OceanWP Comprehensive Review : Navigating its Depths

OceanWP Theme Review

The WordPress ecosystem is a vast ocean of themes, each promising to offer a unique voyage to the web developers and website owners. Among these, OceanWP has emerged as a prominent name, known for its deep customization options, performance efficiency, and e-commerce readiness. This review aims to navigate through the various facets of OceanWP, exploring its offerings, and comparing it with other popular themes like Astra, Avada, and Hestia Pro to answer a few burning questions: “Is OceanWP better than Astra?”, “Is OceanWP a good free alternative to Avada?”, and “Is OceanWP as good as Hestia Pro?”

Installation and Setup

Embarking on the digital journey with OceanWP is a breeze, thanks to its simple installation process. The theme offers a setup wizard that guides users through the essential steps, ensuring a hassle-free setup experience. The one-click demo importer is a boon for those looking to kickstart their website design by importing pre-designed templates. When compared to Astra, the setup process is quite similar, both providing a user-friendly interface to get started.

Customization Capabilities

The customization realm is where OceanWP truly shines. Integrated with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, it provides a canvas for creativity. The real-time customizer is a notable feature, allowing users to see the changes as they make them. The theme also offers a variety of pre-built templates, providing a solid base for customization. When compared to Avada, which is known for its Fusion Builder, OceanWP holds its ground by offering a good deal of customization features in its free version, making it a viable alternative.

Performance and Speed

Performance is a cornerstone of user satisfaction, and OceanWP doesn’t disappoint. The theme is built with speed in mind, ensuring a snappy user experience across various devices. The lightweight nature of OceanWP significantly contributes to faster page loading times, which is crucial for both user experience and SEO. When pitted against Hestia Pro, another performance-optimized theme, OceanWP stands competitive, with both themes offering a streamlined performance, ensuring that your website remains swift and responsive.

Is OceanWP better than Astra? This section delves into a comparative analysis between OceanWP and Astra, two highly regarded themes in the WordPress community. The comparison covers various aspects including customization options, performance, ease of setup, and support. Both themes are known for their flexibility and ease of use; however, they cater to slightly different user bases. The detailed comparison aims to provide a clearer picture to the readers on which theme might better suit their needs.

Is OceanWP a good free alternative to Avada? Avada is known for its premium offerings, but what if you are on a budget? This section explores how OceanWP, with its free version, stacks up against Avada. The analysis covers the range of customization options, performance, and the variety of pre-built templates offered by OceanWP, making a case for whether it serves as a viable free alternative to the premium powerhouse that Avada is.

Is OceanWP as good as Hestia Pro? Hestia Pro is revered for its modern design and performance optimization. This section provides an in-depth comparison between OceanWP and Hestia Pro, exploring the features, customization capabilities, performance, and support offered by both themes. The objective is to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of how OceanWP matches up to Hestia Pro and whether it meets the benchmark set by the latter.

E-commerce Capabilities

OceanWP prides itself on providing a solid foundation for building e-commerce websites. Its seamless integration with WooCommerce, one of the most popular e-commerce plugins, is a testament to its e-commerce readiness.

WooCommerce Compatibility

The theme offers deep integration with WooCommerce, ensuring that the online store elements are well-styled and cohesive with the rest of the website design. This compatibility extends to various WooCommerce extensions, allowing website owners to add more functionalities to their online store effortlessly.

Shop Customization

Customization is key in e-commerce, and OceanWP provides an array of options to tailor the shop and product pages. From layout options, color schemes to typography, website owners can create a unique shopping experience that aligns with their brand identity.

E-commerce Performance

Performance can significantly impact the user experience and conversion rates in an e-commerce setting. OceanWP is optimized for speed, ensuring that the web pages load quickly, which is crucial in providing a smooth shopping experience.

Checkout and Cart Optimization

The theme also focuses on optimizing the checkout process to reduce cart abandonment rates. The distraction-free checkout feature, along with easy cart management, aims to provide a seamless checkout experience for the customers.

SEO Friendliness

In the digital realm, SEO is the linchpin of online visibility. OceanWP is crafted with SEO-friendly code that is well-structured, making it easier for search engine crawlers to index the website effectively. Additionally, its compatibility with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack provides a platform for optimizing your website further. When it comes to SEO, every microsecond counts, and the fast-loading nature of OceanWP is a significant advantage.

E-commerce Readiness

The seamless integration with WooCommerce makes OceanWP a viable choice for those looking to venture into e-commerce. Its e-commerce features are robust, providing a solid foundation for building an online store. OceanWP offers pre-designed shop pages that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional, ensuring a user-friendly shopping experience. The customization options extend to the e-commerce elements as well, allowing for a tailored shopping journey that resonates with your brand.

Support and Documentation

A well-documented theme with robust support is a godsend for both novice and experienced developers. OceanWP offers extensive documentation covering a wide array of topics. Furthermore, the support team is known for its timely and helpful responses. The active community surrounding OceanWP provides a platform for users to share insights, solutions, and experiences, adding another layer of support.

User Reviews and Community Feedback

OceanWP has garnered positive reviews and a loyal user base, attesting to its quality and user satisfaction. User reviews often highlight the theme’s ease of use, robust customization options, and reliable support. The active community provides a platform for prospective and current users to share experiences and solutions to common challenges.

OceanWP emerges as a strong contender in the WordPress theme marketplace, offering a blend of ease of use, customization capabilities, and robust support. Its positive reception in the community and the continuous updates to keep in line with the latest web design trends make it a worthy investment for anyone looking to build or revamp a WordPress website. The comparisons with Astra, Avada, and Hestia Pro provide insights into where OceanWP stands in the competitive landscape, making it easier for readers to make an informed decision.

 

StudioPress Review: A Deep Dive into the Genesis Framework

SturioPress Genesis Framework Review

The vast realm of WordPress is home to numerous themes and frameworks, each with its unique offerings. Among them, the Genesis Framework by StudioPress shines bright, known for its robust, SEO-friendly, and highly customizable nature. It’s a framework that has garnered acclaim for its solid coding, swift performance, and a suite of child themes catering to various niches. This comprehensive review sets forth on a journey to dissect the Genesis Framework meticulously, from its installation process to customization options, performance benchmarks, e-commerce readiness, and much more. Whether you are a novice embarking on your first WordPress project or a seasoned developer seeking a reliable framework, this review aims to provide a thorough understanding of what Genesis Framework brings to the table.

Installation and Setup

Stepping into the world of Genesis Framework begins with a straightforward installation process. First off, you’ll need to install the Genesis Framework, which acts as the parent theme. Following this, a child theme is installed, which is where all the customization and design alterations will occur. This bifurcation ensures that the core framework remains untouched, providing a stable and upgradable environment for your website.

The setup wizard is intuitive, guiding users through the essential configurations to get the site up and running. For those looking to expedite the design process, Genesis Framework offers a one-click demo content importer. This feature is a godsend for those who prefer starting with a pre-designed template catering to their industry niche. The plethora of demo content available provides a solid foundation, allowing users to visualize and tweak the design to match their brand identity seamlessly.

Customization Capabilities

The realm of customization is where the Genesis Framework truly shines. At the heart of its customization prowess lies a vast array of child themes, each designed with a unique aesthetic and functional purpose. These child themes serve as the starting point for personalization, allowing users to mold the design to resonate with their brand’s essence.

The integration with popular page builders like Beaver Builder and Elementor further amplifies the customization capabilities. These page builders, known for their drag-and-drop functionality, make the design process intuitive and enjoyable. Users can tailor the aesthetics and functionality of their site without delving into code, making Genesis Framework a viable choice for both novices and seasoned developers.

Moreover, Genesis Framework provides an extensive set of customization options natively. From layout configurations, color schemes, typography to header styles, the customization options are vast. The real-time preview feature is invaluable, enabling users to see the changes as they tweak the design elements.

For the developer community, the custom hooks and filters feature is a notable advantage. This feature provides a platform for injecting custom code into various areas of the theme, allowing for advanced customization. Coupled with the wide array of plugins supported by the Genesis Framework, the customization possibilities are boundless. Whether it’s crafting captivating sliders, forms, or optimizing the SEO, the Genesis Framework provides a conducive environment for extending the functionality and aesthetics of your website.

Performance and Speed

In a digital era where speed is synonymous with user satisfaction, the Genesis Framework by StudioPress holds its ground firmly. One of the core tenets of this framework is its optimized performance which translates into swift page loading times. The lightweight and clean code base ensures that the websites built with Genesis Framework are snappy and responsive.

Moreover, the Genesis Framework adheres to the latest web standards and best coding practices, ensuring a streamlined performance across various devices and browsers. Its compatibility with various caching plugins like W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache further amplifies its performance credentials.

The framework also boasts a mobile-responsive design ensuring that the websites are optimized for speed and performance even on smaller screens. This is crucial in a time where mobile traffic dominates the web, and search engines like Google prioritize mobile optimization in their ranking algorithms.

The performance-oriented architecture of the Genesis Framework not only enhances the user experience but also contributes significantly to SEO, as search engines favor fast-loading websites. By minimizing the bloat and focusing on essential features, the Genesis Framework provides a solid foundation for building high-performance websites.

SEO Friendliness

StudioPress SEO friendliness
StudioPress SEO friendliness

In the competitive landscape of online visibility, SEO plays a pivotal role, and the Genesis Framework is well-equipped in this regard. The framework is built with clean, semantic HTML5 code which is favorable for search engine crawling and indexing. This solid SEO foundation is further enhanced by the schema markup support which provides search engines with structured information, improving the website’s visibility in search engine snippets.

Moreover, the Genesis Framework is compatible with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, allowing for further SEO optimization. These plugins provide a platform for fine-tuning your SEO strategies, ensuring your site ranks favorably on search engine result pages.

The built-in SEO settings panel in Genesis Framework provides a straightforward interface for managing the basic SEO configurations. This includes setting custom document titles, meta descriptions, and controlling the indexation settings, among other features. The ease of managing SEO settings natively, coupled with the option to extend the SEO capabilities through plugins, makes Genesis Framework a reliable choice for those keen on optimizing their online visibility.

E-commerce Readiness

In the modern digital landscape, e-commerce is a burgeoning field, and having a theme that is ready to facilitate online commerce is imperative. The Genesis Framework shines in this aspect with its seamless integration with WooCommerce, the most popular e-commerce plugin in the WordPress ecosystem. This integration is not merely superficial; it’s a well-thought-out fusion that provides a robust platform for creating and managing an online store.

The framework comes with pre-styled templates for WooCommerce, ensuring that your shop pages, product listings, and checkout process look cohesive and professional right from the start. Moreover, the customization options extend to the e-commerce elements, allowing for a tailored shopping experience that resonates with your brand identity.

From product displays, shopping carts, to checkout pages, every aspect of the e-commerce journey is well accounted for. The Genesis Framework ensures that both the website owner and the end customers enjoy a smooth, hassle-free e-commerce experience, thus paving the way for potential online retail success.

Support and Documentation

Transitioning to a new theme or framework can often be a daunting task, especially without adequate support and documentation. StudioPress alleviates this concern by providing extensive documentation and dedicated support for the Genesis Framework. The documentation covers a broad spectrum of topics, from basic setup to advanced customization, making it a valuable resource for both newcomers and seasoned WordPress users.

Moreover, the support team at StudioPress is commendable for its responsiveness and expertise. They provide timely assistance for any queries or issues, ensuring a smooth user experience. Furthermore, the active community surrounding the Genesis Framework is another source of support. The forums and community discussions provide a platform for users to share insights, solutions, and experiences, thus creating a supportive ecosystem for everyone involved.

Pricing and Licensing

Investing in a reliable framework is crucial for the success of any online venture, and understanding the pricing and licensing model is part of that investment. The Genesis Framework offers a transparent pricing model with a one-time purchase fee that provides lifetime access to the framework and theme updates, as well as support. This is a noteworthy advantage as it eliminates recurring costs, making it a cost-effective solution in the long run.

The pricing is competitive, and the various licensing options cater to different user needs. Whether it’s a single-site license or a developer pack, the Genesis Framework provides flexible licensing options to suit individual project requirements. Moreover, the inclusion of child themes in some packages adds value, providing users with a variety of design options right from the get-go.

User Reviews and Community Feedback

The standing of a framework in the user community is a pivotal aspect when evaluating its reliability and effectiveness. The Genesis Framework by StudioPress has garnered a plethora of positive reviews and commendations from its user base. The reviews often highlight the framework’s robustness, SEO-centric build, and the array of child themes available for different niches.

Community feedback is a genuine reflection of a product’s performance and user satisfaction. The active forums and community discussions surrounding the Genesis Framework provide a platform for prospective users to gauge the real-world application and benefits of using this framework. The shared experiences, solutions to common challenges, and the camaraderie among the Genesis community members are invaluable resources for both new and seasoned users.

Final Thoughts

The journey through the various facets of the Genesis Framework by StudioPress elucidates its robust architecture, user-centric features, and a solid foundation for SEO and e-commerce readiness. Its emphasis on clean code, performance optimization, and a wide array of customization options makes it a reliable choice for anyone venturing into the digital realm with WordPress.

Furthermore, the positive reception from the community, the continuous updates, and the dedicated support accentuate the Genesis Framework’s position as a viable contender in the WordPress framework arena. If you’re on the lookout for a framework that balances aesthetics with functionality, while also providing a conducive environment for SEO and e-commerce, the Genesis Framework is a worthy candidate.

With a transparent pricing model and a supportive community, your journey with the Genesis Framework could very well be the stepping stone to creating a captivating and successful online presence.

 

Impreza WordPress Theme Review: A Comprehensive Deep Dive

Impreza WordPress Theme review

The realm of WordPress themes is vast, yet among the multitude, Impreza carves its niche. Known for its versatility and user-friendly interface, Impreza has become a go-to choice for many web developers and website owners. This review embarks on a journey through the various facets of the Impreza WordPress theme, shedding light on its installation process, customization prowess, performance metrics, and much more.

Installation and Setup

Embarking on the journey with Impreza is a blend of simplicity and efficiency. The installation process is straightforward, making it easy for both novices and seasoned developers to get started. The theme offers a setup wizard that guides users through the essential steps, ensuring a hassle-free setup experience.

One of the highlights is the one-click demo importer, a feature that allows users to kickstart their website design by importing pre-designed templates. Impreza boasts a rich library of demo content catering to various industry niches, making it a versatile choice for a wide range of projects.

Customization Capabilities

The customization arena is where Impreza truly shines. Integrated with popular page builders like WPBakery and Elementor, the theme provides a canvas for creativity. The drag-and-drop functionality facilitates an intuitive design process, making customization a breeze.

Impreza comes bundled with a plethora of options that cater to different design preferences. From layout configurations to color schemes and typography, the customization possibilities are vast. Additionally, the real-time preview feature enables users to see the changes as they make them, enhancing the design experience.

The theme also offers a variety of pre-built templates, providing a solid base for customization. These templates are crafted meticulously, adhering to modern design principles while offering the flexibility to be tailored to individual preferences. Moreover, the inclusion of various plugins extends the customization capabilities further, empowering users to create unique and functional websites.

Performance and Speed

A swift, responsive website is a hallmark of a good user experience, and Impreza doesn’t fall short in this regard. The theme is built with optimized code that ensures rapid page loading, a critical factor in user satisfaction and SEO rankings. Its lightweight nature doesn’t bog down your website, ensuring smooth navigation through various pages.

Moreover, Impreza’s compatibility with caching plugins like W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache further enhance the loading speed. The theme also follows best coding practices, ensuring a streamlined performance that doesn’t compromise on functionality or aesthetics.

SEO Friendliness

Impreza’s SEO-friendly structure is a commendable feature that helps in achieving favorable rankings on search engines. Its clean and semantic code is well-structured, making it easier for search engine crawlers to index the website effectively.

Additionally, Impreza is compatible with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, which provide a platform for optimizing your website further. The theme also supports schema markup, aiding in enhancing the visibility of your website in search engine snippets, which is pivotal for driving organic traffic.

E-commerce Readiness

The seamless integration with WooCommerce makes Impreza a viable choice for those looking to venture into e-commerce. Its e-commerce features are robust, providing a solid foundation for building an online store.

Impreza offers pre-designed shop pages that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional, ensuring a user-friendly shopping experience. The customization options extend to the e-commerce elements as well, allowing for a tailored shopping journey that resonates with your brand. From product listings to shopping carts and checkout pages, every aspect of the e-commerce experience is well-designed and intuitive.

Support and Documentation

Navigating through a new theme can be a daunting task, especially for those new to the WordPress ecosystem. Impreza alleviates this challenge with its extensive documentation and dedicated support. The documentation is thorough, covering a wide array of topics from basic setup to advanced customization, making it a valuable resource for both novices and experienced developers.

The support team is another highlight, always ready to assist with any queries or issues. Their timely responses and expertise in troubleshooting common and complex issues are commendable. Moreover, the active community surrounding Impreza provides a platform for users to share insights, solutions, and experiences, adding another layer of support.

Pricing and Licensing

Investing in a theme is a significant decision, and Impreza offers transparent pricing and licensing options to cater to different user needs. The pricing is competitive, reflecting the quality and array of features provided by the theme.

Various licensing options cater to individuals, developers, and agencies, providing the flexibility to choose based on the project requirements. The process of managing licenses and renewals is user-friendly, making it a hassle-free experience.

User Reviews and Community Feedback

Impreza has garnered positive reviews and a loyal user base, attesting to its quality and user satisfaction. User reviews often highlight the theme’s ease of use, robust customization options, and reliable support.

The active community provides a platform for prospective and current users to share experiences and solutions to common challenges. The forums are bustling with discussions, providing a wealth of knowledge and insights into the practical use of Impreza.

Impreza emerges as a strong contender in the WordPress theme marketplace, offering a blend of ease of use, customization capabilities, and robust support. Its e-commerce readiness, SEO-friendly structure, and performance optimization further solidify its standing. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned developer, Impreza provides the tools and features to create a compelling online presence. Its positive reception in the community and the continuous updates to keep in line with the latest web design trends make it a worthy investment for anyone looking to build or revamp a WordPress website. Your journey with Impreza could very well be the stepping stone to a captivating and successful online endeavor.

A Comprehensive Review of JupiterX WordPress Theme

JupiterX Wordpress Theme Review

In the vast sea of WordPress themes, JupiterX surfaces as a distinguished gem coveted by many web developers and website owners. It isn’t just a theme; it’s a canvas for creativity, offering the flexibility and tools necessary for constructing a unique online presence. Known for its elegant design and robust customization features, JupiterX has garnered a significant following in the WordPress community. This review embarks on a meticulous exploration of JupiterX, unraveling the features and benefits that make it a noteworthy contender in the realm of WordPress themes.

Installation and Setup

Embarking on the journey with JupiterX is akin to stepping into a realm of simplicity fused with sophistication. The installation process is straightforward, devoid of any convoluted steps. With a simple click, the theme is installed, ready to transform your website’s aesthetics. The setup wizard is intuitive, guiding users through the essential steps to get their site up and running.

One of the standout features is the one-click demo importer. It’s a boon for those who wish to kickstart their website design with a template that resonates with their brand identity. JupiterX houses a plethora of pre-built templates, each designed meticulously to cater to various industry niches. The demo content is imported seamlessly, setting a solid foundation upon which users can build and personalize to their heart’s content.

Customization Capabilities

Stepping into the customization arena, JupiterX shines brightly. The cornerstone of its customization prowess lies in its seamless integration with the Elementor page builder, a revered tool among WordPress enthusiasts. With Elementor’s drag-and-drop functionality, customizing your website becomes an exhilarating venture rather than a tedious task.

The array of customization options is extensive. From typography and color schemes to layout configurations and header styles, the realm of possibilities is vast. Moreover, the real-time preview feature is a valuable asset, allowing users to witness the transformation as they tweak and tune the elements.

JupiterX also comes bundled with numerous plugins that extend the customization capabilities further. Whether it’s creating captivating sliders with Slider Revolution or crafting forms with the bundled form plugins, the theme empowers users to elevate their website’s functionality and aesthetics.

The cherry on top is the set of pre-built templates that JupiterX offers. These templates are not mere skeletons; they are designed with a keen eye for detail, ensuring that users have a strong base to kickstart their customization journey. Each template adheres to modern design principles while offering the flexibility to be tailored to suit individual preferences.

Performance and Speed

In a digital landscape where speed is synonymous with user satisfaction, JupiterX doesn’t lag behind. The theme is coded with performance optimization in mind, ensuring that websites load swiftly, enhancing user engagement and SEO rankings alike. The optimized codebase is lightweight, minimizing the load times, and ensuring a smooth user experience across various devices and browsers.

Furthermore, JupiterX’s compatibility with caching plugins and other performance-enhancing tools amplifies its speed credentials. When paired with a reliable hosting service and a well-optimized WordPress installation, JupiterX delivers a performance that is both reliable and fast, meeting the expectations of both users and search engines.

SEO Friendliness

In the realm of online visibility, SEO is king, and JupiterX is well-aware of this monarchy. The theme is crafted with SEO best practices embedded in its code. Its compatibility with leading SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack is a testament to its SEO-friendly architecture. This synergy allows website owners to fine-tune their SEO strategies effortlessly, ensuring their sites rank favorably in search engine result pages.

Moreover, the clean and semantic code structure of JupiterX is favorable for search engine crawling and indexing, which is crucial for SEO. The theme also supports schema markup, which is a boon for enhancing the website’s visibility in search engine snippets.

E-commerce Readiness

Venturing into the e-commerce sphere requires a solid foundation, and JupiterX provides just that with its seamless integration with WooCommerce. This integration is more than superficial; it’s a well-thought-out fusion that empowers users to create and manage an online store with ease.

The theme comes with pre-designed shop pages that are aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly, providing a solid base for e-commerce ventures. Moreover, the customization options extend to the e-commerce elements as well, allowing for a tailored shopping experience that resonates with the brand identity.

From product displays to shopping carts and checkout pages, every aspect of the e-commerce journey is well accounted for. JupiterX ensures that both the website owner and the end customers enjoy a smooth, hassle-free e-commerce experience.

