Ready Made WordPress Themes

By using an off the shelf WordPress theme, you can create a professional looking website quickly. You can install the theme, customise settings and add all content via the admin area - no coding required. Sound too good to be true? It's not, once you are happy to use the theme more or less as is. However, if you expect to buy a theme for next to nothing, and then easily rework half of it, you could be in for a bumpy ride. It may make more sense to just create a custom theme instead.

Advantages of using ready made WordPress themes

• Faster - you could have a website up and running in hours
• Cheaper - you can get well coded themes for under $100, some are even free
• Mobile friendly by default - if you choose a responsive theme, your website should automatically work well on all device types, saving you the time and effort involved in achieving this.

Advantages of using a custom WordPress theme

• Unique - your site can look exactly the way you want it to. While many themes can have a WordPress look, any layout can be turned into a WordPress theme.
• Leaner - off the shelf themes tend to be feature rich so that the theme is flexible enough to cater for most people's needs. By creating a custom theme, you can include just what your site needs, without any bloat.
• Easier to extend - when you create a theme from scratch, it's often easier to add and change functionality because you don't have to delve into the inner workings of a complicated theme coded by someone else.

So, you need to weigh up the time and budget savings from using a ready made theme against its design and functionality limitations.

Tidy Top 5 Tips for using off the shelf WordPress themes

1. Stick to top quality theme sites. There are a lot of poorly coded themes out there. Save your sanity by sticking to reputable theme shops. A few of our favourites are Themezilla, Elma studio and Woo Themes.
2. Only use responsive themes. With mobile usage ever growing, you can future proof your site and get best value for money by buying a responsive theme.
3. Make sure your site suits the theme. Go through the theme demo, and think about how each part will work for your site. While it might be easy enough to tweak certain aspects, that's a bonus. Have reasonable expectations and expect limitations.
4. Pay special attention to images. Many themes impress with their fancy sliders and banners. Remove the rich imagery, and they can lose their appeal. If you won't have strong photos available, stick to themes where the focus is on other aspects such as typography.
5. Never edit the theme files. If you are going to make changes to the theme, use the custom code box in the theme settings if applicable, or else create a child theme instead. Theme providers often release updated versions of themes with security or bug fixes. Therefore it's best not to change any theme files, because your edits could be lost when theme upgrades are applied in the Wordpress admin.

If you need a Wordpress developer to create a custom theme from your design, or customise an existing theme, talk to Tidy.