Search engine optimization or SEO is one of the key factors to get higher ranking in search engine results. Do you think your SEO strategy depends on 100% manual work? The answer to this question is no. Because, if your website is SEO optimized from the structure itself, then you can save huge efforts of putting manual work and make sure to have a good high-quality webpage. So, what are the key factors to look out for while buying an SEO optimized WordPress theme? In this article, we will be discussing these points.
Free Theme VS Premium Theme
Although here the discussion is not about free theme vs. premium WordPress theme, the basic structure of a WordPress theme. As a beginner, most of us prefer to go with a free theme to save the cost. But I am sure you are aware of a good free theme or a bad free theme. Don’t just pick a free theme from any sources of any developer. Because it can harm your website badly. There are many good free themes available from premium WordPress theme developers with certain limitations. But you can start with them as you will not lose the core features. E.g. Generate Press is a very popular SEO friendly and fast loading WordPress theme. But the plus point is that you can use this theme for free of cost. In case you want to customize further you have to buy their premium plug-in.
Things You Must Check While Buying A WordPress Theme
So, the discussion here is free or premium, you must check these key things to find out whether your WordPress site is SEO optimized or not. Coding: Your theme coding is largely responsible for making your website search engine friendly. The more optimised and simple coding considering latest html5 & CSS recommendations, the easier for search engine crawlers to crawl your pages. Most of the SEO optimized themes come with less javascript code or features which simply reduce performances. Site Structure: The easier your website structure and navigation, the easy it will be for reader & search engines to discover different pages. Make sure your theme has good related articles options, some theme also integrated with the most popular post widget so that users can discover such content. Besides that, your website should have a clean design so that one can easily identify the header, sidebar, body page, footer etc. Site Speed: If your website is not able to load fast, then whatever theme you use is of no use. In general, if a website doesn’t load within 2 seconds then the user will never come back. That means you must choose a theme which loads faster. This is only possible if your theme is high code optimized, not having unnecessary features, sliders etc, minimalistic clean design. Mobile responsive: Most of the Google searches are happening from different size devices like smartphones, tablets, phablets etc. That means the trend is already shifting from desktop to multiple devices. In that case, your website should be optimized such a way that it can fit into every device without losing the user experience. That is called mobile responsive feature and in every WordPress theme, this is a must. Make sure you test your theme from every device and find out how they look like before finalizing the theme. Social Integration: Social media is the key source to drive traffic after search engines. In today’s world, social share plays a very important role in SEO. In fact, your social signals are one of the 200 ranking factors to get higher ranking in Google search. In that case, does your WordPress site integrate the social share button or any option? If not you have to install a separate plug-in to get such a feature which will reduce site performance again. So make sure your theme is having these basic features.
Conclusion
So, it is not just grabbing any theme to build your website. You must do proper research before buying a WordPress theme. These days besides these key factor also, one must check whether your theme is having some necessary features. E.g. if you are planning to start an Amazon affiliate website, then you must choose a WordPress theme suitable for Amazon sites. Although one can do these things for free by choosing a free theme, but remember that your website is your online business. And who can invest in the business, can only make it big in future. So, treat your website as your business and make sure you are investing to grow it further.