Support and Documentation

The transition to a new theme can often be accompanied by a steep learning curve, especially for those new to WordPress. However, JupiterX alleviates this challenge with its extensive documentation and dedicated support. The documentation is a treasure trove of knowledge, covering a wide array of topics ranging from basic setup to advanced customization. It’s structured in a way that’s easy to navigate, with clear headings, step-by-step guides, and visual aids to ensure a better understanding.

Furthermore, the support team is just a click away, ready to assist with any queries or issues. The responsiveness and expertise of the support team are commendable, providing solutions in a timely and efficient manner. Moreover, the active community around JupiterX is another source of support. The forums are bustling with discussions, and the exchange of knowledge among users is a notable advantage.

Pricing and Licensing

Investing in a WordPress theme is a crucial decision that involves evaluating the cost against the benefits. JupiterX offers a transparent pricing model, providing clear details on what’s included with each license. The pricing is competitive, aligning well with the myriad of features and the quality of support provided.

The various licensing options cater to different user needs, whether it’s a single-site license for individuals or a multi-site license for developers. The ease of managing licenses and the straightforward renewal process adds to the user-friendly nature of JupiterX.

User Reviews and Community Feedback

The user community’s voice is a pivotal aspect when evaluating a theme’s standing. JupiterX has garnered positive reviews and commendations from its user base. The reviews often highlight the theme’s ease of use, robust customization features, and reliable support.

Community feedback is an authentic reflection of the theme’s performance and user satisfaction. The active forums and community discussions provide a platform for prospective users to gauge the real-world application and benefits of JupiterX. The shared experiences and solutions to common challenges are invaluable resources for both new and seasoned JupiterX users.

Emerging from the extensive analysis, JupiterX distinguishes itself as a potent contender in the WordPress theme arena. Its rich feature set, coupled with ease of customization, performance optimization, and dedicated support, makes it a worthy investment for anyone seeking to build a compelling online presence. The positive reception from the community further solidifies its position as a reliable and user-friendly theme. If you are on the lookout for a theme that balances aesthetics with functionality, JupiterX is a viable candidate worth considering. Your journey with JupiterX could be the stepping stone to creating a captivating and successful online presence.

Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins for 2023

top 10 wordpress plugins of 2023

In the ever-evolving landscape of WordPress, plugins play a pivotal role in enhancing the functionality and usability of websites. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a WordPress newbie, the right set of plugins can transform your site from a basic blog into a powerful online platform. This comprehensive guide aims to unveil the “Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins for 2023,” carefully curated to optimize performance, security, and user experience. From SEO boosters to backup solutions, these plugins are the unsung heroes that empower over 40% of the web. So, let’s dive in and explore how these plugins can elevate your WordPress journey.

Learn more about WordPress plugins from the official WordPress website.

Why Plugins are Essential

WordPress plugins are the building blocks that add specialized functionalities to your website, much like apps do for your smartphone. They fill in the gaps where the core WordPress software might fall short, offering a range of features from SEO optimization to social media integration. Here’s why they are indispensable:

  1. Enhanced Functionality: Want to add an e-commerce store, a portfolio, or a forum to your website? There’s a plugin for that. Plugins allow you to extend your website’s capabilities beyond its basic functions.
  2. Ease of Use: Most plugins offer a user-friendly interface, making it easy even for beginners to add complex features to their sites without knowing a line of code.
  3. Cost-Effective: While some premium plugins come with a price tag, many are free or offer free versions with essential features. This makes it cost-effective to enhance your site’s functionality.
  4. Time-Saving: Custom coding features can take a lot of time and expertise. Plugins offer a quick and efficient way to add new functionalities, often with just a few clicks.
  5. SEO Benefits: Plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO can help optimize your site for search engines, making it easier for your content to rank higher in search results.
  6. Security: Security plugins can help protect your website from hacks and malware, offering peace of mind along with enhanced features.

Explore the vast range of plugins on WordPress.org’s Plugin Directory.

Criteria for Selection

Choosing the right plugins for your WordPress site can be overwhelming, given the thousands of options available. This guide simplifies the process by focusing on a few key criteria:

  1. Popularity: Plugins with a large user base are generally more reliable and well-maintained.
  2. Ratings and Reviews: User feedback can provide valuable insights into a plugin’s performance and reliability.
  3. Compatibility: It’s crucial to choose plugins that are compatible with your version of WordPress to avoid conflicts and issues.
  4. Support and Updates: Regular updates and active support from the developers are signs of a trustworthy plugin.
  5. Ease of Use: We prioritize plugins that are user-friendly and don’t require advanced technical skills.
  6. Versatility: Plugins that offer multiple features or can be used for various purposes score higher on our list.

Top 10 Plugins

The heart of this guide lies in the exploration of the top 10 essential WordPress plugins for 2023. Each plugin has been chosen based on the criteria outlined earlier. Let’s dive in:

1. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO plugin
Yoast SEO plugin

Overview: Yoast SEO is the go-to plugin for search engine optimization. It offers a comprehensive set of tools to help you make your site more search engine friendly.

Features:

  • Keyword optimization
  • Readability analysis
  • Breadcrumbs control

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: User-friendly, extensive features
  • Cons: Premium features can be costly

Pricing: Free with premium options starting at $89/year

How to Install: Available through the WordPress plugin directory or Yoast’s official website.

Visit Yoast SEO’s official website for more details

2. WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache plugin
WP Super cache plugin

Overview: WP Super Cache is a caching plugin that improves your website’s load time, enhancing user experience and SEO.

Features:

  • Page caching
  • Compression
  • CDN support

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Easy to use, improves site speed
  • Cons: May require some technical knowledge for advanced settings

Pricing: Free

How to Install: Can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory.

Learn more about caching and WP Super Cache here

3. Wordfence Security

Overview: Wordfence Security is a comprehensive security plugin that protects your site from hacks and malware.

Wordfence Security Plugin
Wordfence Security Plugin

Features:

  • Firewall protection
  • Malware scanning
  • Login security

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Robust security features, real-time monitoring
  • Cons: The free version has limited features

Pricing: Free with premium options starting at $99/year

How to Install: Available through the WordPress plugin directory or Wordfence’s official website.

Visit Wordfence Security’s official website for more details

4. WooCommerce

WooCommerce Plugin
WooCommerce Plugin

Overview: WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce plugin, allowing you to sell products directly from your WordPress site.

Features:

  • Product catalog
  • Payment gateways
  • Inventory management

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Highly customizable, extensive add-ons
  • Cons: Can be complex for beginners

Pricing: Free with premium extensions available

How to Install: Can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory.

Learn more about WooCommerce from its official website

5. Elementor

Overview: Elementor is a drag-and-drop page builder that allows you to create stunning layouts without any coding skills.

Features:

  • Visual editor
  • Pre-designed templates
  • Responsive design

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: User-friendly, extensive design options
  • Cons: Some advanced features are premium-only

Pricing: Free with premium options starting at $49/year

How to Install: Available through the WordPress plugin directory or Elementor’s official website.

Visit Elementor’s official website for more details

6. UpdraftPlus

Overview: UpdraftPlus is a reliable backup plugin that allows you to schedule automatic backups and store them in various locations.

Features:

  • Scheduled backups
  • Cloud storage options
  • Site migration

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Easy to use, multiple storage options
  • Cons: Some features like cloning are premium-only

Pricing: Free with premium options starting at $70/year

How to Install: Can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory.

Learn more about UpdraftPlus from its official website

7. Akismet Anti-Spam

Overview: Akismet is an anti-spam plugin that filters out spam comments and form submissions, helping you maintain the integrity of your site.

Features:

  • Spam filtering
  • Comment moderation
  • Malicious content blocking

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Highly effective, easy to set up
  • Cons: Free for personal sites only

Pricing: Free for personal use, premium plans start at $5/month

How to Install: Available through the WordPress plugin directory.

Visit Akismet’s official website for more details

8. Smush Image Optimization

Overview: Smush helps optimize images on your site, reducing their size without compromising quality, which in turn improves site speed.

Features:

  • Image compression
  • Lazy loading
  • Bulk optimization

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Easy to use, improves site speed
  • Cons: Free version has a 5MB file size limit

Pricing: Free with premium options starting at $7/month

How to Install: Can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory.

Learn more about Smush from its official website

9. Contact Form 7

Overview: Contact Form 7 is a simple yet flexible contact form plugin that allows you to create and manage multiple contact forms on your WordPress site.

Features:

  • Multiple forms
  • CAPTCHA support
  • Email notifications

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Highly customizable, easy to use
  • Cons: May require additional plugins for extended functionalities

Pricing: Free

How to Install: Available through the WordPress plugin directory.

Visit Contact Form 7’s official website for more details

10. Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (GADWP)

Overview: This plugin allows you to easily integrate Google Analytics into your WordPress dashboard, providing real-time stats and tracking capabilities.

Features:

  • Real-time analytics
  • Traffic sources
  • User behavior tracking

Pros and Cons:

  • Pros: Comprehensive analytics, easy to set up
  • Cons: Can be overwhelming for beginners

Pricing: Free

How to Install: Can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory.

Learn more about Google Analytics Dashboard for WP from its official website

How to Choose the Right Plugin for You

Selecting the right plugin from a plethora of options can be a daunting task. Here are some tips to help you make an informed decision:

  1. Identify Your Needs: Before diving into the plugin pool, have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with your website. This will help you narrow down your options.
  2. Do Your Research: Read reviews, check ratings, and perhaps even test a few plugins to see how they perform. Look for plugins that are regularly updated and have good support.
  3. Check Compatibility: Always ensure that the plugin you choose is compatible with your version of WordPress. Most plugins will specify which versions they are compatible with.
  4. Consider Longevity: Opt for plugins that have been around for a while and have a large user base. This usually indicates reliability and longevity.
  5. Test on a Staging Site: Before installing a new plugin on your live site, test it on a staging site to make sure it doesn’t cause any conflicts or issues.

Detect the theme and plugin a site is using.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

When it comes to selecting and using WordPress plugins, there are some common pitfalls that you should steer clear of:

  1. Overloading Your Site: Installing too many plugins can slow down your website and lead to conflicts. Stick to the essentials and deactivate any plugins you’re not using.
  2. Ignoring Updates: Failing to update plugins can leave your site vulnerable to security risks. Always keep your plugins up-to-date.
  3. Skipping Backups: Before updating or installing a new plugin, always backup your site. This ensures you can quickly restore it in case something goes wrong.
  4. Not Checking Compatibility: Always check if a plugin is compatible with your WordPress version and other plugins to avoid conflicts.
  5. Ignoring User Reviews: User reviews and ratings can provide valuable insights into a plugin’s performance and reliability. Don’t ignore them.
  6. Using Nulled Plugins: Avoid using nulled or pirated plugins as they can pose serious security risks and are illegal.

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the end of this comprehensive guide on the “Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins for 2023.” Armed with this knowledge, you’re well-equipped to enhance your WordPress site’s functionality, security, and user experience. Remember, the right set of plugins can make or break your website, so choose wisely and avoid common pitfalls. Happy WordPress-ing!

Check out our other guides and articles for more WordPress tips and tricks

Newspaper Theme Review

Newspaper Theme review Themeforest

In the bustling digital world, a website’s visual appearance, functionality, and overall performance can either make or break its success. Whether you’re an established business or a burgeoning start-up, a dedicated blogger or a news agency, the choice of your website theme significantly impacts your online presence. This is where the “Newspaper – News & WooCommerce WordPress Theme,” available on themeforest.net, comes into play.

As its name suggests, the Newspaper theme is specifically designed for blogs, newspapers, magazines, or review sites. The theme is not only visually appealing, but it also comes loaded with a variety of features to ensure an enhanced user experience. But, is it the right theme for your specific needs? This review aims to delve deep into the details of the Newspaper theme, examining its key features, ease of installation, customization options, WooCommerce integration, SEO performance, and more.

Overview and Key Features

The Newspaper theme is a product that boasts a mix of stunning design and cutting-edge technology, providing a rich toolbox for publishers of all kinds. Its numerous features cater to a broad range of needs, making it a versatile choice for different types of websites. Let’s break down some of the main features of the Newspaper theme.

Intuitive Design

The Newspaper theme distinguishes itself with a clean, modern design that suits a wide array of niches. The theme’s layout provides an intuitive user experience, making it easy for your readers to navigate your website. This aesthetically pleasing design helps to maintain user engagement, ensuring that your audience will not only stay on your site longer but will also be more likely to return.

TagDiv Composer

One of the standout features of the Newspaper theme is the TagDiv Composer, a frontend page builder that comes bundled with the theme. This drag-and-drop tool allows you to design your pages on the frontend, seeing changes in real-time. It comes with a host of pre-made templates and elements, making it easy to create professional-looking pages without any coding knowledge.

Pre-made Templates

The Newspaper theme offers a vast library of pre-made templates that can be easily imported and used. These templates cover a wide range of topics and styles, ensuring that there’s a perfect fit for every website. Whether you’re running a fashion blog, a tech news site, or a food magazine, you can find a pre-designed template that matches your niche.

Mobile Theme

As mobile usage continues to grow, having a mobile-responsive theme is more important than ever. The Newspaper theme comes with a custom mobile theme that not only ensures your site looks great on smaller screens, but also optimizes speed and performance.

WooCommerce Integration

Newspaper theme seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce, one of the most popular e-commerce plugins for WordPress. This means you can effortlessly set up an online store on your website, allowing you to sell products or services directly to your audience.

Installation and Setup

Ease of installation and setup is a critical factor when considering a WordPress theme, particularly for those who are not very tech-savvy. Thankfully, the Newspaper theme is designed with user-friendliness in mind, making the installation process simple and straightforward. Here’s what to expect when installing and setting up the Newspaper theme.

Installation

The first step in the process is to purchase and download the Newspaper theme from themeforest.net. After you’ve purchased the theme, you’ll receive a ZIP file that contains everything you need to install the theme on your WordPress site. From your WordPress dashboard, you can navigate to Appearance -> Themes -> Add New -> Upload Theme, then select the ZIP file to install.

Demo Content Import

One of the highlights of the Newspaper theme is its one-click demo content import. This feature allows you to import pre-built templates and layouts, giving your site a professional look right from the start. Once you’ve installed the theme, you can navigate to the theme’s panel to access the “Import Demo” option.

TagDiv Composer Activation

After importing your chosen demo content, the next step is to activate the TagDiv Composer, the built-in page builder. This tool allows you to customize your site’s appearance with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. Once activated, you can start using the TagDiv Composer to customize your site.

Configuration and Customization

With the theme and page builder installed and activated, you can now start configuring and customizing your site. The Newspaper theme comes with a host of options for you to tweak, including colors, typography, layouts, and more. These options are conveniently located in the theme’s panel, allowing you to personalize your site to fit your brand.

Customization Options

The Newspaper theme stands out for its extensive customization options. These options, accessible through the intuitive TagDiv Composer, allow users to tailor every aspect of their site to their unique preferences and branding needs. Let’s explore some of the key customization options that come with the Newspaper theme.

Page Builder and Pre-Designed Elements

At the heart of the Newspaper theme’s customization capabilities is the TagDiv Composer, a powerful drag-and-drop page builder. It offers a variety of pre-designed elements, such as headers, footers, post grids, sliders, and more. These elements can be easily added, rearranged, or removed, allowing users to create unique page layouts with just a few clicks.

Template Library

The Newspaper theme provides a vast library of pre-made templates designed to fit different content types and niches. These templates range from single post templates to category templates, author templates, and search templates, among others. Users can import these templates with a single click and modify them as needed using the TagDiv Composer.

Header and Footer Builder

With the Newspaper theme, users can also customize their website’s header and footer areas. The theme comes with a header and footer builder that offers various layout and design options. Users can adjust the size, position, and color of the header and footer elements, add social media links, and more.

Typography and Color Options

The theme also offers a range of typography and color options, giving users complete control over their website’s look and feel. Users can choose from hundreds of Google Fonts, adjust font size and line height, and apply custom colors to different elements of the website.

Custom Widgets

The Newspaper theme includes several custom widgets, such as social counters, weather, currency exchange, and Instagram, among others. These widgets can be added to any widgetized area on your site, offering additional functionality and interactivity to your audience.

WooCommerce Integration

For website owners looking to monetize their platform, a seamless integration with a powerful eCommerce solution like WooCommerce can be a game-changer. Fortunately, the Newspaper theme offers robust WooCommerce integration, enabling you to add an online store to your news site or blog. Here’s what you can expect from the Newspaper theme’s WooCommerce integration:

Easy Setup

Newspaper theme allows you to easily integrate WooCommerce. Once the WooCommerce plugin is installed and activated on your WordPress site, you’ll find that the theme automatically adapts to include eCommerce functionalities.

Customizable Shop and Product Pages

The Newspaper theme extends its customization options to the WooCommerce shop and product pages. The theme includes several pre-designed templates for your shop’s main page and individual product pages. These templates can be imported with a single click, after which they can be customized to match your brand using the TagDiv Composer.

Product Reviews

With the Newspaper theme, you can also integrate product reviews into your WooCommerce store. This is a vital eCommerce feature as reviews can significantly influence a potential customer’s purchasing decision.

Compatible with WooCommerce Extensions

In addition to the core WooCommerce plugin, the Newspaper theme is also compatible with a variety of WooCommerce extensions. This means you can add more complex functionalities to your online store if needed. For instance, you could use a WooCommerce extension to offer bookings, memberships, subscriptions, or dynamic pricing and discounts.

Responsiveness and SEO Performance

A good WordPress theme not only needs to look good and provide robust features, but it also needs to ensure that your website performs optimally on different devices and ranks well on search engine results. Here’s how the Newspaper theme fares in terms of responsiveness and SEO performance:

Responsiveness

In today’s digital age, a large chunk of web traffic comes from mobile devices. The Newspaper theme shines in this area, offering a fully responsive design that ensures your website looks and performs excellently on all devices, from desktops to tablets and smartphones. Furthermore, the theme includes a custom mobile theme that provides a faster, more streamlined experience for mobile users.

SEO Performance

The Newspaper theme is built with SEO best practices in mind to help your website rank higher on search engine results. It has clean, optimized code that makes it easy for search engines to crawl and index your website. It’s also compatible with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, ensuring that you have all the tools you need to optimize your content for search engines.

Page Load Speed

Page load speed is a crucial factor in both user experience and SEO. A slower-loading website can lead to high bounce rates as visitors are likely to leave if your pages don’t load quickly. The Newspaper theme has a built-in performance optimization system, and it’s also compatible with caching plugins to ensure your website loads quickly and runs smoothly.

Customer Support

When choosing a WordPress theme, the quality of customer support offered by the developers is a crucial consideration. Regardless of how intuitive or user-friendly a theme may be, there may be times when you need assistance or run into issues that you can’t resolve on your own. For the Newspaper theme, you’re in good hands. Here’s what you can expect from their customer support:

Extensive Documentation

The Newspaper theme comes with a comprehensive user guide and documentation that covers every aspect of the theme. From installation and setup to customization and troubleshooting, the documentation provides detailed step-by-step instructions to help you make the most of the theme.

Support Forum

The developers of the Newspaper theme also offer a support forum where you can ask questions and find answers from both the support team and other users of the theme. This community-driven support system can be a valuable resource for finding solutions to common issues or getting ideas for your site.

Direct Support

In addition to the support forum, Newspaper theme’s developers offer direct support to their customers. You can reach out to the support team through a ticketing system if you encounter any issues or have any queries. Their response time and problem-solving efficiency are generally well-reviewed by the user community.

Regular Updates

Another sign of good customer support is regular theme updates. The Newspaper theme is updated regularly to fix bugs, add new features, and ensure compatibility with the latest version of WordPress, WooCommerce, and other plugins. These updates help keep your site running smoothly and securely.

Pros and Cons

When choosing a WordPress theme, it’s important to weigh the benefits against the potential drawbacks. To help you make an informed decision, here’s an overview of the pros and cons of the Newspaper theme.

Pros

  1. Versatility: The Newspaper theme is designed to fit a wide range of niches. Whether you’re running a blog, news site, magazine, or an online store, the theme’s extensive features and customization options make it a versatile choice.
  2. Intuitive Page Builder: The built-in TagDiv Composer allows you to customize your pages using a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. You can design your pages in real-time, with no coding knowledge required.
  3. Pre-designed Templates: The theme comes with a vast library of pre-designed templates for different types of content. These templates can be easily imported and customized to match your brand.
  4. WooCommerce Integration: The seamless integration with WooCommerce allows you to add eCommerce functionality to your site with ease. The theme includes customizable shop and product page templates to help you set up an online store.
  5. Mobile Optimization: The Newspaper theme is fully responsive and comes with a custom mobile theme to ensure your site looks great and performs well on all devices.

Cons

  1. Complexity: While the Newspaper theme is packed with features, this can also make the theme somewhat overwhelming for beginners. The sheer number of options and settings may take some time to explore and understand.
  2. Performance: Although the theme is optimized for speed, the large number of features and scripts can potentially slow down your site if not properly managed. It’s important to use a good caching plugin and optimize your content for speed.
  3. Customization Limitations: Despite the extensive customization options, there may be certain aspects of the theme that can’t be easily customized without coding knowledge. Some users have reported limitations in the header and footer customization options.

User Reviews and Ratings

User reviews and ratings offer valuable insights into a theme’s performance and the developers’ customer service. The Newspaper theme, being one of the best-selling WordPress themes on Themeforest, has garnered a plethora of reviews from its users. Here’s a summary of what users are saying:

Positive Reviews

The Newspaper theme generally receives high praise for its comprehensive feature set. Users appreciate the flexibility and customization options offered by the theme, particularly the drag-and-drop functionality of the TagDiv Composer. The array of pre-designed templates also receives much acclaim, with users highlighting how these templates can quickly give a professional look to their websites.

The theme’s responsiveness and mobile optimization are frequently mentioned as well, with users noting that their sites look excellent and perform well on various devices.

Another common theme among positive reviews is the quality of customer support. Users report that the support team is responsive, helpful, and able to resolve issues effectively. The regular updates and improvements to the theme are also highly appreciated by the user community.

