WordPress Themes: The Basics + My Pick For The Best WordPress Theme

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Out of the box, many WordPress websites don’t look great! This is especially true if one of the standard WordPress themes was installed when you originally installed WordPress onto your website. At this point, you might even be thinking that WordPress might not be the best option for you or your website!

Don’t worry! In this tutorial, I will be going through what a WordPress theme is and how you use WordPress themes to customize the look and feel of your website. I will also share my top choice for the best WordPress theme.

Let’s begin!

What Is A WordPress Theme?

A WordPress theme is like a skin that you place over your WordPress website to change its design and the way it looks.

With a theme, you can customize the layout, colors, fonts, plus everything in between without any coding knowledge at all! And the best part is that there are literally hundreds of WordPress themes out there that you can install – both free and premium.

A WordPress theme changes the design of your website, often including its layout. Changing your theme changes how your site looks on the front-end, i.e. what a visitor sees when they browse to your site on the web. 

WordPress

The Benefits Of Using A WordPress Theme

Some of the benefits of using a WordPress theme include:

1. Professional Look and Feel

With a WordPress theme, you can easily style your website with custom fonts, colors, and styles creating a polished, on-brand website that your customers will love.

2. Functionality

Depending on what theme you choose you will be able to add all sorts of cool functions to your site. For example, if you are a photographer, you will want to display your work in gorgeous photo galleries. A custom theme will allow you to do this. Again, without needing to know how to code yourself.

3. Customization

A WordPress theme allows you to very easily customize your site. You can easily make changes to your website with just a few clicks of your mouse.

4. Mobile-Friendly

With so many people using their phones to visit websites, it is incredibly important that your website is mobile-friendly. With the right theme, a mobile-friendly website will automatically be created for you.

5. Search Engine Friendly

Some themes are built to make your website search engine friendly. This is very helpful if you are just starting out and you would like to easily rank your website higher in the search results which will allow you to attract more customers and traffic.

Where To Find A WordPress Theme

Method 1 – Using the WordPress Admin Dashboard (Easiest)

The easiest way to find a theme for your WordPress website is to use the theme options inside WordPress itself.

WordPress Theme Options
WordPress Theme Options

When the “Add Themes” page opens you will see all the themes that are currently installed on your WordPress site along with a list of lots of other available themes that you can choose from.

From this page, you will be able to search for themes using keywords or categories.

If you move your mouse over any of the WordPress theme thumbnails you will see options appear which will allow you to install or preview the theme.

WordPress Theme Dashboard
WordPress Theme Dashboard

Method 2 – Using The WordPress Theme Library

Another easy place to find WordPress themes is on wordpress.com itself. Here you will find a massive collection of themes to choose from.

You will see that all the themes are sorted into categories to make things easier. You can also search for a theme using a keyword or by whether you would like a free or premium theme.

WordPress Theme Library
WordPress Theme Library

When you find a theme that you like you can click on the theme thumbnail to open up a page with all the theme’s details.

Wordpress Theme Library - Theme Options
WordPress Theme Library – Theme Options

When the theme detail page opens you will be able to see whether the theme is free or paid and you will also be able to open a live demo of the theme before deciding to use the theme. If you scroll down you will also be able to get a lot more detail on the theme and what is included.

If you would like to use a specific theme then you can click the “Pick This Design Button”. You will need to sign up for a WordPress Account to download the theme.

Method 3 – Use Google

A simple Google search for WordPress themes will bring up countless theme options for you to choose from. You will be able to find lots of premium or free themes in your business niche.

What Is The Best WordPress Theme?

With so many different options available, it can be difficult to know which WordPress Theme is the best and which one you should use.

I do however have a clear favorite: The Blocksy Theme.

Reasons why I love the Blocksy Theme

I believe that the Blocksy theme is one of the best WordPress themes out there because it is incredibly customizable and easy to use. With Blocksy, it is very easy to create custom layouts and designs and it is also easy to style your website exactly how you want it.

The best part about the Blocksy theme is that its free version is absolutely incredible! Dare I say that the free Blocksy theme is better than some premium themes? I do, I dare say it lol!

Here are a couple more reasons why the Blocksy Theme is one of best WordPress themes and why you should consider using it if you are just starting out.

Starter sites

Blocksy comes with an awesome collection of starter sites that you can import to get your website off the ground quickly and easily.

Customization options

Blocksy has an incredible number of customization options allowing you to tweak just about everything on your website. And most of these customizations can be done easily with the free Blocksy Theme.

Mobile- Friendly

Blocksy is a mobile-friendly WordPress theme. This means that Blocksy will automatically build and style all your website’s mobile pages for you. This is incredibly important as many people will access your site from their mobile devices.

Fast

The Blocksy theme is built to be lightweight and super fast. This is incredibly important because both Google and your site visitors want a website that loads quickly. It has been found that most people will leave your website within 2 to 3 seconds if the page hasn’t loaded by then.

E-Commerce Ready

Blocksy is completely optimized to integrate seamlessly with WooCommerce, a WordPress plugin that was built specifically to run online stores. So if you would like to build an online store for your business, then the Blocksy theme is a great choice!

Support

Blocksy has excellent support and documentation for its theme. And because Blocksy is so popular, many people use it so you will be able to find help quickly and easily if you ever get stuck.

Conclusion

WordPress designed the themes section to help you easily change the look and feel of your website without needing to know anything about programming and coding. Thanks WordPress 🙂

In my next tutorial, I will show you exactly how to install the Blocksy theme and how to choose a starter site theme.

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