes to choose from. While having too many choices can be a problem in itself, following a few guidelines will greatly simplify your choice of theme.
Choose An Established Theme
An established theme has been around long enough to have ironed out all of its bugs. An established theme also means there’s a lot of user feedback and reviews. These reviews allow you to benefit from the experience of others so that you don’t have to learn their hard lessons yourself.
In general, paid themes are a better bet than free themes because there is little incentive for free theme developers to maintain and improve their product. The only exception to this is when there is a paid version of a free theme that offers more capabilities and features. In this case, the developer is using the free theme as an inducement to buy his paid version. Since no one will want the paid theme if the free theme has problems, then the free theme must be of high quality.
Choose A Theme That Matches Your Business
If you aren’t sure of the right look for your website, check out the sites of some of the large and successful businesses in your industry. Another approach is to make your website design resemble the design of your store or your business brochures. Your site can use the same colors and patterns.
The theme should also reflect common elements found in your industry. Banks and insurance businesses use conservative designs and colors to project reliability and trustworthiness, while the computer game industry projects an entirely different image.
Choose A Flexible Theme
As your business grows and evolves, so should your website. Your theme should be highly customizable so that you can change its look and feel with just a few clicks. This increased flexibility may mean that it has a somewhat longer learning curve than that of a rigid theme but this will be well worth the effort. Remember that you don’t have to learn everything about using your theme on day one. An easier approach is to learn what you need when it is required.
When developing a website for your business, the most important consideration is that you use a reliable web host. Web hosting is the foundation of your website and a perfect design won’t matter if your site is always down or if it loads slowly. Contact us today for more information on reliable web hosting for your website.
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