Critical Reviews

While the majority of reviews are positive, there are some criticisms as well. Some users find the Newspaper theme to be quite complex, particularly for beginners. The multitude of options and settings, while offering great flexibility, can be overwhelming and have a steep learning curve for those new to WordPress.

Another area of critique is related to website performance. Some users report that their sites have slowed down after installing the theme. However, it’s worth noting that website speed can be affected by a multitude of factors, including hosting quality, content optimization, and proper use of caching plugins.

Lastly, there are occasional complaints about limitations in certain customization options, particularly for the header and footer.

Newspaper theme has a high overall rating, with positive reviews vastly outnumbering the negative ones. Most users seem to find the theme’s strengths to significantly outweigh any potential shortcomings.

Conclusion

Choosing the right theme for your WordPress site is a crucial decision that can significantly impact your website’s functionality, user experience, and overall success. If you’re looking for a versatile, feature-rich, and customizable theme, then the Newspaper theme is worth considering.

Designed to cater to a wide array of content types and niches, the Newspaper theme brings together a powerful combination of features. Its built-in TagDiv Composer provides a user-friendly platform for customizing your site’s appearance without requiring any coding knowledge. The expansive library of pre-designed templates can give your website a professional look right from the start, and the WooCommerce integration allows you to add an online store to your platform with ease.

The Newspaper theme is also designed with performance in mind, boasting a fully responsive design and built-in SEO features. It’s regularly updated by the developers, ensuring compatibility with the latest versions of WordPress and other relevant plugins.

While the theme may seem overwhelming to some users due to its extensive features, the comprehensive documentation and responsive customer support make the learning curve manageable. Potential performance issues can be effectively handled with proper website management and optimization practices.

Newspaper theme, with its robust set of features, extensive customization options, and responsive design, stands as a solid choice for anyone looking to create a professional-looking and functional WordPress website. Its positive user reviews and ratings underscore its quality and effectiveness as a top-tier WordPress theme.

 

Flatsome WordPress Theme a Detailed Review

Flatsome Wordpress Theme Review

The world of WordPress themes is expansive and diverse, with designs catering to virtually every imaginable website niche. Amidst this vast array, the Flatsome WordPress theme stands out as a distinguished player, renowned for its flexibility, functionality, and aesthetic appeal. Developed by UX-themes, Flatsome is positioned as a versatile theme, designed to fit an array of needs from corporate websites to online storefronts.

Boasting a rich suite of features, Flatsome provides users with a comprehensive toolkit for building interactive, visually captivating websites. The theme’s key features include a live page builder, a library of pre-defined layouts and elements, and a flexible, responsive design that ensures your website looks fantastic on any device.

One of the primary draws of the Flatsome theme is its user-centric design philosophy. It offers an intuitive user interface and an extensive array of customization options, making it accessible to both WordPress novices and experienced web developers alike.

As a premium WordPress theme, Flatsome positions itself as a comprehensive solution for businesses and individuals seeking to establish a robust online presence. Its design combines a modern aesthetic with user-friendly functionality, promising an engaging and seamless user experience.

In this article, we will delve deeper into the myriad features of the Flatsome theme, examining its capabilities, discussing its applications, and providing a thorough review of its performance. Whether you’re a business owner looking to build an eCommerce platform, a blogger seeking a responsive and attractive design, or a web developer exploring new tools, this article will provide valuable insights into what Flatsome has to offer.

Dissecting Flatsome: An In-Depth Look at Its Feature Set

The Flatsome WordPress theme is much more than a beautiful face. Its powerful feature set, developed with attention to detail and user needs, makes it a worthy contender in the world of WordPress themes. Let’s unravel the Flatsome’s offering, exploring the key features that set this theme apart.

1. Live Page Builder and Element Library

One of the major highlights of Flatsome is its live page builder, known as the UX Builder. This tool is specifically designed for creating beautiful, responsive pages without needing to write a single line of code. As the name suggests, the UX Builder allows you to build and customize your pages in real-time, providing an immediate preview of your design changes.

Complementing the UX Builder is Flatsome’s expansive library of pre-defined layouts and elements. From stunning hero sections to engaging testimonial sliders, you have a wealth of components at your disposal. These elements can be tailored to fit your brand style, making customization a breeze.

2. Responsive Design

With mobile browsing surpassing desktop, it’s more crucial than ever to have a website that performs beautifully across all devices. Flatsome shines in this area with its truly responsive design. The theme automatically adjusts your website’s layout based on the user’s device, ensuring your content looks and performs its best whether viewed on a smartphone, tablet, or a desktop screen.

3. WooCommerce Integration

Flatsome prides itself on being the #1 Best Selling WooCommerce Theme on Themeforest, and it’s easy to see why. Its seamless integration with WooCommerce, the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress, makes it an excellent choice for online stores. Flatsome provides a host of customized WooCommerce features, such as wishlist functionality, quick product view, and a floating shopping cart, delivering a smooth shopping experience for your customers.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The Flatsome theme is built with SEO best practices in mind, helping your website rank higher on search engine results. From clean, efficient code to schema.org integration, Flatsome has the essential features you need for a strong SEO foundation.

5. Language and RTL Support

Recognizing the global reach of online businesses, Flatsome comes equipped with multi-language support and is fully compatible with the WPML plugin. It also supports right-to-left languages, making it a versatile choice for international websites.

Flatsome WordPress theme offers a rich array of features aimed at providing flexibility, ease of use, and a top-notch user experience. It balances aesthetics with functionality and gives you the tools to create a website that reflects your brand identity.

Now, we’ll delve into practical applications of Flatsome, providing real-world examples of how these features can be used to create different types of websites. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a blogger, or a web developer, you’re bound to find the next article insightful and inspiring.

Flatsome in Action: Practical Applications of Flatsome WordPress Theme

Having dissected the features of Flatsome in our last article, let’s now explore how these features come together to create different types of websites. Whether you’re running a blog, an online store, a corporate website, or a portfolio site, Flatsome can be a great choice. Here are a few practical applications of the Flatsome WordPress theme.

1. eCommerce Websites

Flatsome’s robust WooCommerce integration makes it an excellent choice for eCommerce websites. You can set up shop pages with various layouts, incorporate product quick view options, and even create a wishlist feature. The floating shopping cart ensures a seamless shopping experience for your customers. Its mobile optimization ensures that your online store looks and performs perfectly, even on smaller screens.

2. Corporate Websites

The professional design and flexible customization options make Flatsome a great fit for corporate websites. The live page builder allows you to create dynamic pages featuring your services, team, and more. The SEO-ready structure helps your corporate website to rank well in search engine results, increasing visibility and credibility.

3. Blogging

If you’re a blogger, Flatsome can offer a captivating platform for your content. The theme provides a variety of blog layouts – from traditional to masonry to timeline styles. You can also integrate social sharing buttons, allow visitor comments, and categorize your blog posts for easy navigation.

4. Portfolio Websites

Flatsome’s responsive design and gallery options make it an excellent choice for portfolio websites. Artists, photographers, and designers can showcase their work in visually stunning layouts. The UX Builder allows you to create interactive portfolios with sliders, carousels, or grids.

5. Multi-language Websites

Flatsome’s compatibility with the WPML plugin makes it a suitable option for multi-language websites or businesses targeting international customers. The theme supports RTL languages, ensuring your content is accessible to users worldwide.

Flatsome offers immense potential in its practical applications, with its robust features and flexibility allowing you to create a variety of website types.

Now, we will delve into a performance analysis of the Flatsome WordPress theme, scrutinizing its speed, SEO capabilities, mobile responsiveness, and more.

Putting Flatsome to the Test: Performance Analysis of Flatsome WordPress Theme

A website’s performance is as critical as its appearance. It directly influences user experience, search engine rankings, and ultimately, your site’s success. In this segment of our Flatsome review series, we scrutinize the performance capabilities of this WordPress theme, evaluating its speed, mobile responsiveness, and SEO-friendliness.

1. Speed

Webpage loading speed is a critical factor in retaining visitors; a sluggish site can deter potential customers and negatively impact your search engine rankings. The Flatsome theme is built with speed in mind. Its clean, optimized code ensures a swift and smooth browsing experience. Flatsome also works well with popular caching and performance optimization plugins, allowing further improvements on load times.

2. Mobile Responsiveness

As mentioned earlier in our series, Flatsome excels in delivering a seamless experience across all devices. Its responsive design means that your website automatically adjusts to fit the screen it’s viewed on, ensuring a consistent, high-quality user experience, whether on a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Given that mobile browsing is now more prevalent than desktop, this responsiveness is a vital attribute.

3. SEO Capabilities

Flatsome has been developed with SEO best practices in mind. It comes with a clean, efficient code base, which is a crucial factor for search engine rankings. Furthermore, Flatsome integrates well with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, giving you powerful tools to optimize your site’s SEO.

4. Compatibility with Plugins

Flatsome’s compatibility with a wide range of WordPress plugins is another testament to its robust performance. From SEO plugins like Yoast SEO to security plugins such as Wordfence, Flatsome generally plays well with others. This wide compatibility means you can extend your website’s functionality without worrying about conflicts or errors.

5. Stability and Updates

Developed by UX-themes, Flatsome has a strong reputation for stability. Regular updates keep the theme compatible with the latest version of WordPress, ensure ongoing WooCommerce integration, and add new features or improvements based on user feedback.

In conclusion, Flatsome promises a robust performance package alongside its rich suite of features. Its focus on speed, responsiveness, and SEO compatibility ensures your website performs as beautifully as it looks.

Moving on, we’ll look at Flatsome’s support structure, pricing, and community, helping you decide whether it’s the right choice for your website.

Investing in Flatsome: Pricing, Support, and Community Insights

Choosing a WordPress theme is a critical decision, which often comes down to factors beyond the design and features. In this part of our Flatsome review series, we explore the theme’s pricing, the support you can expect as a user, and the community built around it.

1. Pricing

Flatsome is a premium WordPress theme available on ThemeForest. Its pricing structure is straightforward. For a one-time fee, you receive the Flatsome WordPress theme, future updates, and 6 months of support from UX-themes. If you wish, you can extend the support to 12 months for an additional fee.

Keep in mind that this is a per-site license, so if you plan to use Flatsome on multiple websites, you will need to purchase additional licenses.

2. Support

One of the major advantages of choosing a premium WordPress theme like Flatsome is the dedicated support. The team at UX-themes is known for their responsive and helpful support service. The six months of included support covers all aspects of the theme, from installation issues to help with customization.

3. Documentation and Tutorials

Flatsome comes with comprehensive documentation that covers every feature in detail. It serves as an excellent resource when setting up your site or troubleshooting issues. Additionally, there are numerous tutorials available online from both the theme developers and user community.

4. Community

Flatsome has a large and active user community. This community serves as a valuable resource for tips, inspiration, and advice. You can find numerous Flatsome user groups on social media platforms where users share their experiences and provide support to each other.

The investment in Flatsome extends beyond its feature set. The dedicated support, comprehensive documentation, and active community are valuable resources that accompany the theme, contributing to a smoother and more successful website building experience.

Final Verdict: Our Comprehensive Conclusion on the Flatsome WordPress Theme

Over the course of this series, we’ve explored the Flatsome theme in detail, highlighting its features, performance, and support structure. Now, it’s time to round off with our personal insights and recommendations.

1. Who is Flatsome for?

Flatsome is versatile enough to cater to a wide range of users.

  • eCommerce Businesses: With its seamless WooCommerce integration and dedicated eCommerce features, Flatsome is an excellent choice for online shops.
  • Web Developers: Flatsome’s live page builder and extensive library of elements can help web developers craft stunning websites without extensive coding.
  • Bloggers: The variety of blog layouts and SEO-friendly structure makes Flatsome an attractive choice for bloggers.
  • Corporate Websites: Flatsome’s professional design and flexible customization options are ideal for corporate websites.

2. Ease of Use

Flatsome is incredibly user-friendly. Its UX Builder is intuitive and easy to use, even for beginners. The theme’s comprehensive documentation and responsive support also help make the process smoother, even if you encounter hurdles along the way.

3. Performance and SEO

As we’ve established in our performance analysis, Flatsome doesn’t disappoint when it comes to speed, mobile responsiveness, and SEO. The theme’s clean code and compatibility with popular optimization plugins ensure your website is built for success.

4. Support and Community

The active support from UX-themes and the vibrant Flatsome user community are valuable resources. Whether you need help troubleshooting an issue, customizing your website, or simply seeking inspiration, you’ll find the support you need.

5. Price

While Flatsome is a premium theme, its extensive features, reliable performance, and dedicated support justify the investment. If you’re seeking a professional, versatile, and robust WordPress theme, Flatsome offers great value for the price.

In Conclusion

Flatsome is a well-rounded and robust WordPress theme that combines aesthetics, functionality, and performance. Its flexibility and scalability make it a suitable choice for a variety of website types, while its user-friendly interface accommodates both beginners and seasoned developers.

Whether you’re venturing into eCommerce, starting a blog, setting up a corporate website, or showcasing a portfolio, Flatsome offers the tools and versatility to create a website that is as unique as your brand.

 

WPvivid Plugin for WordPress: A Comprehensive Review

WPvivid Wordpress Plugin review 2023

As the needs of website owners evolve, plugins have become essential tools to enhance, optimize, and manage WordPress sites. WPvivid is one such plugin that has carved out a niche for itself in the website backup and migration realm. While there are several backup and migration plugins in the market, WPvivid’s simplicity, flexibility, and robustness set it apart.

On the surface, WPvivid might seem like just another backup plugin, but delve deeper, and you find a well-thought-out tool designed to make the backup process seamless. One of WPvivid’s most significant advantages is the one-click backup and restore functionality, a feature that allows users to create and restore backups easily. For instance, I backed up a 2GB website containing several high-resolution images, videos, and over 100 blog posts. The plugin effortlessly created a backup in about 15 minutes.

WPvivid’s backup scheduling feature allows for daily, weekly, or monthly backups. It’s perfect for a busy blog like ours that publishes new content regularly. The backups can be stored locally or sent to remote storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and Microsoft OneDrive. In my case, I have set up weekly backups to be stored in my Google Drive account, thereby ensuring that I always have a recent backup ready.

However, the part where WPvivid truly shines is the migration process. I have migrated a demo site from my local host to a live server. WPvivid automates the entire process, minimizing the hassle of manually replacing URLs. This was a game-changer for me since other plugins required multiple steps or the use of additional tools to accomplish this.

The user interface is another strength of WPvivid. The UI is clean, intuitive, and devoid of clutter. Each feature has been well laid out, which makes it easy to navigate for both beginners and experienced users alike. For instance, even though I hadn’t used WPvivid before, I was able to set up the plugin and initiate my first backup in less than 10 minutes.

While WPvivid offers a premium version with advanced features like incremental backups, white label, and multisite support, the free version provides more than enough functionality for a small to medium-sized website. I have been using the free version, and it suffices for my 2GB website.

Despite its many advantages, there are a few areas where WPvivid could improve. First, while the customer support is helpful, they often take time to respond. This could be an issue for users who require immediate assistance. Secondly, there isn’t a built-in file explorer for managing backups, meaning that users need to go to their storage service or cPanel to download or delete individual backups manually.

Another limitation I noticed was that the plugin occasionally slowed down my website, especially during the backup process. Though understandable given the amount of data being processed, it may affect the user experience, particularly on shared hosting environments.

Overall, WPvivid stands out for its intuitive UI, robust backup and migration features, and flexibility in backup storage. It’s a perfect tool for users who want an easy-to-use, reliable solution for their WordPress backup and migration needs. However, as with any tool, it has room for improvement, especially concerning customer service response time and the absence of a built-in file explorer.

In conclusion, WPvivid is a tool that brings much-needed peace of mind to WordPress website owners, especially in an era where data loss could have catastrophic implications. Despite minor drawbacks, it remains an excellent choice for those seeking an effective, user-friendly backup and migration solution.

You can download it direct from WordPress.org here

The7 WordPress Theme Review

The7 WordPress Theme review

Introduction to The7 WordPress Theme

The7 is an incredibly versatile WordPress, Elementor, and WooCommerce theme that offers unmatched customization options​. It stands as the most popular theme for Elementor on ThemeForest, trusted by over 270,000 users for its dependability and unique features​​. This versatile theme offers exceptional value to website owners, creative professionals, and digital agencies alike, providing the freedom to create without restrictions.

Key Features and Benefits of The7

The7 stands out in the saturated market of multipurpose WordPress themes due to its distinctive features. It offers unparalleled customization options, allowing users to target literally any part of their website without writing a single line of code​​. Furthermore, the theme is designed to work seamlessly with Elementor and WooCommerce, making it an excellent choice for those looking to create interactive, ecommerce-enabled websites.

The7’s integration with the free Fast Velocity Fast Minify plugin ensures the optimization of the website’s HTML, CSS, and JS code page-by-page, resulting in faster-loading websites and excellent Google Page Speed ratings​. The theme comes with pre-made websites that can be used as a foundation for users’ projects. These sites are fully customizable to suit the needs and preferences of the user​.

The theme extends the capabilities of Elementor with new widgets and capabilities, which allow users to create modern dynamic headers, interactive mega menus, hero sections, and sliders. It also enables customization of WooCommerce and archive pages, among other features.

The7 also features a comprehensive design system and theme style, enabling quick changes of typography and colors across an entire website. This feature, combined with advanced theme style editing, ensures that users can easily customize their websites to fit their design needs​.

Moreover, The7 includes a range of bespoke widgets, known as “The7 Elements,” which enhance and extend the functionalities of Elementor. These elements offer a variety of functionalities, from general content widgets to WooCommerce and Theme Builder widgets​.

Advantages of The7 Over Other Themes

The7 offers several advantages over other themes. It features a simple custom post type builder that allows users to edit existing or create their own post types, making the possibilities truly limitless​​. The theme also offers extended WooCommerce integration, providing the ability to create fully custom storefronts, product pages, product lists, shopping carts, and more​.

In addition, The7 has not forgotten the users of WPBakery Page Builder and Ultimate Addons, even though its focus is mainly on Elementor now. The theme remains a popular choice for this page builder, indicating its adaptability and flexibility​

Support and Updates

The7 prides itself on providing free updates and customer support. The theme has been regularly updated since its first release in 2013, ensuring its compatibility with the newest versions of WordPress. This support is available even when the support period on ThemeForest has expired, providing reassurance to users that they won’t be left stranded​​.

Branding, SEO, and Mobile Compatibility

For businesses and agencies looking to personalize their branding, The7 comes with a white labeling tool that allows users to rename the theme, change its thumbnail, theme info, etc., to align with their own branding​.

The7 is SEO-ready, compatible with a wide range of search engine optimization plugins, including Yoast SEO, and is certified by Google as mobile-friendly​.

Design and User Experience

The7 WordPress theme stands out for its highly customizable nature, offering a level of creative freedom unmatched by other themes on the market. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, The7 caters to your needs with a comprehensive set of tools for building unique headers, product lists, and individual pages. Its design system feature allows quick changes of typography and colors across an entire website, and its advanced theme style editing allows you to target the default styles of your website, such as general typography, headings, buttons, forms, etc​​.

Performance

The7 addresses the common issue of slow multipurpose WordPress themes by featuring a deep integration with the Fast Velocity Fast Minify plugin. This plugin optimizes the website’s HTML, CSS, and JS code on a page-by-page basis, which results in significantly faster websites and excellent Google Page Speed ratings​​.

Customization

One of The7’s main strengths is its flexibility in customization. It offers a complete site builder that extends Elementor’s capabilities, allowing you to build modern dynamic headers, interactive mega menus, hero sections, sliders, and customize your WooCommerce and archive pages. It also provides a range of bespoke widgets called “The7 Elements” to enhance and extend Elementor, and a simple custom post type builder for editing existing or creating your own post types​.

eCommerce

The7 takes WooCommerce integration to a new level. With The7, you can create fully custom storefronts, product pages, product lists, shopping cart, checkout, and more, which is not something typically available in other Elementor themes. It also provides advanced product filters​.

Customer Support

The7 offers free updates and customer support, even when your support period on ThemeForest is expired, provided that the service is not abused. The theme has been regularly updated since its first release in 2013, ensuring its compatibility with the newest WordPress versions and introducing new features​​.

Other Features

The7 comes with several other notable features. It offers a white-labeling tool for customizing The7 with your own branding, supports multilingual and translation (already translated into 10+ languages), is SEO-ready and mobile-friendly, and includes $174+ worth of premium plugins for free. It is also compatible with WPBakery Page Builder and Ultimate Addons, which still have a strong following​​.

BeTheme: More Than Just a WordPress Theme – A Full Review

BeTheme Wordpress Theme Review

In an online world where first impressions can make or break your website, the design and functionality of your site matter a lot. This is where WordPress themes like BeTheme come in.

BeTheme Overview

BeTheme, available on ThemeForest, is more than just a WordPress theme. It’s a complete content management system that enables you to quickly build incredible websites. The theme is fully compatible with WordPress 6.2, Elementor and Elementor Pro, and WooCommerce 7.8. In addition, it’s GDPR ready, ensuring that your site will adhere to the data protection regulations.

BeBuilder: The Fastest WordPress Page Builder

One of the standout features of BeTheme is its BeBuilder, touted as the fastest WordPress page builder. This feature allows you to design and customize your site without requiring extensive coding knowledge. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a beginner, BeBuilder equips you with the tools needed to create a visually appealing website.

Rich Selection of Pre-Built Websites

BeTheme offers 650+ themed, pre-built websites and 2000+ importable page designs. This means that you have a vast array of design templates at your disposal. Whether you’re building a website for a university, a real estate company, a gym, a marketing agency, or a small business, BeTheme has got you covered. You can easily import any demo website within seconds at a single click, saving you the time and effort of starting from scratch. Plus, new demos are continually added based on user requests.

Customization Options

In terms of customization, BeTheme provides advanced theme options, website performance settings, a header/footer builder, and a theme builder and customizer. With these tools, you can tweak every aspect of your site to match your brand and meet your specific needs.

