If you are a WordPress user, chances are you have customized a theme. If you haven’t, you might not know the importance of a good design. Sure, it may be easy enough to switch themes. But if you have invested considerable time in building your WordPress site, you may want to consider that the theme you choose is critical to its success. Why? Because it affects the look and feel of your website, and the changes you make will affect its functionality, too.
WordPress themes are all about personalizing the experience a webmaster has when they visit your site. A great web design is just the beginning; a webmaster needs to understand how to make their site visually appealing and function as a great example of the type of content they are trying to produce. With that in mind, this blog will take a look at a few things to look for when you decide to design your own WordPress theme.
When you create a custom WordPress theme, you are purchasing a specific look and feel for your site. A lot of time, you don’t know what to look for when customizing your theme, so much so that you can spend hours or days trying to fix issues that should be easy to fix. Here are some tips to make better decisions.
Table of Contents
1. Adding a Favicon
Do you know that you can add a favicon to your WordPress theme? A favicon is just the little icon that your visitors will see in their browser when they’re at your site. There is no need to worry about how to add a favicon to your WordPress theme. In this article, I will show you, step by step, how to add a favicon to your WordPress theme.
When you customize your WordPress theme, there are a few little things to look out for that can make the difference between a great theme and a great theme. One of the most important things you want to consider when customizing your WordPress theme is the inclusion of a favicon. A favicon is a little icon that appears on your browser’s toolbar when you are on a website.
A favicon is an icon that you can add to your website. It’s typically used to identify websites visually but is also used to allow search engines to find your website faster. Favicons are available in different colors and shapes, but the most popular are the Windows Icon and the Apple icon.
2. Test the Theme on Multiple Browsers
When people are looking to purchase a new theme they will typically look for it on ThemeForest. This makes sense because the ThemeForest website offers 1,200+ themes in all different categories.
The problem is that not all themes are made equal. Some themes are made to look great on desktops, but they are not optimized for mobile phones. Some themes are made to look great on all browsers, but they have not developed as well as some others. The fact is that our eyes will always be drawn to the most beautiful themes, so we may never know if the theme we purchased provides the functionality we need.
3. Test the Theme to make sure it is Fast Loading
WordPress is used by more than 39% of the internet and growing every day. It’s a great platform for bloggers and website owners alike. WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) which is a free open source software that enables people to easily create a website with many different features. It’s an easy-to-learn and use platform.
WordPress sites are really customizable, and if you take the time to learn how to customize them, you’ll likely find that your theme has one or more features that you’d like to change. There are many ways to customize your WordPress theme, but not every theme has the same options.
Some themes have a built-in settings page that will walk you through how to customize your theme. Others have a built-in support forum or knowledge base. You’ll have to decide which of these options is right for you.
You can test the speed of the theme by loading a page. If the page load time is slow, you can make the theme faster, when you are done, this is a good time to test the theme again to make sure it is still fast.
4. Analyze your WordPress Theme
WordPress themes are one of the most popular ways to get high-quality, feature-rich websites built using WordPress. These themes allow you to quickly set up a website, make minor changes and adjustments, and get a brand new website in just a few hours. Themes are also a great way to learn more about WordPress’ capabilities, and usage.
It can be a pain to try to figure out what is wrong with your WordPress theme and whether it’s even possible to change something to solve the problem(s). The solution is to put on your analytical hat and analyze your theme: What exactly does it do? How does it do it? How difficult is it to change the behavior? Have you tried it?
There are plenty of themes out there, and finding the best one for your blog can be a challenge. There is no way to tell in advance what your needs are for the perfect theme, and no one is going to be able to do that for you. Your choices will vary from simple and effective to completely different and complex. There are millions of themes on the internet, and your best bet is to do some research before you make any decisions on this topic.
5. Blog Post Layout
When you search for blogs and theme sites, you will notice that they all have the same layout. They have the header and footer at the top, with the main content at the bottom of the web page. This just happens to be the style of the vast majority of blogs out there. You may want your blog to look and work just like theirs, but do you have to follow their layout?
The first thing you should do when deciding on a WordPress theme is checked out the post layout. Being able to customize the way your blog is laid out is one of the ways you can help make sure your blog is exactly what you want. You can also choose to not customize your post layout and instead rely on WordPress’ default “random order”. But until you understand how the post layout works, and what it does, it’s always best to choose one that best suits your needs.
6. Secure and Backup Your Website
There are many things to keep in mind while customizing your website. For example, you can check the theme compatibility to ensure the theme you are using is compatible with your website, and you can also check the theme support to ensure the themes you are using are updated frequently and have proper support.
One of the things you should also check is theme security. WordPress themes are often secured with the use of the popular WP security plugin by Automattic.
If you are an experienced WordPress user, there is a good chance you know the importance of having a backup plan in place. However, if you are just starting out, a lot of people find it difficult to understand what is involved in a complete and proper backup of their website. This guide should help you get started and will show you the importance of backing up your site, what the benefits are, and how to do it.
We are sure that you are looking for a way to keep your website secure and safe since you want to keep all your important data and make sure that your website will be backed up. As a result, this article will share some tips that you can easily follow, to help you protect your website and your data.
Author bio: Usman Raza is a CEO and the co-founder of a Christian Marketing Agency and a content marketing specialist working with Figma to WordPress Experts, Codrington International, and a Minneapolis Criminal Defense Attorney. He is devoted to helping small businesses bridge success gaps by providing in-depth, actionable advice on digital marketing, SEO, and small business growth. Follow him on Twitter @usmanintrotech.