Quick Guide to Selecting a WordPress Theme for your Business Website

Selecting a WordPress theme for your business website can be a tricky business itself, so this post is a little bit of help in the right direction. There are many themes to choose from and many different types of website requirements, so this is not an exhaustive guide, more of a suggested approach you could try.

Situations where you may need to select a WordPress Theme for your business website

Creating a new WordPress website
Relaunching your WordPress website with a different theme

Selecting a WordPress theme based on your business type

There are many approaches to selecting a theme and there are also many different themes to choose from.

Perhaps the best way to approach things is to base your selection on your business type.

Here are some examples business types:

A design-led business, such as an artist or a jewellery designer, may want to showcase their designs and so require a very visual approach, showing design images and accompanying blog posts.
A service-led business, such as accountant, freelance journalist, freelance copywriter, freelance IT specialist (such as myself) may require a mix of mainly textual elements to describe the services offered, with also some visual elements to keep things looking interesting.

WordPress theme examples based on your business type

There are many WordPress themes available, some free, some paid and this is just a small set of examples to give you an idea of whats available.

For a visual approach, such as that required by a design-led business – Pinboard

The Pinboard theme is a free theme – at least at time of writing this – and looks an excellent way of showcasing visual images and also accompanying them with a small textual description. The demo site shows it in action and it looks very impressive. I’ve also added my own Pinboard demo site to show an example of how it looks.

For a mix of text and visual elements, such as that required by a service-led business – Avada

The Avada theme is a paid theme – currently $45 – and is a very flexible theme, described as a multi-purpose theme. I’d agree with this description, as my own website uses the Avada theme and it allows you to use a variety of layout approaches across different sections of your site, along with some nifty built-in functionality. The demo site shows the Avada theme in action – as does this site.

Things to consider when selecting a WordPress theme for your business website

Is the theme free or paid for? Note that some paid themes require a one-off payment and some require a subscription.
Sometimes different versions of a theme will be available on WordPress.org, WordPress.com and the developer’s own site, so some research may be required into what versions are available and where
Is there a demo site, live preview or list of sites already using the theme? One or all of these allow you to see the theme in action.
Is there any support available? Is there any documentation available?
Check theme reviews, feedback, comments etc.
Google the theme name and see what comes up.
Is it a Responsive theme? This means that it will work on mobile devices without any extra work.
Does the theme feature Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) characteristics?
Is the theme optimised for Social Media? Does it allow easy sharing of content? Does it allow easy linking to your Social Media accounts?

Some WordPress Theme Websites

*** If you would like help with your WordPress website, I offer WordPress consultancy services, including a Website Review and Report service – please Contact Me for further details.

*** There is now a downloadable version of this content.

My WordPress Theme Demos

Pinboard Theme Demo

MYgRID2 Theme Demo

AutoFocus Theme Demo

We’ve worked with Pat Walsh on a number of very different projects, from interactive video projects to mobile apps. His work is very thorough and has quickly become an essential and important phase of all the production work we do at Storythings. He’s thorough, diligent, and a pleasure to work with.

Matt Locke, Director, Storythings

Pat Walsh provided Kingston Valdes with a professional and personable service that was excellent value. The site was built and tested quickly, we are delighted with the results, and we have already had positive feedback from some of our clients. If you’re thinking of building a new site or adapting an existing one, I’d certainly recommend speaking with Pat about it.

Kathy Valdes, Kingston Valdes

Pat Walsh fixed my site within hours of my contacting him – his WordPress website fix service clearly works!

Douglas Green, Douglas Software

Pat is an excellent one-stop-shop for testing Apps and Websites. He is a self-starter who just knows what needs to be done and gets on with it, and is responsive to requests for any specific testing requirements. He provides test plans and reports as a matter of course and was a pleasure to work with. I will definitely be working with Pat again if the opportunity arises.

Andrew Birley, PM, Storythings

Pat has been absolutely incredible at testing each of our projects he works on. He’s very professional, organised and diligent. I look forward to using him again in the future.

Oliver Thurtle, Director of Technology, Drum

Couldn’t recommend Pat highly enough. He goes beyond what you’d expect of a QA tester, commenting more broadly on user experience and even design. He’s quick, efficient and thorough – couldn’t ask for any more.

Rob Calvert, Director, Click

We hired Pat to help with QA of a music streaming app. We needed someone with that magic “6th sense” of where the bugs are lurking; the ones which developers tend to miss. Pat more than fulfilled this need, with highly methodical approach and a great eye for detail.

Subsequently Pat has provided QA services for a personal app project of mine, finding a significant issue which had been lurking for some time.

Pat is a real asset to any team – highly competent technically but also easy going and a great guy to work with. Highly recommended!

Andrew Ebling, Head of App Development, Composed

Pat performs comprehensive website testing for us, across all the main browsers and platforms, including mobile devices. His flexible approach to testing and clear feedback enable us to have confidence that the business end of our website is still working smoothly after system updates and changes.

Steve Liu, Manager, Wicked Lasers

Pat came to Composed to respond to our (increasingly urgent) need of QA on mobile and web and I can testify he more than fulfilled the task. On the Android side, his very structured approach (first exploratory testing, then focus on defining test plans for a variety of scopes) and his clear knowledge of the latest mobile technologies have quickly paid off. He was involved directly with the developers (including myself) and this very dynamic relationship enabled us to annihilate bugs swiftly and efficiently.

David Ferrand, Android Developer, Composed

Quick Guide to Selecting a WordPress Theme for your Business Website