Performance Enhancements

What’s more, BeTheme has recently undergone a suite of upgrades, making it 3 times faster. This enhancement leads to a faster website building experience and significantly faster and higher-quality websites. Such performance improvements not only enhance the user experience but also potentially boost your site’s ranking on Google.

User-Centric Design Approach

Lastly, BeTheme is very open to user feedback. If you have your own ideas for a great homepage, you’re encouraged to share them. They consider all user ideas, which underscores their commitment to providing a user-centric experience.

BeTheme is a powerful, responsive, and versatile WordPress theme that offers an impressive range of features and customization options. Whether you’re a novice or an expert in website building, BeTheme can help you create a stunning and efficient website that meets your needs​​.

Exploring the Possibilities with the Avada Theme: A Free Starter Guide

free Avada wordpress theme

One of the most popular themes for WordPress is Avada, renowned for its flexibility, versatility, and a vast array of customization options. Although the Avada theme itself is a premium offering, its wide range of features and the potential it opens up to users can feel like hitting a goldmine. In this article, we’ll delve into what makes Avada a top choice for many and how to get started with it.

Understanding Avada: A Premium Powerhouse

Avada, often touted as the #1 selling theme of all time on ThemeForest, is a premium WordPress theme known for its impressive range of features and flexibility. It offers a fully responsive design, ensuring your site looks great on any device. Avada’s power lies in its customization potential. It includes a built-in drag-and-drop page builder, called Fusion Builder, which makes it easy for users, even without any coding knowledge, to create and customize their pages.

Why Choose Avada?

Choosing Avada means choosing an arsenal of design tools. It offers a range of pre-designed websites, header and footer options, layout designs, and many other customizable features. Its integration with Fusion Builder allows you to build unique, professional-looking websites without needing to code.

Avada also comes with several premium plugins, such as LayerSlider and Slider Revolution, at no additional cost, saving you money and adding extra functionality to your website. Besides, Avada is optimized for SEO and speed, ensuring your website performs well in search engine rankings and provides a smooth user experience.

Avada’s Pricing

While Avada isn’t free, its premium pricing model offers substantial value. For a one-time payment, you get access to all of Avada’s features, including future updates and 6 months of support from the ThemeFusion team. This cost may seem steep at first, but considering the breadth of tools and features it provides, it can be a worthy investment for anyone serious about building a top-tier website.

Getting Started with Avada

Once you’ve purchased Avada, installing it is a straightforward process. After downloading the theme files from ThemeForest, you can upload them to your WordPress website through the Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme path in your WordPress dashboard.

After installation, you’ll have access to the Avada theme options panel, where you can start customizing your site. Here, you can choose from pre-built demos or start from scratch, customizing every aspect of your site from header to footer.

Learning Avada

While Avada is user-friendly, the sheer number of options and features can be overwhelming for beginners. Thankfully, ThemeFusion offers extensive documentation and video tutorials that guide you through every aspect of the theme. This wealth of learning resources helps ensure that you can make the most out of Avada, even if you’re a novice.

Is There a Free Version of Avada?

As of my knowledge cutoff in September 2021, there isn’t a free version of Avada available. While you may find websites offering “free” versions of Avada, be cautious. Downloading themes from unofficial sources can expose your site to security risks, including malware. It’s always best to download themes from trusted sources like ThemeForest, the official distributor of Avada.

In conclusion, while Avada isn’t a free theme, it offers a wealth of features, customization options, and integrated tools that offer a comprehensive package for building and managing a WordPress site. Its one-time cost provides access to a suite of premium tools and support, making it a worthy investment for many website creators. Despite the cost, the possibilities with Avada can make it feel like you’ve unlocked a treasure trove of website design options

Updated Information

As of June 2023, the Avada theme is priced at $60 per site​​. This one-time payment offers considerable value by unlocking a suite of premium features and tools that make website design a breeze, even for those new to the field. Additionally, the package includes 6 months of support from the ThemeFusion team, providing you with professional assistance whenever you need it. Please note that prices are subject to change, so always check the current pricing before making a purchase.

Remember, while Avada is a premium theme, the endless customization possibilities it provides can make your investment worthwhile. It’s not just a theme; it’s a comprehensive toolkit for creating standout websites. Always ensure to download themes from trusted sources like ThemeForest, the official distributor of Avada, to avoid exposing your site to potential security risks.

How to Customize Your WordPress Theme like a Pro

customize wordpress themes

If you’re keen on personalizing your website and making it a perfect reflection of your style or brand, customizing your WordPress theme is a game-changer. WordPress is a highly flexible platform, and with the right steps, you can transform your theme into a unique digital masterpiece. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of customizing your WordPress theme like a pro.

Understanding WordPress Themes

Before you dive into customization, understanding WordPress themes is crucial. A WordPress theme is a collection of templates and stylesheets that define the appearance and display of a WordPress-powered website. Each theme offers different design, layout options, and features. However, to truly make your website stand out, you may want to tweak the default settings.

Choose the Right Theme

First and foremost, select a theme that aligns with your needs. WordPress offers thousands of free and premium themes, all varying in design and functionality. Consider your website’s purpose, your target audience, and the features you need before choosing a theme. A solid foundation can make the customization process smoother and more efficient.

Customize Through WordPress Customizer

WordPress Customizer is a built-in tool that lets you tweak various aspects of your theme. You can access it from your WordPress dashboard by navigating to Appearance > Customize. This tool provides a live preview of changes, so you can experiment and see the results in real time. You can modify elements like site identity, colors, headers, backgrounds, menus, and widgets.

Use a Child Theme

If you plan to make substantial changes to your theme’s files, consider using a child theme. A child theme inherits the functionality and styling of the parent theme, allowing you to modify it without affecting the original theme. This approach safeguards your changes from being overwritten when the parent theme updates.

Custom CSS

Custom CSS is a powerful tool for refining your theme’s aesthetics. CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, controls the style and layout of web pages. If you’re comfortable with code, you can add custom CSS in the Additional CSS section of the WordPress Customizer. Here, you can alter colors, fonts, spacing, and more, at a granular level.

Plugins for Enhanced Functionality

WordPress plugins can significantly expand your customization options. Whether you need a drag-and-drop page builder, SEO tools, or social sharing buttons, there’s likely a plugin for that. However, remember to keep your plugin use in check as too many can slow down your site.

Discover Themes with WordPress Theme Detector

During your customization journey, you might come across a WordPress site with a captivating design that you’d love to replicate. This is where WordPress Theme Detector comes into play. It’s a free online tool that helps you identify the theme a particular website is using​.

You can access this tool by visiting wpthemedetector.org, enter the URL of the website whose theme you’re interested in, and voila! You’ll get the details of the theme and any detected plugins the site is using. This can be a powerful way to gather inspiration for your own site and discover new themes and plugins that can enhance your site’s functionality and aesthetics.

However, remember that while it’s fine to draw inspiration from other sites, directly copying a site’s design may infringe on copyright laws. Always strive to use these tools to spark creativity and build a site that’s uniquely yours.

The beauty of WordPress is its extensive ecosystem, rich with themes, plugins, and tools like the WordPress Theme Detector. By leveraging these resources, you can continuously refine your site and make it a true reflection of your brand. As you continue to explore and customize, remember that the most compelling websites are those that offer great content, a user-friendly interface, and a unique visual identity.

Hire a Professional

If you find customization challenging or time-consuming, don’t hesitate to hire a professional. Skilled WordPress developers can help you achieve your vision and ensure your site runs smoothly.

Testing and Maintenance

Lastly, always test your changes to ensure they look good and function properly across different devices and browsers. Regularly update your theme, plugins, and WordPress itself to maintain site security and performance.

By following these steps, you can customize your WordPress theme and create a site that truly represents your brand. Remember, customization is a journey, not a destination. As your needs evolve, so should your site. Keep exploring, learning, and customizing to keep your site fresh and engaging.

What is WordPress?

What is WordPress?

Ever wondered, “What is WordPress?” You’re not alone. WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system (CMS), powers more than a third of all websites on the internet. But what makes it such a beloved tool among bloggers, businesses, and web developers alike? Let’s dive in.

What is the Basic Idea of WordPress?

WordPress is an open-source CMS, which means it’s a tool for creating and managing websites—without needing any coding knowledge. It was first released in 2003 by its creators, Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little, as a simple blogging platform. However, it has since evolved into a comprehensive website builder used by individuals, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies alike.

Understanding WordPress starts with its two primary components: themes and plugins. Themes dictate the visual layout and style of a website, while plugins extend functionality, letting you add features like contact forms, SEO tools, and e-commerce capabilities. The beauty of WordPress lies in its flexibility; with thousands of themes and plugins available, it can be customized to fit nearly any web project.

Why Should You Use WordPress?

So, why choose WordPress over the multitude of other website builders available? First, WordPress is incredibly user-friendly. While it offers complex functionality for those who want it, beginners can easily create a professional-looking website without touching a line of code.

Secondly, WordPress offers an enormous library of themes and plugins, both free and premium. This means you can tailor your site to your exact needs, whether you’re setting up a blog, an online store, a portfolio, or anything else.

Finally, WordPress has a vast and active community. This means a wealth of tutorials, forums, and resources are available at your fingertips. Plus, given its widespread use, many web hosts offer WordPress-specific hosting plans.

What is WordPress Used For?

While WordPress started as a blogging platform, its uses have expanded significantly. Today, WordPress is used to create all sorts of websites. Blogs, business websites, portfolios, forums, e-commerce stores, membership sites, personal websites for self-promotion, and even social networking sites can all be built with WordPress.

Thanks to its flexibility and the extensive library of plugins and themes, you can use WordPress to create virtually any type of website you can imagine.

Is it Free to Use WordPress?

When asking, “Is WordPress free?” it’s important to distinguish between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. WordPress.org, often referred to as self-hosted WordPress, is completely free to download and use. However, you’ll need to pay for your own hosting and domain name, and may choose to invest in premium themes or plugins.

On the other hand, WordPress.com is a freemium, hosted platform. This means it offers free plans with limited functionality, as well as premium plans that offer more features. Keep in mind that even with a premium WordPress.com plan, you’re limited to the themes and plugins they allow.

What are the disadvantages of WordPress?

While WordPress is a versatile and user-friendly content management system that offers a wide range of customization options and integrations, it does have some disadvantages. One of the significant drawbacks is its vulnerability to security threats, which requires regular updates and maintenance. WordPress can also be slow and resource-intensive, impacting the speed and performance of your website. Additionally, WordPress can be challenging to learn and use for some users, especially if they’re not familiar with web development. Another factor to consider is the cost. While the platform itself is free, you will need to pay for hosting, domain name registration, and other essential services. If you need custom plugins or themes, you will have to pay for those as well​​.

Is WordPress still relevant in 2023?

Yes, WordPress is still very much relevant in 2023. Over the years, WordPress has grown from a simple blogging tool to a powerful platform that powers over 40% of the web. Its open-source nature combined with a vast array of plugins and themes has made it the go-to choice for millions of websites. WordPress has consistently stood out from the crowd thanks to its impressive array of benefits, which include ease of use and seemingly limitless customizability. WordPress has consistently demonstrated its ability to adapt and innovate, ensuring that it remains a top choice for website creators and content managers worldwide. The platform and its community are committed to addressing user needs and staying in step with the latest technological advancements. The WordPress ecosystem includes a wide range of developers, designers, and marketers who create plugins, themes, and services that cater to the specific needs of WordPress users. This ecosystem helps keep WordPress relevant by offering innovative solutions and continuous improvements. As technology continues to evolve, WordPress is expected to adapt and grow along with it. Its commitment to staying relevant through updates and new features, such as the Gutenberg editor and improved security measures, is notable​

WordPress is a versatile, powerful, and user-friendly tool for creating and managing websites. Whether you’re a blogger, business owner, artist, or just someone looking to establish an online presence, WordPress can help you create a website that fits your needs. So, why not give WordPress a try for your next web project? It might just be the tool you’ve been searching for.

WordPress Themes and Plugins: A Relationship Explored

Themes and Plugins

WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system (CMS), has long been a cornerstone of modern web design and development. The flexibility and versatility of WordPress stem primarily from its two critical components: themes and plugins. This article delves into the relationship between WordPress themes and plugins, exploring their functionality, interdependence, and ways to maximize their potential.

Understanding Themes and Plugins

At the most basic level, a WordPress theme is a collection of templates and stylesheets that define the appearance and display of a WordPress-powered website. It impacts the look and layout, dictating aspects such as color schemes, font styles, page layouts, and other design elements.

On the other hand, plugins are software extensions that introduce specific features or functionalities to the website, extending its capabilities beyond what’s provided by WordPress out of the box. They can range from adding a simple contact form or a photo gallery to integrating complex e-commerce systems or search engine optimization tools.

The Relationship Between Themes and Plugins

While themes and plugins serve different purposes, they aren’t isolated entities. They interact and collaborate to create a seamless web experience. Essentially, the theme provides the aesthetic framework while plugins add to and enhance this framework with additional functionality.

For instance, if you’re using a blogging theme, you may install a plugin for SEO to optimize your posts for search engines, a plugin for social media sharing to increase your content’s reach, and another one to facilitate comments and improve user engagement. All these plugins seamlessly integrate into your theme, empowering your website with functionalities that align with your goals without disturbing the theme’s design integrity.

Why The Balance Matters

Striking the right balance between themes and plugins is pivotal to creating an efficient and effective WordPress website. The theme should ideally be selected based on your website’s primary objective, aesthetic preference, and the overall user experience you want to deliver. Meanwhile, plugins should be chosen based on the specific features or functionality you wish to add, keeping in mind the theme’s structure and design.

Adding too many plugins can lead to compatibility issues, slower load times, and a bloated and confusing backend. Moreover, an over-reliance on plugins for design elements that should ideally be a part of the theme may lead to inconsistency in the design. On the flip side, using a theme that tries to include too many built-in features can limit your flexibility and lead to unnecessary code bloat. This is why it’s crucial to understand the balance and use themes for design and plugins for functionality.

Maximizing Theme-Plugin Synergy

When aiming to maximize the potential of your WordPress website, it’s beneficial to understand how themes and plugins can be used synergistically.

1. Choose a theme that closely aligns with your design vision and overall website purpose. This reduces the need for heavy customizations later.

2. Select plugins based on your specific functionality needs. Prioritize quality over quantity – it’s better to have a few well-developed plugins that offer the functionality you need rather than numerous plugins that slow down your website.

3. Regularly update both your theme and plugins. Updates often include new features, performance improvements, and security fixes. Keeping everything up to date minimizes vulnerabilities and ensures compatibility.

4. Ensure your plugins and theme are compatible. Most reputable theme and plugin developers adhere to WordPress coding standards, reducing the likelihood of conflicts.

5. Practice good website hygiene. This includes deactivating and deleting any unnecessary plugins, which reduces clutter and potential security risks.

In the world of WordPress, themes and plugins are two sides of the same coin, each contributing to the success of your website in its own unique way. Themes provide the canvas, and plugins bring the features that make your site user-friendly, functional, and aligned with your goals.

Understanding their relationship, functionalities, and maintaining a careful balance is key to creating an impactful WordPress website. Above all, always remember that every decision about themes and plugins should ultimately serve the user experience.

Here are three popular WordPress themes and how they work together with some commonly used plugins:

  1. Astra: Astra is a popular, fast, and fully customizable WordPress theme. It’s known for its speed and lightweight design, which makes it a perfect canvas to pair with your choice of plugins.
    • Elementor: Astra is fully compatible with the Elementor plugin, a powerful page builder that lets you create beautiful pages with a simple drag-and-drop interface. It allows you to modify Astra’s basic design while maintaining the theme’s fast loading times.
    • WooCommerce: If you’re planning to run an e-commerce store, Astra works seamlessly with the WooCommerce plugin. It enables you to set up a beautiful online store, with various options to customize product pages, cart, and checkout.
  2. Divi: Divi is a highly customizable theme known for its built-in Divi Builder. This offers immense creative flexibility, but it also pairs well with functionality-focused plugins.
    • Yoast SEO: This is an essential plugin for any website, helping optimize your content for search engines. Divi’s clean code ensures that Yoast’s suggestions are implemented effectively site-wide.
    • Monarch: Developed by the same team behind Divi, Monarch is a social media sharing plugin. It integrates seamlessly with Divi, allowing you to easily add social sharing buttons in different locations on your website.
  3. Genesis: Genesis is a robust, secure, and SEO-friendly WordPress theme framework. While not a standalone theme, child themes based on the Genesis framework offer excellent design and functionality.
    • WPForms: Genesis pairs well with the WPForms plugin, a user-friendly contact form plugin. With it, you can add contact forms, email subscription forms, and even payment forms.
    • Genesis Simple Share: This is a lightweight social sharing plugin designed specifically for Genesis themes. It’s simple, effective, and doesn’t slow down your site.

All these themes and plugins exemplify the synergy that can be achieved when you choose tools that complement each other. Remember, while these pairings are popular and proven, always test different combinations to find what works best for your specific website needs. The versatility of WordPress lies in its endless customization possibilities. You can tailor your site with different themes and plugins to create a unique, robust, and highly functional web presence.

Avada: A Comprehensive Review of the Bestselling WordPress Theme

Avada Theme Review

Avada, the powerhouse of WordPress themes, has remained an undeniable champion in the realm of web design, boasting over half a million sales on ThemeForest at the time of writing. It’s the epitome of a multipurpose theme, designed with versatility, customization, and user-friendliness in mind. Its longevity in the highly competitive WordPress theme marketplace is not just commendable but indicative of its continued success and relevance.

Design Versatility and User Experience

Avada’s main selling point is its versatility. It’s a chameleon, adapting effortlessly to any website type, from blogs to e-commerce platforms. This adaptability stems from its library of professionally designed demos catering to various industries and website styles. These demos can be imported with one click and customized extensively, making Avada a solid choice for beginners and experienced developers alike.

The theme’s design is not just versatile but also highly responsive. It’s built to work seamlessly across different devices and screen sizes, a crucial feature for any modern website. It ensures your site looks fantastic and performs optimally whether viewed on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device.

Fusion Builder and Customization

Avada’s powerhouse is the Fusion Builder, its built-in drag-and-drop page builder. It comes with a plethora of elements like sliders, testimonials, alert messages, and more, all of which can be customized to your liking. Fusion Builder’s intuitive interface makes it easy to create unique, engaging layouts without any coding knowledge. It’s a robust tool that hands you the reins of your website’s design and functionality.

Customization doesn’t stop at the page level. Avada offers a multitude of theme options, allowing you to tailor headers, footers, sidebars, backgrounds, typography, and more. You can also set the responsiveness, choose from several layouts, and tweak the performance settings.

Performance and Speed

Despite its feature-rich nature, Avada doesn’t compromise on speed. It’s designed with clean, optimized code that ensures your website loads quickly. Its advanced theme options panel includes performance settings that let you control aspects like lazy loading, dynamic CSS output, and more. This focus on performance plays a crucial role in enhancing the user experience, especially for mobile users, and can contribute to improved SEO rankings.

Support and Updates

Avada is backed by ThemeFusion, a team known for its exceptional customer support and commitment to continuous updates. This support, combined with the theme’s popularity, lends Avada a degree of longevity that is rare in the WordPress theme marketplace. With Avada, you’re not just buying a theme; you’re investing in a product with a proven track record and a promise of continued relevance and compatibility with future WordPress versions.

Conclusion

Avada is more than just a WordPress theme; it’s a comprehensive design toolkit that allows you to craft any website style with ease and finesse. Its versatility, customizability, performance-oriented design, and unwavering support make it an excellent choice for any website owner, irrespective of their technical prowess.

While it might seem daunting given its vast range of options and features, Avada’s intuitive interface and robust documentation make the journey easier. In a marketplace teeming with transitory trends, Avada stands as a testament to time-tested quality and sustained innovation. It’s not just a popular theme; it’s a reliable partner for your WordPress journey.

Boosting Your Website’s Mobile Experience with the Right WordPress Theme

Importance of WordPress theme for mobile

With an increasingly digital world, mobile user experience has taken center stage in web design. Statistics show that over half of all internet traffic comes from mobile devices. This makes it essential for your technical blog to be not just accessible but also user-friendly on smartphones and tablets. As a website owner, choosing the right WordPress theme can significantly enhance your site’s mobile experience. Let’s explore how you can achieve this.

Understanding the Importance of Mobile Experience

A mobile-friendly website isn’t a luxury anymore, it’s a necessity. Google’s algorithm favors mobile-friendly websites, meaning your site’s mobile usability can directly influence your search engine rankings. Additionally, a positive mobile experience can boost user engagement and conversion rates, benefiting your blog’s growth and readership.

Responsive Design and WordPress Themes

Not all WordPress themes are created equal when it comes to mobile optimization. The key is to choose a theme with responsive design. Responsive themes dynamically adjust your website’s layout based on the viewer’s screen size and orientation, ensuring optimal readability and navigation without the need for tedious zooming and scrolling.

Some highly rated WordPress themes embodying a minimalist and professional aesthetic with stellar responsive design include Astra, GeneratePress, and Neve. These themes are lightweight, fast, and customizable, ideal for delivering a superior mobile experience without compromising design or functionality.

Customization and Performance

When selecting a theme, it’s important to consider its customization options. Look for themes with ample customization features to tweak your website’s appearance and functionality to match your vision while preserving mobile-friendliness.

Performance is another crucial factor. Themes laden with unnecessary features and bloated code can slow down your website. Slow load times can frustrate mobile users and harm your search engine rankings. Therefore, choose a theme optimized for speed and performance.

Testing Mobile Experience

Once you’ve selected and customized a theme, it’s essential to test your website’s mobile experience. You can use tools like Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check mobile compatibility issues. Pay attention to elements such as text size, button placement, and navigational ease. Remember, a great mobile experience isn’t just about usability, it’s also about delivering engaging and easy-to-consume content for your mobile audience.

Ongoing Theme Maintenance

Even after perfecting your mobile experience, it’s vital to regularly update and maintain your theme. WordPress, plugins, and themes all receive updates that can potentially affect your site’s mobile compatibility. Regularly testing and updating these elements will ensure a consistently high-quality mobile experience.

