Finding the Perfect Foundation: Choosing a WordPress Theme
Selecting a theme is one of the most critical first steps when building a WordPress website.
It dictates the visual Appearance and layout and often influences the user experience and performance. But where do you actually get these themes, and what should you look out for?
Sources for WordPress Themes
There are several places to find WordPress themes, each with its own pros and cons:
- WordPress.org Theme Directory:
- Source: The official repository is accessible directly from your WordPress dashboard (Appearance > Themes > Add New).
- Pros: Free, all themes undergo a basic review process for security and standards compliance, vast selection, and easy installation.
- Cons: Quality, features, and support levels can vary significantly. Popular themes might make your site look generic if not customized. Support is often community-based via forums.
- Premium Theme Marketplaces:
- Source: Websites like ThemeForest, Elegant Themes (Divi), StudioPress, etc.
- Pros: It is often feature-rich and professionally designed. It usually comes with dedicated customer support and regular updates. It can offer more unique designs.
- Cons: It costs money (one-time or subscription), quality can still vary despite being premium, and it can sometimes be bloated with features you don’t need (affecting performance).
- Independent Theme Shops/Developers:
- Source: Themes purchased directly from the developer’s website.
- Pros: Can find unique, high-quality themes, direct relationship with the developer for support, often well-coded and performant.
- Cons: It requires more searching, costs money, and relies on a single developer/small team for long-term updates and support.
Under the Hood: Essential WordPress Theme Files
While themes can contain many files and folders, a valid WordPress theme must include at least two core files:
- style.css: This isn’t just any stylesheet! The crucial “header” comment section tells WordPress the theme’s name, author, version, description, tags, etc. It also contains the theme’s CSS styles.
- index.php: This is the main template file and the ultimate fallback in the WordPress template hierarchy. If a more specific template (like home.php, page.php, or single.php) isn’t found for a particular view, WordPress will use index.php to display the content.
Beyond these, most themes typically include several other necessary files:
- functions.php: This file acts like a plugin for your theme. It’s used to install styles and scripts, add theme features (like menus and post thumbnails), define custom functions, and modify WordPress core behavior specifically for the theme.
- header.php: Contains the <head> section of your site’s HTML (including doctype, meta tags, links to stylesheets/scripts) and often the top part of the site’s visual design (logo, navigation).
- footer.php: Contains the closing HTML tags and often the site’s footer area (copyright, widgets).
- sidebar.php: Contains the code for the sidebar area, usually including widget areas.
- Template Files (e.g., page.php, single.php, archive.php): More specific templates display different types of content (static pages, single blog posts, category/tag archives).
- screenshot.png: A recommended 1200×900 pixel image providing a visual preview of the theme in the WordPress admin (Appearance > Themes).
- Template Parts: Reusable sections of code (like a loop for displaying posts) broken into separate files and included in main templates using functions like get_template_part().
My Theme Evaluation: Using a Decision Matrix
I used a decision matrix to make an informed choice rather than just picking what looked good initially. This helped quantify how well each potential theme met my specific needs.
Here are the criteria I used and why they were important:
- Responsiveness (Mobile-Friendliness) – Weight 25%: With significant web traffic coming from mobile devices, the theme must adapt seamlessly to all screen sizes. This was a top priority.
- Customization Options – Weight 20%: While I don’t need infinite options, I need the flexibility to easily adjust colors, fonts, and layout elements to match my desired branding without writing custom code. Good integration with the WordPress Customizer is key.
- Performance/Speed – Weight 20%: A slow website leads to poor user experience and hurts SEO. A lightweight, efficiently coded theme is crucial for fast loading times.
- Plugin Compatibility—Weight 20%: Themes need to work well with essential plugins (SEO, caching, forms, etc.) and any specific plugins I plan to use (like page builders or e-commerce, if needed).
- Support & Documentation – Weight 15%: While I hope not to need it often, having access to clear documentation and responsive support is essential if I run into issues or have questions.
The Contenders & The Choice:
I evaluated four themes: Xpress Dark, Blogger Press, Admire Blog, and Sento Eblog.
- [Link to Xpress Dark Theme Page – https://wordpress.org/themes/xpress-dark/]
- [Link to Blogger Press Theme Page – https://wordpress.org/themes/bloggerpress/]
- [Link to Admire Blog Theme Page – https://wordpress.org/themes/admire-blog/]
- [Link to Sento Eblog Theme Page – https://wordpress.org/themes/sento-eblog/]
Admire Blog was immediately disqualified as it broke the site during testing (Score: 0). Sento Eblog scored lowest (2.9) and felt dated.
The real decision was between Xpress Dark and Blogger Press, which scored 4.0 overall in the weighted matrix.
According to my notes, Blogger Press offered slightly better customization (Weighted Score: 0.8 vs. 0.6 for Xpress Dark). However, Xpress Dark scored perfectly on Performance/Speed (Weighted Score: 1.0 vs. 0.8 for Blogger Press). Given that speed and the overall “feel” were noted as potentially decisive factors, and considering my preference for the dark aesthetic mentioned in the notes, I chose Xpress Dark. The slight edge in performance and the preferred look outweighed the minor difference in customization options noted during the evaluation. Blogger Press also had annoying prompts for paid plugins, which was a minor negative.
Installation Process
I installed the Xpress Dark theme using the standard wp-admin method directly through the WordPress theme directory.
I navigated to Appearance> Themes in my WordPress dashboard and clicked the “Add New” button. In the search bar, I typed “Xpress Dark.” Once the theme appeared in the search results, I hovered over it and clicked the “Install” button. After the installation was completed, I clicked “Activate.”
The process was smooth and integrated directly within the WordPress dashboard, requiring no manual file downloads or uploads. Installing and activating the chosen theme required no other special steps or requirements.
Choosing a theme involves balancing features, aesthetics, performance, and usability. A decision matrix provided a structured way to evaluate my options based on predefined priorities, leading me to select Xpress Dark as the best foundation for my website.