I had a problem on one of my blogs this week that I (wrongly) assumed was due to over-tweaking of its WordPress theme. To fix it, I went in search of a new theme to install on the site.
Boy, was I surprised by the number of beautiful themes available, particularly the responsive theme designs and those with parallax scrolling.
Parallax scrolling is where background images move slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2 dimensional scene. Parallax and other long scroll themes are best suited to business and ecommerce sites, i.e. a membership site.
For bloggers, I believe it's best to stick with designs which highlight your latest blog posts on the homepage, allowing visitors to view your new content without having to scroll much past the fold.
The most important aspect of any WordPress theme design is that it is responsive.
Responsive web design aims to create sites that offers visitors “an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones)“. (Read more about responsive design on Wikipedia.)
Here are some of the themes that I found particularly appealing.
Divi
Divi, by Elegant Themes, comes with 20 pre-made and completely customizable layouts that can be manipulated in the ‘Divi Builder' to create your own unique layout… without touching a line of code. Regardless of how you choose to configure your website, each and every element will conform to your visitor's screen. Divi was awarded the Safe Theme seal by Sucuri.com as no security flaws were found in its design despite multiple reviews.
See the Divi demo.
Salient
Our next group reports having 5,227 responsive WordPress themes. I picked the Salient – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme as being representative of the majority of ThemeForest's new theme offerings.
Salient enjoys a 4.84 average rating based on 2727 reviewers ratings.
This customizable theme comes with its own page builder, Nectar slider, shortcode generator, tons of portfolio configurations and full icon sets. It is fully responsive, SEO optimized and WooCommerce ready.
Purchases include free updates and premium support for life.
ThemeForest also offers the (paid) option of having your new theme installed. (YAY!)
Check out the Salient theme demo.
Other nice WordPress themes in their lineup include:
StudioPress
Shown above is the Cafe Pro Child Theme for WordPress by StudioPress – my go-to supplier for WordPress themes.
Contrary to what its name implies, Cafe Pro is not just for restaurateurs. Combining elements of both the Parallax Pro and Foodie child themes, any business can use this responsive design solution.
Studiopress breaks its themes into the following categories — Business, Enterprise, Magazine Style, Photography and Real Estate. For bloggers, I particularly like the Generate Pro Theme which highlights your most important asset – your subscriber list – with an email signup form located right at the top of the page.
Other good themes for bloggers at Studiopress include:
- Modern Studio Pro Theme
- Whitespace Pro Child Theme
- Remobile Pro Child Theme
- Minimum Pro Theme
- Modern Blogger Theme
Here are a few of the Studiopress parallax WordPress theme designs:
So, I DID actually choose a new theme on the errant blog — but unless you are a member of my Academy, you won't be able to see the changes for another week or so, when I get back from my trip to San Francisco and can work on developing the homepage. 🙂
Comments, questions or suggestions? Please leave a comment below!
Cheers,
Awesome and gorgeous themes! Thanks for the tips, Rosalind! You always deliver the very best!
Are these paid or free themes? I’m looking to change my theme. Thanks…
Hi Sam,
They’re all paid themes. I’ve always found that they’re far superior in both looks and functionality to the free themes.
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Rosalind. I put up a WordPress site called http://www.moviearticles.co.uk in the hope that it would attract hordes of traffic. However, I have been very disappointed so far, as despite SEO optimising using Yoast, the site is still only getting, on average, around 20 unique visitors per month. Where am I going wrong?
Hi Alan,
I took a quick look at your site and think one issue is that you’ve only posted back in October, then again in March AND 5 articles all on the same day in March. Google likes fresh, regular and original content.
Cheers,
Ros
Hi Rosalind!
Your post highlights the challenge that I think we all face when we decide to develop websites using WordPress. I’d love to just “set it and forget it” when it comes to the content management system that I’m using. However, the constant updating that needs to take place to keep themes / plugins working together correctly has driven me to start exploring other options insofar as content management systems. Seriously, it’s maddening to have to keep up with all the tweaks / edits / updates / re-installations / etc that are often required.
Do you have any thoughts or comments about how to either (1) make WordPress more easy to manage, or (2) alternatives that aren’t as intensive when it comes to tweaks / edits / updates / re-installations / etc?
Thanks!
Hi Ethan,
VERY good question. I was going to do some research into alternatives. I’ll post my findings in April.
Cheers,
Ros