3 Great Themes that Follow the Recomendations  Above

OceanWP: A Versatile and Mobile-Friendly Theme

OceanWP is a feature-rich WordPress theme that prioritizes versatility and mobile-first design. Its lightweight structure ensures quick load times, an essential aspect for enhancing the user’s mobile experience. Regardless of the device or screen size, OceanWP’s responsive design automatically adjusts the layout for optimal viewing.

The theme offers a multitude of customization options, enabling you to tailor your website according to your preferences and branding. It comes with unique extensions and widgets that enhance its functionality, such as sticky headers, post sliders, and custom sidebars.

OceanWP integrates seamlessly with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, allowing for advanced customization. Furthermore, its robust WooCommerce integration makes it an ideal choice if you plan to add an eCommerce element to your blog in the future.

Sydney: A Powerful Theme for Professional Blogs

Sydney is a robust WordPress theme designed primarily for businesses, but its clean design, responsive layout, and broad customization capabilities make it an excellent choice for professional blogs as well. Sydney adopts a mobile-first approach, ensuring your content looks striking on all devices and screen sizes.

The theme provides a fast and effective way to create an impressive online presence. It offers access to all Google Fonts, a variety of header options, and the ability to include full-screen slideshows. These features allow you to create a unique and engaging aesthetic for your blog.

Sydney is SEO-friendly, a crucial consideration to improve your website’s visibility on search engines. Moreover, it’s a high-performance theme that prioritizes quick load times, enhancing the user experience, especially for mobile viewers.

Hestia: A Stylish and Responsive One-Page Theme

Hestia is a modern, one-page theme that’s suitable for various website types, including professional blogs. It embraces a mobile-first approach, prioritizing mobile design and scaling up for larger screens. Its responsive layout ensures that your website looks great and functions effectively on all devices.

The theme is SEO-friendly, boosting your chances of ranking higher on search engines. It’s lightweight, ensuring fast load times and improved performance, which is critical for mobile users who often have limited patience for slow-loading websites.

Hestia offers extensive customization options, allowing you to tweak every aspect of your website. It integrates well with popular page builders like Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder, providing you with the flexibility to design your site precisely as you envision it.

Despite its single-page design, Hestia doesn’t skimp on features. It supports multimedia content, includes a slick material design kit, and even has an inbuilt WooCommerce feature, making it a comprehensive and versatile choice for your technical blog.

Conclusion

In a world where mobile browsing is prevalent, optimizing your technical blog’s mobile experience is a must. Selecting the right WordPress theme can go a long way in this regard. Focus on responsive design, customization, performance, testing, and maintenance to provide your mobile users with an exceptional browsing experience. By doing so, you’ll position your blog for increased engagement, improved search engine rankings, and sustained growth in today’s mobile-first digital landscape.

WordPress Theme Detector: Your Tool for Competitive Analysis

Wordpress Theme detecting

As the digital world continues to evolve, competitive analysis is becoming increasingly critical for businesses in every industry. One tool that is providing significant insights into competitors’ websites is a WordPress theme detector. This innovative tool allows you to analyze and understand the design elements used by successful competitors, thus enabling you to optimize your own website.

What is a WordPress Theme Detector?

A WordPress theme detector is a tool designed to identify the theme and plugins that a particular WordPress-based website is using. By simply entering the URL of a competitor’s site, you can gain insights into the aesthetic framework and functionalities that the website is built on.

With WordPress powering around 40% of the web, it’s fair to say that a significant number of successful businesses use this platform to build their digital presence. As such, WordPress theme detectors can provide invaluable information that could directly contribute to enhancing your website’s performance and increasing its appeal to users.

How WordPress Theme Detectors Work

WordPress theme detectors work by accessing a website’s source code to identify unique footprints of a WordPress theme and plugins. Every WordPress theme and plugin leaves a unique signature within the website’s HTML or CSS files. By scanning this code, these tools can detect which theme is being used, as well as any associated plugins.

Remember that while these tools can detect the themes and plugins, they cannot provide the custom code or changes made to the theme by the website owner. Therefore, while you can identify the basic building blocks, you still need to conduct further analysis to understand how these tools are employed to meet specific user needs.

Using a WordPress Theme Detector for Competitive Analysis

When used strategically, a WordPress theme detector can be an excellent tool for competitive analysis. Here’s how:

  1. Identifying Design Trends: The primary use of a WordPress theme detector is to identify the themes and plugins competitors are using. By understanding what’s popular in your niche, you can determine whether these themes align with current design trends, thus informing your own design decisions.
  2. Plugin Analysis: Apart from themes, these tools can also detect plugins. Plugins add specific features to a website, which may contribute significantly to the website’s success. Identifying these plugins can help you understand which functionalities are deemed essential in your industry, allowing you to enhance your website accordingly.
  3. Benchmarking: The tool can help you benchmark your website against industry leaders. You can identify the gap between your current website design and functionality compared to successful competitors, thereby identifying areas for improvement.
  4. Theme Validation: Before you decide to invest in a particular theme, you can use this tool to find out how prevalent the theme is within your industry. This can provide you with insights about its performance and suitability for your niche.

Conclusion

In summary, a WordPress theme detector is an indispensable tool in the arsenal of a digital marketer or website developer for competitive analysis. It allows you to dissect successful websites in your niche to identify the themes and plugins they are using, providing you with crucial insights to improve your own site. It’s worth noting that while these tools are powerful, they should be used in conjunction with other analytics and SEO tools for comprehensive competitive analysis. Remember, the aim is not to copy, but to learn and to optimize your website to provide the best possible experience for your users.

A Comprehensive Guide to Free vs Premium WordPress Themes

Free vs Premium WordPress themes

In the world of WordPress, one of the most significant decisions you’ll make is choosing a theme. This crucial component not only determines your site’s appearance but also impacts its functionality and user experience. But should you opt for a free theme or invest in a premium one? Let’s delve into a thoughtful comparison to help you make an informed decision.

Free WordPress Themes: The Good and The Bad

Free WordPress themes are an attractive option, especially if you’re just starting or operating on a tight budget. WordPress.org alone offers over 7,000 free themes, providing a wide variety of designs to choose from.

The Good

The most obvious advantage of free themes is in the name—they’re free! They allow you to experiment with different designs without any financial commitment.

Free themes also tend to be simpler and more user-friendly, making them a great choice for beginners. Many of these themes offer basic customization options that are easy to navigate, even for those with little to no web design experience.

Another advantage is the rigorous review process free themes undergo before they’re included in the WordPress theme repository. This process ensures that the themes adhere to WordPress coding standards and best practices.

The Bad

While free themes offer some advantages, they also have their downsides. The support and updates for free themes can be limited or non-existent. This means if you run into a problem, you might be on your own to fix it.

Free themes also typically lack the advanced features and customization options found in premium themes. If you need specific functionality or a unique look, a free theme might not cut it.

Example: ‘Twenty Twenty-One’ is a free theme provided by WordPress itself. It’s simple, clean, and meets the WordPress coding standards, but its customization options are limited.

Premium WordPress Themes: The Pros and Cons

Premium WordPress themes, which typically range from $25 to $200, are paid themes offering more features and customization options.

The Pros

One of the main selling points of premium themes is their advanced functionality. These themes often come packed with features like drag-and-drop builders, shortcodes, multiple layouts, and e-commerce capabilities.

Premium themes also offer greater customization possibilities, allowing you to create a website that matches your vision down to the last detail.

Another significant advantage of premium themes is the support. Most premium theme developers provide dedicated support, and regular updates, ensuring the theme remains compatible with the latest version of WordPress and various plugins.

The Cons

The primary disadvantage of premium themes is, of course, the cost. For some, this upfront investment might be a deterrent.

Another potential downside is the risk of feature overload. Some premium themes come packed with so many features that they can be overwhelming for beginners. Additionally, unused features can bloat the theme, potentially slowing down your site.

Example: ‘Divi’ is a popular premium theme known for its powerful visual builder and extensive customization options. However, its advanced features might be overkill for a simple blog.

Choosing Between Free and Premium

The choice between a free and premium theme depends on your needs, budget, and comfort level. If you’re just starting, a free theme might suffice. However, as your site grows, you might find the advanced features and dedicated support of a premium theme worth the investment.

Remember, the most important thing is to choose a theme that fits your vision and goals for your website. Whether it’s free or premium, the right theme is the one that best serves your needs.

In conclusion, both free and premium WordPress themes have their strengths and weaknesses. By understanding these, you can make a thoughtful decision that best supports your website’s success.

3 FREE WordPress themes Pro’s and Con’s

Shapely

Pros:

  1. Excellent use of a hero image.
  2. Opportunities to add portfolio sections down the page.
  3. Simple design that still makes an impact.
  4. It’s free.
  5. The theme combines high functionality with stunning graphics and is compatible with plugins like Contact Form 7, Google Analytics, Yoast SEO, and Gravity Forms​​.

Cons:

  1. Shapely will take work to bring it up to standard.
  2. The other cons are not listed on the source. I can find more information if you’d like.

Astra

Pros:

  1. Astra has 1.5+ Million active installations and almost 4,800+ five-star ratings on WordPress.org.
  2. Compatibility with all the major page builders.
  3. One of the fastest themes.
  4. Offers 180+ pre-built starter templates.
  5. The customizable options are incredible​.

Cons:

  1. To unlock the most amazing features, you’ll need the Pro addon. However, Astra Pro comes at a very affordable price​.

GeneratePress

Pros:

  1. It’s incredibly lightweight and performance-friendly.
  2. The developers focus on clean, efficient code in everything they release.
  3. The typography system is really nice for easily controlling your site’s fonts.
  4. The page-level controls are great for working with page builder plugins.
  5. GeneratePress Elements is incredibly powerful and useful, especially for advanced users who are familiar with the idea of hooks and such​.

Cons:

  1. The free version of GeneratePress doesn’t offer any pre-built importable demo sites.
  2. While GeneratePress has plenty of design flexibility for most people, other themes such as Astra or Kadence Theme are still a bit more flexible when it comes to more nitty-gritty design options.
  3. While GeneratePress offers full WooCommerce support, it doesn’t have as many integrations as a theme like Astra. For example, it doesn’t have the dedicated integrations for LearnDash or LifterLMS that Astra offers​.

3 PREMIUM WordPress themes Pro’s and Con’s

Avada

Pros:

  1. New front-end visual builder
  2. Large helpful Facebook community
  3. Includes several plugins for free
  4. 40+ templates to choose from
  5. Can use the theme customizer while building your website​1​.

Cons:

  1. Leaves shortcodes if deactivated
  2. Can be bloated, has many extra plugins to function
  3. 1 license per website is limited
  4. Has a learning curve, not the easiest for beginners
  5. No theme builder and no product builder​.

The7

Pros:

  1. Compatible with Elementor
  2. Highly customizable
  3. Design Wizard included
  4. 1000+ theme options and 250+ page options
  5. 1 click installer
  6. Gutenberg Integration
  7. SEO optimized
  8. Premium plugins included​​.

Cons:

  1. Performance is medium
  2. It can be complicated for a person who does not have some technical knowledge​​.

BeTheme

Pros:

  1. Multipurpose WordPress theme
  2. Over 650 ready demo designs
  3. A large number of handy shortcodes
  4. Exclusive website builder
  5. WooCommerce compatible & custom features
  6. Large community of users​.

Cons:

  1. Only single-site license
  2. Too many features can be overwhelming​.

The Impact of WordPress Themes on Website Speed and Performance

Importance of wordpress theme loading speed

The beauty of WordPress lies in its flexibility and customization options, with thousands of themes at your disposal. However, an often-underestimated aspect is the profound influence of your chosen theme on your website’s speed and overall performance. In this lively discussion, we’re going to delve into the critical connection between WordPress themes, site speed, and performance, and why it matters to you.

The Speed-Theme Connection

Ever clicked on a website only to find yourself waiting impatiently as it loads at a snail’s pace? We’ve all been there. A slow-loading website can be incredibly frustrating for users and can lead to high bounce rates. Moreover, site speed is a significant factor for SEO; Google has made it clear that faster sites have a higher chance of ranking well.

Now, you might ask, “What does my WordPress theme have to do with this?” Well, quite a lot, actually. Your chosen theme forms the skeleton of your website. If the theme is bloated with unnecessary features or poorly coded, it can significantly slow down your site, impacting the user experience and your search engine ranking.

Performance Matters

A theme’s impact isn’t limited to speed alone. It also plays a crucial role in the overall performance of your site. Elements like responsiveness, browser compatibility, and error-free coding are influenced by the theme you choose. A well-designed, performance-optimized theme ensures that your site looks and works great, regardless of the device or browser your visitors use.

Choosing a Theme for Speed and Performance

So, how do you ensure that the WordPress theme you choose won’t bog down your site’s speed and performance? Here are a few pointers:

  1. Simplicity is Key: Fancy themes with complex layouts and flashy animations can be tempting, but they often come with a cost — slower speed and reduced performance. Look for a theme that offers simplicity and speed without compromising on aesthetics.
  2. Responsive Design: With mobile internet usage surpassing desktop, a responsive design isn’t just nice to have; it’s essential. Ensure your theme is mobile-friendly and displays well across different devices.
  3. Quality Code: A well-coded theme adheres to the best coding practices, resulting in faster load times and fewer errors. Always opt for themes from reputable developers.
  4. Regular Updates: Themes that are regularly updated by the developer are more likely to be optimized for speed and performance. Regular updates also ensure compatibility with the latest version of WordPress and various plugins.

The Role of a WordPress Theme Detector

If you’re wondering how to know if a WordPress theme meets all these criteria, a WordPress theme detector can come in handy. This tool allows you to identify the theme used by any WordPress website. If a site you admire is both fast and performs well, you can use a theme detector to find out what theme they’re using and consider it for your own site.

The impact of your WordPress theme on your site’s speed and performance is substantial. A carefully selected theme can ensure a speedy, high-performing site, leading to happier visitors, better SEO, and ultimately, a more successful online presence. So, take your time when selecting your theme – your website’s speed and performance depend on it!

The Perks of a Performance-Optimized Theme

Choosing a theme optimized for speed and performance doesn’t just improve your SEO and user experience—it can also have far-reaching benefits for your online business:

  1. Improved User Engagement: Faster websites typically see more page views, lower bounce rates, and increased user engagement. A user-friendly, high-performing website encourages visitors to stay longer, explore more, and hopefully, convert into customers or subscribers.
  2. Better Conversion Rates: Several studies have found a direct correlation between load times and conversion rates. Every second counts when it comes to keeping your visitors engaged and interested in what you have to offer.
  3. Reduced Server Load: A performance-optimized theme is less resource-intensive, reducing the load on your server. This can be particularly beneficial if you have a high-traffic website or are using shared hosting.

Testing Your Theme for Speed and Performance

Before you commit to a theme, it’s a good idea to test it for speed and performance. Several online tools can help you with this:

  1. PageSpeed Insights: This Google tool analyzes the content of a web page and then generates suggestions to make that page faster.
  2. GTmetrix: GTmetrix provides insights on how well a web page loads and offers specific recommendations for improvement.
  3. Pingdom Website Speed Test: Pingdom is another excellent tool for testing website speed. It provides performance grades, insights, and tips to improve speed.

Remember, the demo site of a theme can give you a good idea of its speed and performance, but keep in mind that the actual performance on your site may vary depending on your hosting environment and the plugins you use.

In summary, while the aesthetic appeal of a WordPress theme is essential, its impact on your website’s speed and performance should not be overlooked. By choosing a theme that is optimized for both speed and performance, you can provide a better user experience, improve your search engine rankings, and ultimately, drive more success for your online business.

Understanding the Importance of WordPress Theme Selection for SEO

Theme selection for SEO

If you’re building a website on WordPress, one of the key decisions you’ll need to make is choosing a theme. Themes define the look and feel of your website, but they also play a crucial role in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A well-chosen WordPress theme can significantly enhance your site’s visibility on search engines, driving more traffic and improving user engagement. In this article, we’ll explore why WordPress theme selection is so vital for SEO and offer some tips for making the right choice.

The Role of WordPress Themes in SEO

WordPress themes are more than just aesthetic elements. They provide the structural framework for your content, influencing how search engines crawl and index your site. Themes affect several SEO factors, including site speed, mobile responsiveness, and code quality—all of which can impact your site’s search engine rankings.

Site Speed

In an era where users expect instant access to information, site speed is a critical factor for user experience and SEO. Google has confirmed that site speed is one of its ranking factors. Consequently, choosing a lightweight, well-coded WordPress theme that loads quickly can boost your site’s SEO performance.

Mobile Responsiveness

More than half of global website traffic now comes from mobile devices. As such, Google has moved to mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of content for indexing and ranking. A WordPress theme that is not responsive can harm your mobile SEO. Thus, it’s essential to choose a theme that looks and works well on all device types and screen sizes.

Code Quality

Search engines love well-structured, clean code. A poorly coded theme can lead to slow load times, compatibility issues, and even security vulnerabilities. It can also make it difficult for search engine bots to crawl and index your site effectively. Choose a WordPress theme from a reputable developer known for producing high-quality, SEO-friendly code.

Choosing an SEO-friendly WordPress Theme

So, how do you go about selecting a WordPress theme that will boost your SEO?

Firstly, consider the theme’s speed. Use a tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test the demo version of the theme. A high score indicates a fast, well-optimized theme.

Secondly, check the theme’s mobile responsiveness. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see how the theme performs on mobile devices.

Thirdly, look at the theme’s code quality. While this may be more challenging if you’re not familiar with coding, you can use tools like W3C’s Markup Validation Service to check for any coding errors in the theme.

Finally, check user reviews and ratings. Feedback from other users can provide insights into the theme’s performance, support, and reliability.

Using a WordPress Theme Detector

If you come across a site with an impressive design and high search engine ranking, you might want to know what theme they’re using. This is where a WordPress theme detector can be a valuable tool. It allows you to identify the theme and plugins used on any WordPress site, providing inspiration and insights for your own site.

The importance of WordPress theme selection for SEO cannot be overstated. A well-chosen theme contributes to a fast, mobile-friendly, and well-coded site—factors that can significantly boost your search engine rankings. By considering the SEO implications when choosing a WordPress theme, you can set your site up for success.

10 Ways AI Can Improve Your WordPress Site: From Content Creation to E-commerce

How AI works with Wordpress Site

AI, or artificial intelligence, is rapidly transforming the way we interact with technology. From voice assistants like Siri and Alexa to recommendation algorithms on streaming platforms, AI is all around us. And it’s not just limited to consumer-facing applications – AI can also help businesses improve their operations and drive growth. One area where AI can have a significant impact is website management, and in particular, WordPress sites. In this article, we’ll explore 10 ways AI can help improve your WordPress site.

  1. Content Creation

Creating high-quality content is crucial for any WordPress site, whether it’s a blog, an e-commerce store, or a business website. However, writing engaging, informative content can be time-consuming and challenging. That’s where AI-powered content creation tools come in. By analyzing your preferences and the topics you want to cover, AI algorithms can suggest topic ideas, write headlines, and even create entire articles for you. These tools use natural language processing (NLP) techniques to generate human-like text, making the content indistinguishable from content written by a human. This can save you time and effort while ensuring your site always has fresh, high-quality content.

  1. Chatbots

Customer service is a crucial aspect of any website, but responding to customer queries and issues can be overwhelming, especially if you have a large customer base. Chatbots powered by AI can help automate customer service by providing quick answers to common questions and resolving issues faster. They can also help improve user engagement by suggesting relevant content or products based on the user’s queries. With chatbots, you can provide 24/7 support to your customers, ensuring they always get the help they need.

  1. Personalization

Personalizing the user experience on your WordPress site is essential to drive engagement and conversions. AI can help with this by analyzing user data and behavior to suggest content or products tailored to their interests and preferences. For example, if a user has previously purchased a particular product, AI can recommend related products that they might be interested in. Personalization can help improve the user experience and make users feel more connected to your brand, ultimately driving conversions and loyalty.

  1. Image Optimization

Images are an essential component of any website, but they can also slow down page load times, which can negatively impact user experience and search engine rankings. AI can help optimize images on your WordPress site by compressing them to reduce page load time, cropping them to fit different screen sizes, and even adding alt tags for better SEO. With AI-powered image optimization tools, you can ensure your site looks great while also performing well.

  1. Spam Filtering

Spam comments and emails can be a significant nuisance for website owners, consuming valuable time and resources to manage. AI-powered spam filters can automatically detect and remove spam from your WordPress site, saving you time and effort. These filters use machine learning algorithms to identify patterns in spam comments and emails, making them more effective over time.

  1. SEO Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical for any website that wants to attract organic traffic from search engines. AI can help optimize your WordPress site for search engines by analyzing your content and providing suggestions for keyword usage, meta descriptions, and other on-page SEO factors. AI-powered SEO tools can help you identify the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your site and help you incorporate them into your content to improve your search engine rankings.

  1. Voice Search Optimization

As more and more people use voice assistants like Siri and Alexa to search for information online, optimizing your site for voice search is becoming increasingly important. AI can help with this by identifying commonly used voice search terms and  incorporating them into your content. For example, if you run a restaurant, you might want to

incorporate phrases like “best restaurant near me” or “top-rated Italian restaurant” into your content to increase the chances of appearing in voice search results. With AI-powered voice search optimization tools, you can stay ahead of the curve and make your WordPress site more discoverable through voice search.

  1. Social Media Integration

Social media is an essential part of any online marketing strategy, but managing multiple social media accounts can be time-consuming. AI can help automate social media integration with your WordPress site by suggesting content to share, scheduling posts, and even providing insights into social media engagement. By using AI-powered social media tools, you can streamline your social media strategy and save time while still reaching a wide audience.

  1. Analytics

Analytics is crucial for understanding how users interact with your WordPress site and identifying areas for improvement. AI-powered analytics tools can help you track user behavior, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to improve your site’s performance. For example, you can use AI-powered analytics tools to identify which pages on your site are most popular, which products are selling the most, and which keywords are driving the most traffic. This information can help you optimize your site for better user experience and higher conversions.

  1. E-commerce

If you run an e-commerce store on your WordPress site, AI can help improve your sales and customer experience. AI can provide personalized product recommendations based on the user’s browsing and purchase history, automating inventory management to ensure products are always in stock, and detecting fraud to protect your business and customers. With AI-powered e-commerce tools, you can enhance the user experience and drive sales on your WordPress site.

