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Checklist: 7 Things to Keep in Mind Before Buying a Premium WordPress Theme

WordPress is free open-source software, which is one of the most common engines in our time. When WordPress appeared on the market, it radically changed the principles of web-building, because it previously required specific knowledge and skills that are not required when working with WordPress. WordPress is very popular among people who create a website for the first time, and among major brands; for example, TechCrunch, The New Yorker, BBC America, and Variety use this engine, and these sites look very professional and not cheap. WordPress offers users a huge number of free plugins and themes, so the cost of creating and maintaining a site can be equal to just the price of a hosting and domain.

People who have decided to try their hand at building sites and have never dealt with them often use free themes that a company itself or a large WordPress community provides. But those who are professionally engaged in the development of a site or several sites should think about purchasing premium WordPress themes. Premium WordPress theme opens up a large number of opportunities for developers because they allow you to distinguish a website among hundreds and thousands of other sites, as well as complement the content provided to readers. Premium themes are developed by both the WordPress team and independent developers, so a potential buyer must carefully examine the features of each theme in order to make the right choice. The most essential requirement for any theme is speed, as well as excellent user interaction.

In this post, I want to create a checklist for those who are planning to purchase a premium theme, so that you do not make trivial mistakes and buy a theme that will contribute to the development and promotion of your sites. Save this text and share it with friends who are interested in developing websites so that you and they always have a vital checklist at hand.

1. Simplicity

Even though the appearance of a theme and a website is a very subjective question and each person has the right to choose the theme that they like, simplicity is a crucial criterion for modern sites. Remember how often you find yourself in situations when you need to perform some simple action on a website, but its interface is so inconvenient that you spend tens of minutes on a primitive task. Yes, and your potential visitors do not want to experience the same emotions; they need simplicity and ease of use. For example, Assignment.Essayshark, which provides online assignment help to hundreds of thousands of students from around the world, has a straightforward and intuitive interface for each user. Users do not need to go through all sections of the site to place an order or to see all available experts. When you choose a theme for your site, consider them from the point of view of your potential visitors and their basic needs.

2. Responsiveness

Responsiveness is another criterion that is important for modern users like never before. Indeed, ten years ago, a two-minute download of the site would not surprise anyone and was quite common, but in the modern world, users are not ready to wait and even a ten-second delay when loading the site can make them close a tab. And I’m not kidding, according to a study by Google, 53% of mobile site visitors will leave if a web page does not load within three seconds. Your site must be compatible with all types of modern devices, as sites that do not have a mobile version, potentially losing a huge number of visitors. The theme should not have a fixed size, and in order to check this, you need to change the browser size, and if the layout adjusts its size to the browser size, then the theme is responsive.

3. Browser Compatibility

If you are using Google Chrome, it does not mean that other users use it exclusively, so when choosing a premium WordPress theme, it is imperative to check its compatibility with all the most popular browsers. In order not to install all browsers and check each one yourself, I recommend using a powermapper plugin called SortSite, which checks the site compatibility with browsers. But, to be honest, for the best result, you need to check everything yourself so that in the future you do not have problems that could be avoided.

4. Plugin support

As stated at the beginning of this article, WordPress offers users a huge number of free plug-ins, which both help developers and improve user experience. Most contemporary themes support all the plugins that web developers may need. In order not to make a mistake, you should always check whether your theme supports most of the existing plugins you want or can potentially use.

5. Page builders

If you have already created websites on WordPress, you probably know about the page builders that allow you to use the drag and drop interface. Page builders are in demand among people who do not have sufficient programming skills since they do not need to write code to change the interface; on the contrary, they need to select the desired element and move it to the desired place. Some WordPress themes come with built-in page builders, which, however, can be very inconvenient to use, as they generate too much extra code that loads the page and slows it down for users. If you intend to use the page builder, you will most likely have to purchase it separately from the theme to take advantage of all the convenience.

6. SEO Support

When you create a website, you probably want it to become popular and in-demand among Internet users, but in order for them to know about your website, they need to learn about it from somewhere, and the main tool is search engines. Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving and increasing site traffic to improve its visibility in search engines; in other words, if the site is optimized, it is more likely to be on the first pages of Google. Some themes may look attractive, but their source code may not be optimized at all, which will prevent you from developing and promoting your site. If you know about programming, it’s not difficult for you to understand how well a site is optimized, but if not, then make sure that the theme is marked as optimized for SEO.

7. Date of publication and update of the theme

When you browse through thousands of premium WordPress themes, you will notice that each theme has a publication date, as well as the latest theme update. Some web developers advise paying attention to the publication date, which may indicate obsolescence of the theme. But I insist on looking solely at the date of the last update of the topic, as developers periodically update themes to meet the latest requirements. And even if the theme was created five years ago, but updated a month ago, then it will certainly be relevant.