Are you hoping to create a website, but aren’t sure how to choose an efficient design? WordPress themes can provide you with beautiful pre-made pages that you can customize. However, many can hinder your site’s performance and result in poor Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the qualities to look for when selecting an SEO-friendly WordPress theme. When you consider certain criteria like clean code, loading times, and plugin support, you’ll be better equipped to choose a WordPress theme that won’t hold you back in search engine rankings.
In this post, we’ll discuss why you might want to opt for an SEO-friendly WordPress theme. Then, we’ll share six factors you may want to consider when deciding on one. Let’s jump into it!
Why You May Want to Use an SEO-Friendly WordPress Theme
If you’re planning on launching a website, you might already know a bit about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In a nutshell, it refers to any intentional efforts to optimize web pages so that they have a better chance of appearing in search engine results.
These days, every website owner would be wise to consider SEO. That’s because even high-quality websites with excellent products and services can get lost in the shuffle if they aren’t optimized for search engine ‘crawlers’. Essentially, SEO web crawlers such as Googlebot need to be able to easily access (and understand) your content in order to rank it.
WordPress themes can affect SEO because site performance is a ranking factor. Page experience indicators like site speed and mobile friendliness can tell Google a lot about your site’s User Experience (UX) and whether it deserves to be ranked highly.
Simply put, a slow or poorly-designed WordPress theme can hurt your site’s Core Web Vitals and keep it from appearing in the top search results. Therefore, if you want your website to be found, you may want to use an SEO-friendly WordPress theme.
How to Choose the Best SEO-Friendly WordPress Theme (6 Factors to Consider)
Here are some of the main qualities to consider when choosing an SEO-friendly WordPress theme.
1. Responsive Design
A responsive site will easily adapt to different screen sizes, from desktops to mobile devices. This is a vital characteristic because mobile internet traffic currently accounts for almost 56 percent of global web traffic.
In terms of SEO, Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites and even offers a free testing tool that only requires your site’s URL for a quick evaluation.
If you’re looking for a responsive design, our Inspiro Pro theme boasts a fluid, responsive layout. With this theme, your visitors will be able to view your site perfectly across all devices.
2. Plugin Support
Plugins provide additional functionality to your site to help unlock WordPress’ full potential. It’s important to find a theme that supports the plugins that keep your site running smoothly.
This will depend on your individual needs, but we’d recommend looking out for themes that are compatible with essential plugins like WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and Google Analytics.
Our Balance theme is an excellent choice for WordPress e-commerce stores. It’s fully compatible with WooCommerce, which means you’ll be able to start selling products right away.
3. Efficient Code
Clean code is efficient, straightforward, and easy to change. It supports secure sites with faster loading times, which can improve your SEO ranking.
A well-developed theme can help ensure rapid updates of essential SEO items such as title and header tags. This will enable search engines to crawl your site more easily.
Fortunately, you can use free tools like Theme Check to evaluate the quality of a theme’s code. Simply, install and activate the plugin to quickly assess your theme.
4. Browser Compatibility and Regular Updates
A quality theme will be compatible with multiple browsers. This will enable users to read and share your content no matter how they are accessing it. Popular browsers to look out for include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari.
Moreover, not everyone uses the latest versions of these browsers, so it’s important to check version compatibility too. Ideally, your site should work on the last five versions of the most popular browsers. You can use tools like PowerMapper to check this:
Additionally, theme updates are crucial for security, bug fixes, and identifying compatibility issues with browsers and plugins. Therefore, outdated themes can hurt your site’s SEO. For instance, if your theme isn’t up-to-date, someone using the latest version of Google Chrome may not be able to access it.
When choosing your theme, it’s wise to make sure that it’s updated regularly. All of our WPZOOM themes come with impeccable SEO-friendly code and automatic updates.
5. Page Builder Integrations
Page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder utilize drag-and-drop features to make site creation much easier. If you switch themes and you’ve built your site using a page builder, your site may need tweaking to maintain your current on-page and technical SEO.
Therefore, you may want to choose a new theme that integrates with your preferred page builder.
Most of WPZOOM’s themes integrate seamlessly with Elementor. Our free Inspiro Lite theme is a popular option that’s fully compatible with Elementor and the WordPress block editor.
6. Fast Loading Times
While page-loading time is a ranking factor for search engines, it’s also very important for creating a positive user experience. In fact, one in four users will abandon a site that takes more than four seconds to load.
To prevent slow loading times and unhappy visitors, you’ll want to opt for a fast, lightweight theme. You’d be wise to avoid themes that are weighed down by features you won’t use.
You can easily test our your site’s loading times with a tool such as PageSpeed Insights. All you have to do is enter your site’s URL and click on Analyze. Alternatively, if you already use Google Search Console, you can access a similar evaluation using Speed report.
Conclusion
Selecting an SEO-friendly WordPress theme can be a challenge if you’re not sure what to look for. However, it’s crucial if you want to make sure your site’s design sets you up for success in the search engine rankings.
To recap, consider the following factors when choosing a WordPress theme and you should be in good shape:
- Responsive design
- Plugin support
- Efficient code
- Browser compatibility and regular updates
- Integration with page builders
- Fast loading times
Do you have any questions about choosing an SEO-friendly WordPress theme? Let us know in the comments section below!