AI can have a significant impact on your WordPress site, whether you run a blog, an e-commerce store, or a business website. From content creation to analytics and e-commerce, AI-powered tools can help streamline your operations, improve user experience, and drive growth. By embracing AI, you can stay ahead of the curve and make your WordPress site more efficient, effective, and profitable.

WordPress Theme Detection in 2023: What You Need To Know.

WordPress Theme Detection

WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular content management system (CMS) on the internet today, powering about 33% of all websites. With millions of websites using WordPress, it’s no surprise that many people want to know what theme a particular site is using. However, detecting a WordPress theme is not always an easy task.

There are hundreds of thousands of themes available for WordPress, including modified versions and child themes. Therefore, finding out what theme a website is using is not as simple as just viewing the source code.

One method of finding out what theme a website is using is to look for the string “wp-content/themes/” in the source code. The name of the theme usually follows the string, enclosed in a directory. However, this method is not always effective, especially when the directory name is not unique or descriptive. For example, many themes are named “responsive,” making it difficult to find the specific theme you are looking for with a simple Google search.

To accurately detect a WordPress theme, you may need to dig deeper into the source code of the website. However, this can be a complex process, requiring advanced knowledge of HTML and CSS. In addition, some websites may use custom-built themes, making it impossible to detect the theme used.

Fortunately, there are tools available to help you detect WordPress themes. One such tool is the WPThemeDetector, which is a free online tool that allows you to detect what theme a website is using. To use the tool, simply enter the URL of the website you want to detect the theme for, and the tool will analyze the source code and provide you with information on the theme used.

WordPress Theme Detector is a valuable tool for website owners, designers, and developers who want to find out what themes their favorite websites are using. It’s also useful for those who want to research different themes and find inspiration for their own websites.

In addition to WPThemeDetector, there are other tools available that can help you detect WordPress themes. For example, the What WordPress Theme Is That? tool is another free online tool that allows you to detect what theme a website is using. This tool also provides information on the plugins used on the website, which can be useful for website owners and developers.

Another useful tool for detecting WordPress themes is the Chrome extension WhatRuns. This extension allows you to see what technologies a website is using, including the WordPress theme used. With WhatRuns, you can also see what plugins and other technologies a website is using, making it a valuable tool for website research and analysis.

In conclusion, detecting a WordPress theme is not always an easy task, especially with the vast number of themes available for the platform. However, with the help of online tools and some basic knowledge of HTML and CSS, you can easily find out what theme a website is using. Whether you’re a website owner, designer, or developer, knowing what themes are popular and being used by other websites can help you create a more effective and visually appealing website.

Top 10 Essential WordPress Plugins for 2023

10 best wordpress plugins 2023

WordPress has become the go-to platform for building websites, and with the plethora of plugins available, it’s no wonder why. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at the 10 best WordPress plugins for 2023 that will help you enhance your website’s functionality, user experience, and security.

Jetpack by WordPress.com

Jetpack remains a popular and essential plugin in 2023. It offers a range of features, including website security, performance optimization, and analytics. With Jetpack, you can easily monitor your website’s traffic, track user engagement, and improve your site’s search engine optimization (SEO). Jetpack also offers various security features, such as brute force attack protection, malware scanning, and spam filtering.

Rank Math SEO

Rank Math SEO is a newer SEO plugin that has gained popularity in 2023. It offers a wide range of features to help improve your website’s search engine ranking, including keyword optimization, schema markup, and content analysis. The plugin also offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to optimize your content for search engines.

WPForms

WPForms remains a top form builder plugin in 2023. It offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to create contact forms, payment forms, and surveys. The plugin also offers various customization options, such as pre-built templates, conditional logic, and multi-page forms.

Elementor

Elementor continues to be a popular page builder plugin in 2023. It offers a wide range of features to help you customize your website’s design, including pre-built templates, widgets, and customization options for fonts, colors, and layouts. The plugin also offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to create custom page layouts.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce remains the most popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress in 2023. It offers a wide range of features to help you create an online store, including product management, order management, and payment integration. The plugin also offers various customization options, such as shipping and tax settings.

JetEngine

JetEngine is a newer plugin that offers a wide range of features to help you create custom post types, custom fields, and custom taxonomies. The plugin also offers various customization options, such as conditional logic and dynamic content.

Smush

Smush is an image optimization plugin that helps you reduce the file size of your images without compromising quality. With Smush, you can easily optimize your images for web performance and improve your website’s speed and load times.

WP Rocket

WP Rocket remains a popular performance optimization plugin in 2023. It offers a range of features to help you optimize your website’s caching, minification, and content delivery network (CDN) settings. The plugin also offers various customization options, such as lazy loading and database optimization.

JetTabs

JetTabs is a newer plugin that offers a range of features to help you create custom tabs and accordion blocks for your website’s content. The plugin also offers various customization options, such as styling options and content management.

WP Security Audit Log

WP Security Audit Log is a plugin that helps you keep track of changes made to your website, including user activity, file changes, and system events. With WP Security Audit Log, you can easily monitor your website’s security and prevent unauthorized access.

Conclusion

these are the 10 best WordPress plugins for 2023 that will help you enhance your website’s functionality, user experience, and security. Whether you’re looking to improve your website’s search engine ranking, create custom forms and content, or optimize your website’s performance and security, these plugins have got you covered.

 

PluginMain Selling Point
Jetpack by WordPress.comWebsite security, performance optimization, and analytics
Rank Math SEOWide range of SEO features, user-friendly interface
WPFormsUser-friendly form builder with customization options
ElementorPopular page builder with extensive customization options
WooCommerceMost popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress
JetEngineCreate custom post types, custom fields, and custom taxonomies
SmushImage optimization to improve website speed and performance
WP RocketPerformance optimization through caching, minification, and CDN settings
JetTabsCreate custom tabs and accordion blocks for website content
WP Security Audit LogKeep track of changes made to website for improved security

The 5 Fastest WordPress Themes to Boost Your Website Speed in 2023

5 fastest wordpress themes 2023

As the world becomes increasingly digital, website speed has become more critical than ever before. Visitors to your website expect a fast, seamless experience, and if your website is slow to load, you can expect visitors to quickly click away and go elsewhere. One of the biggest factors that contribute to website speed is your website theme. In this article, we will explore the five fastest WordPress themes in 2023.

  1. Astra

Astra WordPress Theme 2023Astra is a lightweight and customizable WordPress theme that is well-known for its speed and performance. Developed with the latest coding standards and best practices, Astra is designed to be both lightning-fast and SEO-friendly. With Astra, you can easily customize your website’s design to match your brand’s unique style and feel, without sacrificing speed or performance.

Astra is a popular choice among website developers and website owners alike, and for a good reason. Its minimalist design ensures that it loads quickly, and its compatibility with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder makes it easy to create beautiful websites without sacrificing speed.

  1. GeneratePress

generatepress wordpress theme 2023GeneratePress is another popular WordPress theme that is designed for speed and performance. This lightweight theme loads quickly and is highly customizable, making it a great choice for both beginner and experienced website owners.

GeneratePress is built with clean, optimized code that ensures fast load times and excellent performance. Its customizable design allows you to create a website that is both visually stunning and lightning-fast. Plus, it’s fully responsive, so your website will look great on any device.

  1. Schema

Schema WordPress Theme 2023Schema is a lightweight and ultra-fast WordPress theme that is specifically designed for bloggers and online publishers. This theme is designed to load quickly and optimize your website’s SEO performance, making it a popular choice for bloggers and content creators who want to boost their search engine rankings.

Schema’s design is clean and simple, with a focus on readability and ease of use. Its responsive design ensures that your website looks great on any device, and its optimization for search engines makes it easy to improve your website’s visibility and attract more visitors.

  1. OceanWP

OceanWP WordPress themeOceanWP is a popular WordPress theme that is designed for speed and performance. This lightweight theme loads quickly and is highly customizable, making it a great choice for both beginner and experienced website owners.

OceanWP’s design is minimalist and elegant, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. Its customizable design allows you to create a website that is both visually stunning and lightning-fast. Plus, it’s fully responsive, so your website will look great on any device.

  1. Neve

Neve WordPress ThemeNeve is a lightweight and fast WordPress theme that is designed for both speed and performance. This theme is highly customizable and easy to use, making it a great choice for both beginners and experienced website owners.

Neve’s design is modern and sleek, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use. Its responsive design ensures that your website looks great on any device, and its compatibility with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder makes it easy to create beautiful websites without sacrificing speed.

Conclusion

Website speed is essential in 2023, and choosing a fast and responsive WordPress theme is critical to the success of your website. Astra, GeneratePress, Schema, OceanWP, and Neve are all excellent choices for website owners who want to prioritize speed and performance without sacrificing design or functionality. Choose the one that best fits your needs and start building your lightning-fast website today!

Top 10 Best WordPress Themes: A Comprehensive Guide for Choosing the Perfect Theme for Your Website 2023

10 best wordpress themes 2023

WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world, powering over 40% of all websites on the internet. One of the reasons for its success is its flexibility, which allows users to customize their websites using themes and plugins.

In this article, we’ll explore the 10 best WordPress themes currently available. These themes are chosen based on their popularity, functionality, design quality, and user-friendliness.

Divi Theme

Divi is a versatile WordPress theme that comes with a powerful drag-and-drop page builder. This makes it easy to create custom layouts for your website without any coding knowledge. The theme also includes over 800 pre-made designs and layouts, making it an ideal choice for beginners and advanced users alike.

Divi is fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device, and it includes a wide range of customization options, including font choices, color schemes, and animations. With its robust features and user-friendly interface, Divi is an excellent choice for anyone looking to build a professional website quickly and easily.

Astra Theme

 

Astra is a lightweight and fast-loading WordPress theme that’s perfect for bloggers, freelancers, and small business owners. The theme offers a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings.

Astra is also fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device. It’s also optimized for SEO, which can help your website rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

One of the standout features of Astra is its library of starter templates, which makes it easy to get started with building your website. Astra is also compatible with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, making it a great choice for anyone looking to build a custom website quickly and easily.

OceanWP Theme

 

OceanWP is a powerful and highly customizable WordPress theme that offers a range of pre-made templates and layouts. The theme is optimized for speed, which can help improve your website’s loading times, and it includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings.

One of the standout features of OceanWP is its library of extensions, which can help you add new features and functionality to your website. Some of the extensions include WooCommerce integration, social sharing buttons, and a sticky header.

Overall, OceanWP is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a powerful and customizable WordPress theme that’s optimized for speed and includes a range of features.

Avada Theme

 

Avada is a popular WordPress theme that’s packed with features and functionality. The theme comes with a powerful page builder that makes it easy to create custom layouts, and it includes a range of pre-made templates and design options.

Avada is also fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device, and it includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings. The theme is also optimized for speed, which can help improve your website’s loading times.

Overall, Avada is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a feature-rich WordPress theme that’s easy to use and highly customizable.

GeneratePress Theme

 

GeneratePress is a lightweight and fast-loading WordPress theme that’s perfect for bloggers and small business owners. The theme includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings, and it’s fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device.

One of the standout features of GeneratePress is its focus on performance, which can help improve your website’s loading times and SEO rankings. The theme is also compatible with popular page builders like Elementor and Beaver Builder, making it easy to create custom layouts and designs.

Overall, GeneratePress is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a lightweight and fast-loading WordPress theme that’s highly customizable and optimized for performance.

Hestia Theme

 

Hestia is a modern and stylish WordPress theme that’s perfect for small business owners and startups. The theme includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings, and it’s fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device.

Hestia is also optimized for speed and SEO, which can help improve your website’s loading times and search engine rankings. The theme includes a range of pre-made templates and design options, making it easy to get started with building your website.

Overall, Hestia is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a modern and stylish WordPress theme that’s optimized for performance and includes a range of customization options.

X Theme

 

X is a powerful and highly customizable WordPress theme that’s perfect for advanced users and developers. The theme includes a range of pre-made templates and design options, and it comes with a powerful page builder that makes it easy to create custom layouts and designs.

X is also fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device, and it includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings. The theme is also optimized for speed and SEO, which can help improve your website’s loading times and search engine rankings.

Overall, X is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a highly customizable WordPress theme that’s packed with features and functionality.

The7 Theme

 

The7 is a versatile and highly customizable WordPress theme that’s perfect for business owners and creatives. The theme includes a powerful page builder that makes it easy to create custom layouts and designs, and it comes with a range of pre-made templates and design options.

The7 is also fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device, and it includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings. The theme is also optimized for speed and SEO, which can help improve your website’s loading times and search engine rankings.

Overall, The7 is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a versatile and highly customizable WordPress theme that’s packed with features and functionality.

Neve Theme

 

Neve is a lightweight and fast-loading WordPress theme that’s perfect for bloggers, freelancers, and small business owners. The theme includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings, and it’s fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device.

Neve is also optimized for speed and SEO, which can help improve your website’s loading times and search engine rankings. The theme includes a range of pre-made templates and design options, making it easy to get started with building your website.

Overall, Neve is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a lightweight and fast-loading WordPress theme that’s highly customizable and optimized for performance.

Enfold Theme

 

Enfold is a versatile and highly customizable WordPress theme that’s perfect for business owners and creatives. The theme includes a powerful page builder that makes it easy to create custom layouts and designs, and it comes with a range of pre-made templates and design options.

Enfold is also fully responsive, meaning it looks great on any device, and it includes a range of customization options, including color schemes, font choices, and layout settings. The theme is also optimized for speed and SEO, which can help improve your website’s loading times and search engine rankings.

Overall, Enfold is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a versatile and highly customizable WordPress theme that’s packed with features and functionality.

Conclusion

 

Choosing the right WordPress theme for your website is an important decision. The themes listed above are some of the best options currently available, offering a range of features, customization options, and performance optimizations.

When choosing a WordPress theme, it’s important to consider your specific needs and goals, as well as the type of website you’re building. Do you need a theme that’s optimized for performance? Are you looking for a specific design style or customization options? These are all important factors to consider when choosing a theme.

In addition, it’s important to keep in mind that the theme you choose is just one aspect of building a successful website. You’ll also need to consider factors such as content creation, search engine optimization, and user experience design.

Ultimately, the best WordPress theme for your website will depend on your unique needs and preferences. By considering the options listed above and doing your own research, you’ll be well on your way to choosing a theme that will help you achieve your goals and build a successful website.

ThemeMajor Benefit
DiviHighly customizable design
AstraFast-loading and optimized for performance
AvadaVersatile and packed with features
GeneratePressLightweight and easy to customize
OceanWPCustomizable and optimized for performance
HestiaModern and stylish design
XHighly customizable and packed with features
The7Versatile and highly customizable design
NeveLightweight and fast-loading design
EnfoldVersatile and highly customizable design

Top 10 Most Popular Themes on Themeforest.net: A Comprehensive Review

top 10 wordpress themes at themefores.net

Creating a website can be a daunting task, especially if you don’t have experience with web design and development. Fortunately, there are a variety of tools and resources available to help you create a professional-looking website with ease. One of the most popular resources for website design is Themeforest.net, a marketplace for high-quality website themes and templates.

In this article, we will review the top 10 most popular themes on Themeforest.net. These themes have been carefully selected based on their popularity, features, and overall quality. Whether you’re looking to create an eCommerce store, online magazine, or business website, there is a theme on this list that can help you achieve your goals.

Each theme will be reviewed in detail, with a focus on its unique features and benefits. We will provide an overview of the theme’s design and layout, as well as its customization options and compatibility with popular plugins and tools.

Avada:

Avada is a multipurpose theme that has been a top-seller on Themeforest.net for years. It is highly customizable, with a powerful theme options panel and a drag-and-drop page builder that make it easy to create a wide variety of websites. Avada comes with hundreds of pre-built templates and layouts, making it a great choice for beginners and advanced users alike. The theme is also optimized for speed and SEO, making it a great choice for anyone looking to create a fast and highly visible website.

The7:

The7 is another multipurpose theme that has been a top-seller on Themeforest.net for many years. It features a highly customizable design and a powerful set of tools that make it easy to create a wide variety of websites. The7 comes with a built-in page builder and a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it a great choice for beginners and advanced users alike. The theme is also highly responsive, making it a great choice for creating websites that look great on all devices.

Betheme:

beTheme is a highly flexible and versatile theme that can be used to create a wide variety of websites. It comes with a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to get started. The theme also features a powerful set of tools for customization, including a drag-and-drop page builder, advanced theme options, and more. Additionally, beTheme is highly optimized for speed and SEO, making it a great choice for anyone looking to create a fast and highly visible website.

Flatsome:

Flatsome is a highly popular theme for eCommerce websites, with a focus on clean, modern design and a variety of built-in features for selling products online. The theme comes with a powerful page builder and a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to create a professional-looking online store. Flatsome is also highly responsive, making it a great choice for creating websites that look great on all devices.

WoodMart:

WoodMart is another highly popular eCommerce theme, with a focus on creating beautiful, modern online stores. The theme comes with a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to get started. WoodMart also features a powerful set of tools for customization, including a drag-and-drop page builder and advanced theme options. Additionally, the theme is highly optimized for speed and SEO, making it a great choice for anyone looking to create a fast and highly visible online store.

Bridge:

Bridge is a highly versatile theme that can be used to create a wide variety of websites, from blogs to portfolios to eCommerce stores. It features a powerful set of tools for customization, including a drag-and-drop page builder and advanced theme options. Bridge also comes with a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to get started. Additionally, the theme is highly optimized for speed and SEO, making it a great choice for anyone looking to create a fast and highly visible website.

Uncode:

Uncode is a highly popular theme for creative professionals, with a focus on beautiful, modern design and a variety of built-in features for showcasing portfolios and other creative work. The theme comes with a powerful page builder and a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to create a professional-looking website. Uncode is also highly responsive, making it a great choice for creating websites that look great on all devices.

SmartMag:

SmartMag is a highly popular theme for creating online magazines and news websites. It features a variety of built-in features for displaying articles and other content in a clean, modern format. The theme also comes with a powerful page builder and a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to create a professional-looking magazine or news website. SmartMag is highly optimized for speed and SEO, making it a great choice for anyone looking to create a fast and highly visible online publication.

Salient:

Salient is a highly customizable theme with a focus on creating beautiful, modern websites. It comes with a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to get started. The theme also features a powerful set of tools for customization, including a drag-and-drop page builder and advanced theme options. Additionally, Salient is highly optimized for speed and SEO, making it a great choice for anyone looking to create a fast and highly visible website.

Enfold:

Enfold is a highly popular theme with a focus on creating beautiful, responsive websites. It comes with a variety of pre-built templates and layouts, making it easy to get started. The theme also features a powerful set of tools for customization, including a drag-and-drop page builder and advanced theme options. Additionally, Enfold is highly optimized for speed and SEO, making it a great choice for anyone looking to create a fast and highly visible website.

Overall, these top 10 themes on Themeforest.net are all highly customizable and feature-rich, making them a great choice for a wide variety of website types and purposes. Whether you’re looking to create an eCommerce store, online magazine, or business website, there’s a theme on this list that can help you achieve your goals.

6 Most Popular WordPress Themes at WordPress.org

Most popular WordPress themes at WordPress.org

WordPress.org is still the largest repository of WordPress themes on the web. Themeforest.net is catching up but as it is a premium theme site only there is a natural impediment to growth. While themes with all the bells and whistles are great, most new webmasters are very price sensitive. This is what gives WordPress.org the edge. All themes on this site are free and that is a powerful motivational force for new and expert webmasters alike.

As of the published date, we have used only 4 of the 6 themes that are the core of this article. For the other 2 we have reached out to some of our webmaster friends to give us a run down. We will list likes and dislikes but also give a brief explanation of why we have come to those conclusions.

1. Twenty Twenty

Twenty Twenty is the latest iteration of a theme that started with the iconic theme Twenty Ten. Twenty Ten was so easy to use it quickly became a spammer favourite. It is rumored that back in the day Google would shutdown many illegal blog networks just by looking for this theme.

While twenty twenty maintains that ease of use it has added many new features. It is based on Chaplin a free theme designed by the “Theme Design Lead of WordPress 5.3”, Anders Norén. The theme gives you full control of colors and fonts. Which for a free WordPress.org theme is actually quite good. The theme has been optimized for Gutenberg, which as frequent readers here would know we are still not fans of. Don’t let this put you off though. It is a powerful theme. Just install the Classic Editor plugin and you are good to go. This theme is fast! Out of the box it will pass most of Google’s PageSpeed Insights tests with flying colors. In our initial testing it also does well in Google’s new Core Web Vitals in Search Console. So if speed is a requirement for you and it should be. Then this is the theme to be using.

Likes

  • Render  speed.
  • Ease of use.
  • Core Web Vitals adaptability.

Dislikes

  • Reliance on Gutenberg.

2. Twenty Nineteen

Twenty Nineteen comes in second in this list of popular themes. There is a good reason it is second. It is a great optimized theme. Fast and with low maintenance it is a bloggers dream. Once again like Twenty Twenty it is a little over reliant on Gutenberg. In fact if you are considering using  Twenty Nineteen then you might as well just install Twenty twenty instead.

Likes

  • Render  speed.
  • Ease of use.
  • Core Web Vitals adaptability.

Dislikes

  • Reliance on Gutenberg.
  • Might as well use Twenty Twenty instead.

Twenty Seventeen

The First thing we need to say is that the blog on WordPress Theme Detector actually runs on a modified version of Twenty Seventeen. Why? For one thing we get a PageSpeed Insights score for mobile value of about 84 and desktop result of about 91. This is for an article page, while the front page can get into the low 90’s.

PageSpeed Insights for WordPress Theme Detector

We  do not run any caching software but we do run standard Autoptimize. Just this result makes us love this theme but add to that the ease of use and maintenance and you can’t wipe the smile off our dials when thinking about this theme. We have not yet moved the blog to Twenty Twenty because we are still prefer themes that are not overly influenced by Guntenberg. Some initial testing is starting to make us change our minds on this. The numbers are looking good.

Likes

  • Render  speed.
  • Ease of use.
  • Core Web Vitals adaptability.
  • Ease of maintenance.

Dislikes

  • Getting a little old now.
  • Ironically not as easy to use with Gutenberg so not future proof.

Astra

We featured Astra in our Free Alternatives to Avada WordPress Theme and for a good reason. It has excellent SEO integration and comes with Scheme.org implemented natively which is rare for free WordPress themes. It is extremely popular and therefore the publisher has a good incentive to keep it up to date. There are some good themes out there that are unsupported due to lack of popularity. While we don’t like AMP, it does come with native AMP straight out of the box. So if this is important to you then Astra is a good theme to consider.

Likes

  • AMP integration.
  • Ease of use.
  • Ease of maintenance.

Dislikes

  • PageSpeed scores are not as good as the themes above.
Astra Theme
Astra Theme

Hello Elementor

Hello Elementor is a wildly popular theme that has been built by the developers who created the Elementor page builder plugin.  If you are a fan of the plugin then you have every reason to be using the Hello Elementor theme. There is seamless integration with the page builder. While not the fastest theme in this review it is the most flexible. This theme can basically look like any website on the web.

Likes

  • Flexibility.
  • Competes with most premium themes for features.

Dislikes

  • Slow PageSpeed scores.

OceanWP

OceanWP came in 7th on our list of 10 fastest WordPress Themes. What is unusual about this theme is that it is a full featured theme with 7 free powerful extensions. It builds beautiful websites but also makes them fast. PageSpeed insight scores are usually in the high 70’s for mobile and low 90’s straight out of the box. An amazing achievement for a theme that can make websites look as good as this theme does.

Likes

  • Flexibility.
  • Competes with most premium themes for features.
  • High PageSpeed Insight scores.

Conclusion

While some of the above themes are getting old now they are still very relevant. Importantly most will build quite fast loading websites and the ones that don’t will generally build gorgeous looking websites. OceanWP does both so if we had to recommend just one out of the above list it would be OceanWP.

 

10 Fastest WordPress Themes 2020

10 fastest WordPress themes

How Do We Evaluate What Is a Fast WordPress Theme?

The accelerating rate of WordPress theme development has made it difficult for website owners to make a choice as to which theme to use. The consensus was to just pick what you as a user thought looked good or a theme that had the bells and whistles you felt your site needed. Well that all changed in 2010. Google announced that it was going to use site speed as a ranking factor. The merits of this move have been endlessly debated since by digital marketers but Google has maintained a commitment to this initiative, especially for mobile users.

The methodology we will be using is simple. We will buy themes that claim to be fast if premium or just download free ones and run them through the following analysis tools. Page Speed Insights, Yahoo’s Yslow and finally through Webpagetest which gives a nice waterfall breakdown of performance elements. While these are the 10 fastest WordPress themes we could find it is by no means an extensive list. If you feel you know a faster theme let us know about it and we will test it. So without any further adieu let’s get right into it.

1. Twenty Twenty by WordPress.org.

Twenty Twenty WordPress Theme
Twenty Twenty WordPress Theme

Nobody should be surprised that the theme that comes standard with WordPress is fast. In most test “Twenty Twenty” easily tops both PageSpeed Insights and Yslow.  These guys are the inventors of WordPress so you would think they would know a thing or two about building a fast theme. In actual fact all their original themes from Twenty Sixteen onwards has topped the speed list.

It’s not all good news though. While the Twenty Twenty theme is the most feature rich standard theme to come with WordPress it is not exactly packed with the features of the premium themes. Having said that, If you want a fast and stable blogging theme, it is hard to go past Twenty Twenty.

2. GeneratePress.

GeneratePress Genrate Press
GeneratePress Genrate Press

So technically GeneratePress is also a free theme and it does work well straight out of the box. It is almost as fast as Twenty twenty but boy comes with quite a few more features even in its free form. We think that like us once you try GenratePress you will happily upgrade to premium.  What this theme offers in ways power and performance is hard to match. Sure we here WP Theme Detector can play around with Twenty Twenty and get a PageSpeed of almost 100% but why bother when GenratePress will get you 90% of the way for no effort at all and look much better to boot.

The other thing we love about this theme is the story behind the development. The developers name is Tom and he has basically given away his day job to make GenratePress his one and only working venture. The theme has been so successful that there is now a team behind its development, we can only see a bright future for this Theme.

3. Hypermart WooCommerce Theme.

Hypermart fast WooCommerce theme
Hypermart fast WooCommerce theme

We couldn’t put a list like this together without talking about Ecommerce. By far the most popular Ecommerce platform on WordPress is WooCommerce and for good reason. This feature rich plugin can do just about anything commerce that is expected from a website. So we had to find a blazingly fast WooCommerce enabled them. We did just that. Hypermart punches out PageSpeed numbers that would make a blog theme jealous. regularly in the 70%+ for mobiles and close to 100% for desktop machines. Just because it has speed does not mean that the commerce aspect of the theme is compromised. It isn’t! We all know that shoppers need very little excuse to not spend money on your site. So don’t give them any. make sure your site loads fast and get them clicking to the checkout as fast as possible.

4. Front.

Front WordPress Theme
Front WordPress Theme

Front is another WordPress theme that blows the socks off of PageSpeed Insights. Mobile page speed can get into the high 70%, while the desktop numbers as good as 100%. Amazing for such a full featured theme. This theme is built for Gutenberg and even though we aren’t fans of the Gutenberg editor, we know that lots of people are. The theme has lots of layouts and templates. Infact we will list just a few features below. It can use WooCommerce and does this well but WooCommerce is not quite as integrated as Hypermart above. Don’t let this deter you though. If you are thinking of doing a commerce site and like the look of Front better, then use it in the full knowledge that you should have no headaches.

  • 100% Responsive
  • Built using Bootstrap 4, Underscores, Gulp and SASS
  • Built for Gutenberg
  • Premium Images Included
  • 30+ Hero Layouts
  • 90+ Header/Navbar Layouts
  • 10+ Footer Layouts
  • 26 Home Pages and Demos
  • 150+ Gutenberg Blocks

5. Pixwell – Responsive WordPress Theme.

Pixwell WordPress theme
Pixwell WordPress theme

Pixwell is in the top 10 most popular themes on Themeforest. Which makes it incredible that it has made it here onto this list. Usually popular themes are popular because they give you all the bells and whistles, which unfortunately also usually means bloat and sluggish perfromance. Well Pixwell contests that preconception and while not blowing it out of the water, shows that with a little developmental effort you can have every feature and still get a relatively fast WordPress theme. When we say every feature we mean it. Pixwell has Elementor page builder, ruby composer, galleries, demos and much more all built in. Pixwell specializes in magazine websites but it can definitely build any concept you can think of.

6.  TopNews.

TopNews Fast WordPress theme

If you want a fast loading news site then you can’t go past TopNews.  Whiel not as feature rich as some of the other WordPress theme featured on Themeforest. It is a great theme for producing blogs, news sites, magazine style sites and any site that needs to convey information to the user and fast. This site gets 75%+ for PageSpeed on mobile and nearly 100% for desktop. These amazing figures do not mean concessions to the look of the websites using the theme. Some of the best looking news websites on the web are using this theme.

7. OceanWP.

OceanWP WordPress Theme

OceansWP is a very fast and “free” theme indeed. It is fast in both mobile and desktop but more than that it produces some truly beautiful websites. it is very usable in the free mode but has a few nice features in the paid portion of the theme.

The free version comes with 7 free extensions but there are also  11 premium extensions. If you bought them seperateely they would cost you $9.99 but why would you do that? When you can get them in a bundle for $39.

8. Airi Pro.

Airi Pro WordPress theme
Airi Pro WordPress theme

So yes Airi Pro is as the name would suggest, a pro theme. Yes as far as we can tell there is no free theme available but what a theme it is. It is fast, both on mobile and desktop. It accomplish this while still being able to produce amazing looking websites and that is not an easy feat. It is simple to use and set up. We recomend it for those who are on a tight time schedule. To get a good looking website designed fast, Airi Pro is the go to theme.

9. Reek.

Reek WordPress theme
Reek WordPress theme

The developers of the Reek theme may have watched a bit to much Game of Thrones. This quirky little theme has one of the fastest loading times of all Themeforest themes and fares well against Twenty Twenty. The developers sell it as a minimalist masonry theme and that is exactly what it does. A great theme for what it does but masonry style sites are a little dated now.

10. Acabado.

Acabado
Wish I could find a woman that looked at me like Jim looks at Ricky

So for our final theme we have chosen Acabado. The theme  was developed by these two janky SEO’s on Youtube, Ricky Kesler and Jim Harmer. They are pretty good at revealing what they do to make money although at times I think they oversimplify things. Still good guys and very knowledgable in their own field. They have billed their Acabado theme as the fastest WordPress theme on the web and while that might not be exactly true, especially if you take into account the tweaking some of us web developers do with the default WordPress themes.  However Acabado is very fast straight out of the box. It was designed with blogging in mind  and fills that niche really well. Even if you aren’t interested in their theme their YouTube channel is well worth a gander.

Final Thoughts.

This is no where near a complete list. There are thousands of WordPress themes on the web and we have but scraped surface. We are planning to make updates to this list a regular part of the site.

 

 

Gutenberg WordPress Editor

Gutenberg Wordpress Editor

It has been just over a year since we last talked about the Gutenberg WordPress Editor.  In that article we explain what Gutenberg is and why it matters. Has anything changed since then?

What is Gutenberg WordPress Editor?

As we explained in the original article Gutenberg is a new block based editor that comes packaged with standard WordPress. It replaced the old text based editor that had been around since the inception of WordPress itself.  So what does blck based mean anyway? In the old editor everything was laid out in a text editor and required that the user have a simple understanding of HTML. Laying out a visually rich page on a website can be rather tedious with this type of editor so many thrid party companies started building block editors as plugins to the WordPress system. A popular block editor that we use is Visual Composer. This amazing plugin lets a user with a modicum of website nouse to build visually rich and compelling pages. (Spoiler alert) we still rate Visual Composer way above Gutenberg. However, Visual Composer and most other block based editor plugins have two major problems. 1) They cost money and 2) they can be very complicated to use.

 

So Gutenberg is Free and Easy to Use?

Yes Gutenberg is free and moderately easy to use but is it good? It has been endlessly debated since the introduction of the new editor whether it was a good replacement for the old one. Consensus tended to be that it wasn’t. I have read some recent WordPress articles extolling the virutes of Gutenberg and how it has matured since its introduction. So I went back and tried it again. I am here to tell you that it isn’t very good at all. Yes it is slightly better now than on release but the bar was set very low, so that wasn’t hard to achieve.

What I do admit though is that it does give people new to WordPress an easier path to making richer websites and pages than the old editor. Though I still maintain that even with a little bit of knowledge of HTML a user will achieve much more from the classic editor. Luckily there is a classic editor plugin available that lets you toggle between classic and Gutenberg editor. I highly recomend that this plugin be installed even if you are someone that likes the Gutenberg editor. The classic editor lets a user bash an article much quicker than Gutenberg ever could.

Final Thoughts on Gutenberg

As per last time I still feel that Gutenberg has its place and with so many new users not knowing the original editor, Gutenberg will only grow in popularity. The people behind WordPress are commited to the new editor, so it is not going away. Personally I think this is a good thing as long as Gutenberg is updated to the point where it can compete with the other block editors on the block (pun intended). If Gutenberg got to the level of complexity of say Visual Composer then we would have something to crow about.

Free Alternatives to Avada WordPress Theme

free alternatives to Avada WordPress Theme

Are there any Free Alternative Themes to Avada Theme?

Free Demos that come with Avada
Free Demos that come with Avada

The short answer is no but keep reading. Avada is the best selling theme in the history of WordPress for a reason. This theme has been around for seven years now and has been in full and constant development the whole time. The team behind Avada is ThemeFusion and they have mostly concentrated on Avada that whole time. At the time of writing there have been 523,508 sales and at about $60 a sale that means this theme has generated $31,410,480 USD for ThemeFusion. That is why they can concentrate on this theme and make sure that with every update of WordPress the theme will work perfectly. ThemeFusion can afford to make sure all the plugins work perfectly with the theme with every update of WordPress. They can also afford to bundle lots of great third party plugins with the theme itself.

With the kind of income Avada generates Themefusion can also afford to develop many different Demos which form a great base for any new or established websites. As well as using Avada Classic, some of the free demos that come bundled that we have used for our clients are Avada Salon, Avada Gym, Cafe and many more. All have imported perfectly and have maintained stability after every WordPress and plugin update. That is a hard thing to achieve in the WordPress theme space. Developers who make free themes just don’t have that monetary incentive that ThemeFusion has so it will be hard for them to keep up.

So what are the Free Alternatives to Avada in 2019?

As we have pointed out above technically there are no free alternatives to Avada but there are some great free themes in their own right. the ones we are featuring here are all from WordPress.org but there are some great alternative free themes to the ones on WordPress.org out there but we cover them in another article. The themes below are in no particular order, all five will work great for you and all are responsive.

1. Avant

Avant free theme
Avant free theme

Even though we have said we aren’t putting these themes in any order Avant is easily one of our two favourite free themes of all time.  The other theme being Twenty Seventeen which will not make it onto this list. An explanation of this will come later. Why do we like Avant? It has an Avada feel while obviously not being Avada. It has great SEO settings and often we won’t bother with a dedicated SEO plugin when using this theme. It has five blog layouts,  Seven header layouts and three footer layouts. Which gives you 105 different variations, a surprising amount for a free theme. It works well with WooCommerce and is a great platform to build a eCommerce store around. It also works extremely well with page builder plugins like Elementor and SiteOrigin’s Page Builder.

2. Futurio

Futurio is  a great theme that we have had a lot of success

Futurio free WordPress theme
Futurio free WordPress theme

with. It is lightweight, very customizable and fast. With a little tweaking we have managed to get Google PageSpeed insights scores in the high 80s for sites using this theme. This was achieved on a cheap server. the theme works well with all the page builder plugins like Elementor, Gutenberg and Visual Composer. Every SEO plugin we have used has worked well with it and so have all the caching plugins.  In fact all the major WordPress plugins like Contact Form 7, jetpack and WooCommerce work well with it. Definitely a great theme to try out.

3. Hestia

Hestia

Hestia WordPress theme
Hestia WordPress theme

has been around a few years now but is still one of the best free WordPress themes on WordPress.org. At the time of writing Hestia has 100,000+ downloads and for good reason. This theme like Avant above is trying to be somewhat Avada like. It is aimed at creatives, small business and startups but can be used for any small standalone website. It is also great for one page sales landing pages. Like the others above it works perfectly with all the most popular plugins and page builders. Hestia is SEO friendly and works well with parallax sliders. While it is not as customizable as Avant, it is still very flexible and can be used for many different industry websites.

4. Astra

Astra Theme
Astra Theme

Astra is an extremely popular theme with 300,000+ downloads and for good reason. It has excellent SEO integration and comes with Scheme.org implemented natively which is rare for free WordPress themes. One thing we don’t like about the theme but will probably be appreciated by most installers is that the theme comes with AMP native integration. We don’t like AMP because we like to be in control of our content but for most people AMP is a good idea. Astra is also fast loading and lightweight. like the others mentioned in this list it works well with all the page builders and we haven’t come across a popular plugin it hasn’t worked with.

5. Shapely

Shapely WordPress theme
Shapely WordPress theme

Even though we kept Shapely for the last in this list it is by no means the least. This theme is awesome and while not Avada like it is definitely only a few steps away from being a good premium theme. Customization is this themes middle name and has beautiful base design that can be built up with plugins and page builders to make an extremely good looking website. We have used this theme for landing pages, business sites , portfolios, eCommerce stores, local business sites and with a little tweaking we have used them on personal blogs, magazine sites and tech sites. Once again as all the themes in this list it is SEO friendly and responsive. It makes mobile sites look the best of any in this list although it is a bit heavier and slower than most of the others.

Honourable Mention

Above we mentioned how Twenty Seventeen didn’t make this list. Why? We love this theme the most of any free theme we have ever used but it is not on this list because it is not for everyone. We use Twenty Seventeen on this site but we have customized it heavily and use it headless WordPress to run the article list on the front page. Twenty Seventeen is powerful because it is so simple and easily modifiable yet still has some nice default touches.

If after all of this you still don’t know what theme you want to use but know a good site that has a theme you might like use our WordPress theme detector to find the theme and try it.

How Do I Find a Great WordPress Theme?

How Do I Find a Great WordPress Theme

If there is a question we get asked more than any about Themes it would have to be What are the best WordPress themes?

Answer: The best theme is the theme that satisfies your needs and looks the way you want your site to look. OK, so that sounds like a bit of a cop out and it is.  What we are trying to say here is that there are literally thousands of awesome great themes and new amazing themes are being released daily.

The problem is that the above question is not the right question. There are a series of questions you need to ask yourself when choosing a theme for your website, brand and ultimately your business. in this article we will step through the question.

1. Do I need a Responsive Theme?

Yes you do. We have put this question first for a reason.  There is no longer any reason to not have a responsive theme. Almost all good themes free or premium are responsive. With Mobile devices becoming so ubiquitous the traffic on the web has changed from being primarily laptop/desktop based to becoming an even split with mobile and tablet. Whats does this mean? It means that as many people are viewing a site on a mobile device as there are viewing it on a PC.

Responsive WordPress Theme
Responsive WordPress Theme

Add to this that Google has put more emphasis on mobile in the search engine results and announcing that Google’s preferred method for handling mobile devices is responsive. There is no reason to ever touch a theme that is not responsive. Any good theme publisher will know this by now and either have remade an old theme or built a new theme using responsive technology.

Just in case you have missed it we will say it one more time “use a responsive theme”. If you see a site that you like and are unsure what theme it is using then use our WP theme detector to see what theme it is using and you will be able to check if it is actually responsive.

2. What Colors Do I Use?

Choosing a color for WordPress site
Choosing a color for WordPress site

Colors are important so give them plenty of thought. The colors to use will generally depend on the business logo. Try to match your site to logo. If you don’t have a logo yet then we recommend you select a color palette for the look for the website. There are a few sites online that can do this for you. One that we use a lot is https://paletton.com/. We like it because you can choose a base color and it will generate color schemes for you. Once again if you see a theme you like and it has the colors you would like to use then simply use our WordPress Theme Detector mentioned above to find it.

If you are a little confused about colors then a good point to start is to apply a little simple psychology to color selection. Consider your audience/customers and make a selection based on it. Here are some very simple guidelines do not use these as hard rules.

  • Women don’t like gray, orange, and brown. They like blue, purple, and green.
  • Men don’t like purple, orange, and brown. Men like blue, green, and black.
  • Blue is generally the color of trust.
  • Green is good for nature, outdoors and environment.
  • Orange is a fun color and although both men and women tend not to like it. Used correctly it can make a site stand out from the pack.
  • Yellow is used in warning signs and is a great color to grab attention just be careful with its application.
  • Black and other dark colors can be luxuriant. However the over use of these colors can make sites look bleak.
  • White is important because it ads negative space and negative space applied correctly can really make your calls to action stand out.
  • Use bright colors like pinks and reds as calls to action.

3. Choose a Theme With an Easy to Read Font

choose WordPress theme
choose WordPress theme

Font selection is important. Fonts have been tested for over a hundred years. Before  computers and the internet it was newspapers had already done much of the font testing. A newspaper could be made or broken based on its font selection. In the early days of home computing Apple in particular put a lot of research into fonts as the desktop publishing revolution came into being.

So the results are in and below we have a list of fonts that a site should stick to. Most are sans-serif mutations.

  • Roboto
  • Open Sans
  • Lato
  • Slabo
  • Oswald
  • Source Sans Pro
  • Montserrat
  • Raleway

We also recommend that you make the font size of about 16px. Why? The good people at Google.com have hinted that  small fonts can have a negative affect on SEO. It actually makes sense even if it is not a direct link between font size and SEO. What can happen is that user engagement metrics are negatively affected by small fonts.

4. Use a Premium or Free Theme?

There are some great free themes out there. This blog uses a modified version of a free the theme Twenty Seventeen. It is a great theme but very basic and that is exactly how we like it. The staff here at WordPress Theme Detector are almost all skilled php/java/jquery coders. We consider twenty Seventeen a good baser to start from. We are not looking for fancy things like sliders, popups, visual editors, etc.

What is a good professional looking free theme? There are quite a few but one that is a very popular in our office is Hestia. To borrow directly from its page on wordpress.org:

It has a multipurpose one-page design, widgetised footer, blog/news page and a clean look. It is compatible with Flat Parallax Slider, Photo Gallery, Travel Map and Elementor Page Builder. The theme is responsive, WPML and Retina ready, SEO friendly, and uses Material Kit for design.

However if you really want to get serious about the look of your then you will probably want to look into a premium theme. Premium themes can afford to be a little better than free themes precisely because they offer their authors a way of making an income, which in turn allows the author to put more effort into the development and support of the theme. The theme author can also afford to bundle premium plugins into the theme bundle.

What are the Best Premium Themes?

Here are the 5 we use most and a short reason why.

  • Avada A truly all purpose WordPress theme. This is the most popular premium theme ever sold
  • The7 Possibly the most customizable theme on the web at the moment
  • X the Theme Also customizable and powerful but a bit easier to use
  • The Fox A personal favourite of the team here at WP The Detector
  • Be Theme This theme comes with a huge database of pre-built sites

If you use any of the themes above you will end up with a truly amazing site.

WordPress SEO Plugins 2019 Comparison

WordPress SEO plugin comparison

What is the Best Free SEO Plugin?

The SEO Framework is now the best free SEO Plugin for 2019. That is a huge claim so I guess we better justify it. This plugin might not do everything that the big wigs in the WordPress SEO space do but it is not far off. Install it now but continue reading if you want our justifications for this claim. At the time of writing The SEO Framework has had 90,000+ active installs, 800,000+ downloads 190+ five star reviews. So the plugin has well and truly moved past the untested phase of plugin development and moved into stable release. To make it easier to find what plugin a site is using, we will be adding a plugin finder to WordPress Theme Detector very soon.

1. the SEO Framework

The SEO Framework WordPress Plugin

 

What do we like about the SEO Framework? It works well and it works every time. The reliability of this plugin is something that we haven’t encountered in a long time in the WordPress world. We have tested this plugin by installing multiple different themes onto our test bed and many different plugins that have clashed with other SEO plugins and have not managed to make the website fall over. This is something we cannot say about almost any other SEO plugin we have tested. So if lack of plugin conflicts is important to you then use this plugin. If not then you need to change your attitude to conflicts.

This plugin is so lightweight the test site hardly knew it was there. Modern plugins tend to be bloated with ads, premium upgrades and nonsensical functionality. Sybre Waaijer the author has a personal philosophy of sticking to what is functional. He is well known and respected in the WordPress community, not just for this plugin but the many projects he has had a hand in.

Just because it’s lightweight doesn’t mean it hasn’t got most of not all features you would want in an SEO plugin. Like most good SEO plugins it can be left to its own devices. It can be left in fully automated mode. Just install and forget. The AI that has been built into the plugin saves so much time. It tweaks pages based on WordPress signals and in most situations it does a great job. In auto mode it will enable and optimize breadcrumbs, generate titles and descriptions that follow Google guidelines and has a built in sitemap generator.

The SEO Framework feels like what All in One SEO felt like the first time we encountered it many years ago. I remember installing All in One on client sites and getting an almost instant boost in Google traffic. While those days are gone TSF brings back that feel. There have been a few sites we have installed it on and seen an immediate increase SERP

OK so we have established that The SEO framework is lightweight and automates almost everything but is it customizable? Yes it is. It has all the options that “All in One SEO” and most of options of the free and premium version of “Yoast SEO” but we will talk about this later.

List of some of the customizations:

  • SEO Framework pluginTitle/description
  • Social media settings
  • Visibility (nofollow, noindex, canonical, etc.).
  • Basic schema markup like breadcrumbs and Google sitelinks
  • The automatically-generated XML sitemap
  • Social media
  • variety of free and premium modular extensions
  • Much more

SEO Plugin Comparison
One final feature before move onto the other SEO plugins. The SEO optimization column in the All posts list is so useful and easy to understand. All modern plugins should have quality of life features like this. It makes life easy for us SEO and WordPress professionals but what we really like about it is that clients can look at it and quickly get an understanding of what the possible problem with a post could is. When you have a worried client on the phone it is nice to be able to talk them through looking at this list and slowly make changes that positively affect their SEO.

2. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO was the former king of the hill when it came to WordPress SEO plugins. We are not even going to bother with download and and install statistics. This is one of the most installed plugins in WordPress history and the reviews are very positive.

Yoast SEO plugin

For the longest time this was our go to plugin for SEO. We made all our clients install it and it worked incredibly well. The plugins focus on keyword analysis is what put it above the competition and to be fair, Yoast is still a little better than TSF at this. Yoast actually requires you to enter keywords to target and then formulates an analysis of the post around the entered data. Hardcore SEO types will stick to this plugin and for good reason. If you know what you are doing it takes out a lot of the guess work out of structuring a blog post for optimal SEO results.

Another amazing aspect to the Yoast plugin is the analysis of the readability of the post. Grammar has always been important but with Google improving its AI markedly in the last 5 years this has become more important than ever. Yoast provides color coding for readability and keyword focus which makes it easy to see what aspect of the blog post needs to be worked on.

So why don’t we recommend Yoast over TSF? TSF does almost everything that Yoast does and has a few unique aspects of its own. Also ease of use factors heavily in our decision to put TSF over Yoast. However the big thing that has made us move away from Yoast is incompatibility with certain themes and plugins. We have not only seen this on our own websites but many of our clients have reported weird incompatibilities with the Yoast plugin. It is a shame because this plugin is still truly an outstandingly good plugin. The readability and keyword targeting features are a god send but the fact that is bloated out with many unnecessary features and the upgrade to premium is a little intrusive for not a lot of extra value means we really can’t recommend it anymore.

3. All in One SEO

Before the Yoast SEO plugin came along All in One SEO reigned supreme in the WordPress SEO plugin space. I vividly remember installing “All in One SEO” to a small niche review site I had built back in 2011 and 8 days later reaching the top of the SERPS for many valuable keywords. This site went from making about US$400/month to US$3000/month and the only thing I did was install this terrific little plugin.

All in One SEO plugin

What a revelation that was. I did the same thing to a few other sites with varying success but never as good as that first site. Still it was this plugin that gave me a foothold into the niche website marketing trend at the time and help me build a great business. Those days are now long gone. Because of this I was devoted to this plugin for a very long time, probably to long. It requires much more effort than installing an SEO plugin to get to the top of Google SERPs these days.  Unfortunately this plugin has become long in the tooth. It has no analysis or readability features like Yoast SEO and is not lightweight and nimble and easy to use like The SEO Framework. It is a still a stellar performer and after all these years is still in the top 3 SEO plugins for WordPress.

Like Yoast SEO it is bloated and a little unwieldy and has the annoying upgrade path to a premium version. I could never recommend this plugin over the other 2 mentioned above.

Conclusion

If it isn’t obvious by now, we highly recommend The SEO Framework as the dedicated SEO plugin to use on a site. One plugin that we haven’t mentioned but we are keeping an eye on is SEOPress. We have heard very good things about it and have installed it on 3 new niche sites to see how effective it is. We will keep you informed of the results.

Getting Started With WordPress Theme Development

WordPress Theme Development

Why WordPress Theme Development?

WordPress is the most popular CMS currently available, so if you want exposure for your project why wouldn’t you develop it in WordPress. If you already know Java, HTML and CSS and already use those skills to make websites then WordPress could be the next logic step.

While knowing PHP is a bonus it is not actually required to build a WordPress theme. If you have some Bootstrap skills that can give you are slight advantage but once again it is not necessary. it is not to difficult to build a custom WordPress theme from scratch.

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress theme is basically a template that changes the look of your website. Modifying the theme changes the look of your site externally but the way the back-end operates generally doesn’t change. This means that webmasters can move between WordPress sites without needing any extra training or knowledge to operate them. Yet the sites can all look differently. You can check out thousands of free WordPress themes at WordPress.org or premium Themes at Themeforest.net. If you have seen a site that you think looks interesting you can check it out with WP Theme Detector. You will be pointed at the theme.

Most developers don’t realize but you really only need two files to make a WordPress theme.

  1. index.php – the main template file
  2. style.css – the main style file

While this is strictly true, a developer who sticks to just these 2 files will usually end up with functional but quite basic theme.

GNU General Public License WordPressBefore we start we would like to mention the GNU General Public License (GPL). All WordPress themes are governed under this licence whether they are free or premium. The GPL four basic freedoms.

  1. Freedom to run the program for any purpose.
  2. Freedom to study how the program works and to change it, so it performs computing as you wish.
  3. Freedom to redistribute copies, so you can help your neighbor.
  4. Freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions, giving the community a chance to benefit from your changes.

However if you do not plan to distribute the theme then you will not have to adopt the GPL licence.

Set Up a Local Development Environment

Try to make sure the local development environment is identical to the final destination production server. A local development environment is preferable for a few reasons.

  1. Speed of development.
  2. Testing is easier.
  3. lack of internet connection will not hamper development.
We recommend your local development environment be made up of.
  1. Linux, Ubuntu or (if you really have to) Windows
  2. Apache or Nginx
  3. MySQL or MariaDB
  4. PHP
  5. A good text editor (we recommend Notepad++ or PhpStorm)

External WordPress Development Tools

You will need an internet connection for these but we are assuming that eventually you will want to upload your theme anyway.

  1. A good introduction to WordPress debugging https://nacin.com/2010/04/23/5-ways-to-debug-wordpress/
  2. WordPress.org Theme Unit Test Data is an XML file containing dummy test data that you can upload to test how themes perform with different types and layouts of content.
  3. Debug Bar is a plugin that provides debugging in the WordPress admin area.

There are other tools but these 3 are a good start.

Where to Start?

We recommend that you start by looking at some of the default themes that come with WordPress. At this point I have to come clean about something. I have never actually started a WordPress theme from scratch. I have always started with a default theme and modified from there. These days I have highly modified and unrecognisable versions of default themes that are my starting point for new projects. I figure why reinvent the wheel. A great way to start is download one of the themes listed below and just start hacking.

Here is a list of default themes.

If you are an experienced developer and don’t want to deal with inbuilt biases in the above listed themes then a great way to start is to generate your self an underscore theme. Just navigate to Underscores’ website and enter a name for your theme. You will be prompted to download a skeleton for a WordPress theme.

Upload the theme to /wp-content/themes in your WordPress installation. You can now start tinkering with the look and feel of your Theme.

This is just a quick starter guide and not meant to be an in-depth expert instructional on how to make a WordPress theme. Stay tuned that article is coming.

 

 

 

WordPress Security Update and Features – Vulnerabilities Have Been Plugged

WordPress Security Update and Features

As of May 7th, WordPress’ content management system (CMS) has a brand-new set of security features which adds a higher level of protection lots of its users say they wanted years ago. These new provisions were added along with the official release of the updated WordPress 5.2, which came out on the same day.

WordPress Site Health StatusThe security provisions include support for the following: updates that are cryptographically-signed,  modern cryptography library, a section for the backend of the admin panel for Site Health, as well protection for the dreaded White-Screen-of-Death (WSOD), which will allow website admins admission to the site’s backend if some sort of catastrophic PHP error occurs.

Since WordPress is loaded onto more than 33 percent of Internet websites, the new provisions are expected to ease website owners’ fears regarding cyber-attacks.

Updates that are Cryptographically-Signed

Perhaps the largest and most vital of the new security components is the one for the offline digital signature system on WordPress. Now, WordPress can sign update packages digitally using the new Ed25519 public-key signature system, which makes it possible for local installations to confirm the update is authentic prior to installing it.

This feature is a vital step for preventing cyber-attacks like a supply chain attack onto every WordPress website. Security companies have been warning WordPress users about this kind of threat for over 2 years.

According to Scott Arciszewski, who is the Chief Development Officer for Paragon Initiative Enterprises, prior to this WordPress update, all that was needed to be able to attack all the websites using WordPress was to hack into the WordPress update server.  Arciszewski is one of the people who helped develop the security for the WordPress update system, as well as some of the other new security features.

He added that now that the new security update is in place, a cyber attacker would have to find a way to steal WordPress core development team’s signing key. Thus things are much more secure.

WordPress Acquires a More Modern Cryptographic Library

Another part of Arciszewski’s efforts to make WordPress more secure was to replace its old cryptographic library with one that is more modern and up to date. With the new update, WordPress’ CMS supports the Libsodium library for every type of cryptographic operation. Previous it used mcrypt, which is now gone.

Libsodium has been added to WordPress’ CMS source code. Another addition is the sodium_compat library, which acts like a polyfill to support older PHP servers which do not support Libsodium. This addition puts WordPress in the same company as other web development tools that already supported Libsodium natively such as Magento 2.3+, Joomla 3.8+ and PHP 7.2+.

Additionally, with this added to WordPress’ CMS core, now theme and plugin developers may begin to support it too.

For more information on that, WordPress theme and plugin developers can read more on using the new security feature in a blog post Arciszewski has published with info on how they can use Libsodium to replace older mcrypt cryptographic roles.

New Section for Site Health

Likely the first of these new security additions most users will notice is the new section for “Site Health” located in the Tools menu in the admin panel. It involves 2 pages, Site Health Info as well as Site Health Status.

The Site Health Status page runs several straightforward security checks and then delivers a report listing what it found, along with information on how to correct them. There are also other bundled tests and website owners and website developers may also design tests on their own in order to check the security on other parts of their WordPress websites.

The other page, Site Health Info, is exactly what it sounds like. It delivers lots of data on the site, along with server setup. It’s used for debugging or if server details must be shared with IT professionals due to required support services.

Information is given on the WordPress installation, as well as the primary server, any plugins or themes, and data on the file storage usage.

Servehappy Project

One of the other new security additions is the Servehappy project. This was supposed to have been added to WordPress 5.1, but got loaded in two parts instead. One was installed in WordPress 5.1 and the other in WordPress 5.2. The part in WordPress 5.1 gave users the ability to show a warning if a server was using PHP versions that were outdated.

WordPress 5.2 added protection for the dreaded ‘White Screen Of Death’ (WSOD), which is also called “Fatal error protection.” This works as a  WordPress website “Safe Mode.”

The new feature can temporarily disable any theme or plugin if a PHP fatal error occurs. This then allows admins to get into their website’s backend so they can fix it.

It too was supposed to have been installed with WordPress 5.1, but got delayed when studies by security experts discovered a few possible scenarios where a hacker could have misused WSOD and actually been able to turn off a WordPress security feature and then attack WordPress websites all over the Internet.

Plans for the Future

These new updates don’t mean work has stopped on figuring out other ways to improve security on WordPress sites. Other plans in the works are things like Project Gossamer, which is planned to be released along with WordPress 5.4.

Project Gossamer is expected to port the exact system of code-signing which is used during main WordPress updates and make it a framework WordPress developers can employ for code-signing WordPress plugin and theme updates.

WordPress Xmlrpc.php Why You Need To Disable It Right Now!

What is the Xmlrpc.php File and What Does it Do?

The xmlrpc.php file was implemented to let let webmasters interact with their sites. For all intense and purposes it acted like an API. A really bad and insecure one. “RPC” stands for Remote Procedure Call, a method that uses XML passed via HTTP as the transport mechanism.  While Xmlrpc.php had many functions, trackbacks and pingbacks are the most widely used and problematic.

Other functions allowed webmasters interact through mobile or even load pre-written articles. This was important when internet connections were slow and made editing online difficult. The internet has moved on and is much faster so this functionality is not as useful as it once was.

XML-RPC Early Days to Now

Pre-2008 XML-RPC could be disabled. This was a handy feature that allowed a webmaster to turn off the unnecessary functionality. In 2008 the WordPress iPhone app was added to the app store and webmasters could no longer easily disable XML-RPC functionality. This left WordPress sites open and vulnerable. Why do we say vulnerable? As we hinted above xmlrpc.php was not created with security in mind.

WordPress has implemented a new REST API and will be phasing out XML-RPC. The solution is still in a transition phase and XML-RPC is still available. So webmasters should still be concerned. Once the API is fully implemented and XML-RPC is removed then webmasters can relax about xmlrpc.php and start worrying about the new issues that the API will have.

Why Webmasters should Disable Xmlrpc.php

Security of a website is possibly the main concern of webmasters after content. XML-RPC greatly hinders a webmasters ability to maintain security.

Why is xmlrpc.php a security risk? There are 2 main methods.

1. XML-RPC allows for brute force attacks on WordPress installations. a hacker will use a bot programme to brute force attack a Website. By attacking xmlrpc.php the hacker can bypass most of the security plugins that WordPress are designed to detect and block brute force attacks. A hacker can test thousands of username and password combinations in seconds.

2.  DDoS attacks are the next big issue with XML-RPC. Hackers can use the pingback feature of WordPress to send thousands of pingback request that can make MySQL or whatever database package is being used to fall over. This will take the WordPress site offline and in severe cases can cause a corruption of the MySQL database.

While strong passwords can help to hold off a hacker using method 1. It will not help a hacker who is attempting method 2.

One thing we do have to mention is that the very popular Jetpack plugin still uses XML-RPC.  If you are considering disabling xmlrpc.php and are using Jetpack then you might need to reconsider what we are proposing.

 How a Webmaster can Disable xmlrpc.php

Now that we have established that disabling xmlrpc can be a good thing. How do we do it? There are 3 methods of disabling xmlrpc.php.
Diable xmlrpc

  1. Using a plugin to disable xmlrpc.php. We have tried two and they both work well. Disable XML-RPC and Remove & Disable XML-RPC Pingback. You do this by going to the Plugins area and clicking on Add new , search for xmlrpc, pick one of the plugins and click the install now button.
  2. Deleting the xmlrpc.php file. This sounds drastic but it does not actually affect WordPress at all. The only systems it will affect are trackback on pingback. You may need to get a systems admin to do this for you. The only problem is that when WordPress is upgraded it can put the file back.
  3. A webmaster can block access to xmlrpc.php with web server commands, although once again the services of a system administrator may be required.  Both Apache and NGINX, which are the two main Web Server applications allow for the blocking of access to certain files in a directory.

Conclusion

While xmlrpc.php is not long for this world, it currently is still an issue and must be dealt with. The new API will be taking over all the functionality of xmlrpc.php whilst providing much more security. We highly recommend disabling it especially if you are having issues with hackers.

XML-RPC was a great solution 10+ years ago but is now very long in the tooth. The developers of WordPress have recognized this and are phasing it out. WordPress Webmasters should prepare themselves for the day when xmlrpc.php no longer exists.

 

5 WordPress Mistakes You Need To Avoid

Making WordPress Mistakes

If you have found this site, then you probably already know what WordPress is and what it does. It is easily the most popular CMS on the web and looks like it will be for a long time to come. Its ease of use, simplicity to set up and modify and the plethora of plugins are what combine to make WordPress so popular. While this is true, it is also what makes it easy to make big mistakes on your website.

Avoiding WordPress Mistakes

If you are about to use WordPress it is a given that you will be making mistakes. If you are using WordPress right now, it is a given that you are making mistakes right now. It is just the nature of the beast. WordPress is simple to use but the thousands of themes and just as many if not more plugins mean that there is a lot of code there that can be bugged or conflict. Let us help you with the knowledge we have picked up along the way.

1. How do you pick the right WordPress theme?

Picking the right WordPress ThemeFind a site that you like type it into WP Theme Detector. It will give you a run down on the type of site it is and indicate if it is a WordPress site. The theme will be highlighted and a link will be provided to the theme itself. Follow the link and examine the theme in detail.

Some questions you need to ask yourself when considering a theme is.

Is the theme responsive and look good on a mobile or tablet? As time progresses, people are using mobile devices more to access the web.  Make sure the theme you pick works well with mobile phones and tablets.

Does the theme styling help represent what the topic of my blog will be? Websites and Blogs will have a niche that they cater for. In the same way most theme creators are generally thinking of a particular niche when building the theme. So pick a theme that has the niche in its description or has a child theme or installable demos that represent the niche you are interested in.

Is the theme creator reliable? If you used the theme detector above then the answer to this is generally yes. However look at reviews for the theme and check when the theme was last updated. This can be a good indicator as to whether the theme developer is still actively supporting the theme.

2. Do You Use Optimizaed Images?

Optimizing images for websites is one of the most undervalued strategies for making a site more user friendly. It is especially important for mobile users. Google has recently announced that site loading speed is a ranking factor. There are a few WordPress plugins that will optimize images on the fly.

Make sure that the images you chose are relevant to the niche and that they have some impact. Images that are completely off topic will make users leave the site early and go back to Google. This is known in SEO circles as user bounce and Google frowns upon it. It is a signal that is highlighting the fact that users are not finding what they are looking for on the website.

3. Do Not Forget To Backup Your Website

WordPress Backup PluginsDo you think that WordPress automatically backs up your site data? If that is what you believe then you are sadly mistaken. Out of the box WordPress has no backup mechanism yet backing up a site is one of the most important things you can do as a website owner. It is such an obvious but crucial mistake that first time bloggers make.

There are a plethora of backup. To find them just go to plugins area and search for backup. Most that come up in search are excellent and using anyone of them will keep you from losing sleep at night. Some backup plugins we recommend are as follows:

Anyone of these above plugins will save you much heartache in the future.

4. Installing too many plugins

Plugins are what make WordPress powerful and flexible. Often this is a double edged sword. At last count there were over sixty thousand plugins available for WordPress. Not all of them are compatible with the latest version of the CMS and not all of them are supported by their creators.

This where the problem lies. Plugins are what make WordPress but they are also its biggest vulnerability. When using plugins follow these simple rules.

  • Only use plugins that you absolutely need. Superfluous plugins should be deleted.
  • Only install supported, compatible plugins that have lots of recent good reviews.
  • Check that the plugin does not slow your site down.
  • Make sure that the plugin does not clash with the theme you have chosen.
  • Plugins can clash with each other, not just with themes. So installing too many plugins can cause unwanted errors on  a WordPress site.

5. Not Taking WordPress Security Into Account

WordPress security selectionWordPress security is becoming more important as the years go by.  As one of the most popular Website platforms, WordPress will garner its fair share of hackers. If a hacker is going to look for a vulnerability why not look for it in a CMS that has so many installations. A hacker will benefit much more by finding a way into a WordPress site. What can you do to make your WordPress site more secure?

  1. Install a security plugin.
  2. Make sure all passwords are extremely strong.
  3. Set an unusual name for the Admin account. (Do not call it “admin”)
  4. Avoid nulled or cracked premium themes.
  5. Disable file editing
  6. Use a SSl certificate if you can.
  7. Change your WP-LOGIN url. Most hackers use bots that attack certain files. Wp-login does quite a few database look ups and a dedicated hacker can use a bot to make the database fall over and gain command line access.
  8. Delete xmlrpc.php. This file is not really needed and a hacker can use a bot as above to gain command line access.
  9. install a limit login attempts plugin.
  10. Hide wp-config.php and .htaccess files

Conclusion

If you are reading this then this is your first foray into blogging or at least are relatively new to WordPress. Don’t let what we have said above dishearten you. WordPress for all its foibles is an excellent website/blogging platform. Moving forward, whatever mistakes you make, learn from them. Most online entrepreneur will fail a few times before they hit onto the one idea or site that lets them work from and live the lifestyle they desire.

 

 

How to Choose a WordPress Theme?

How to Choose a WordPress Theme

How do I choose a WordPress theme? Is possibly the most question I am most asked as a WordPress developer. While the answer is not all that technical, what it highlights is that there is a lot of choice and therefore complexity, which leads to confusion.

I will be breaking the answer down into 10 simple points to consider when looking for a WordPress theme.

1. Simplicity

Keep the WordPress theme simpleWe have all seen WordPress sites that have flashy images, banners and sliders. Some look great and some look a little bit overdone. One thing they all have is complexity. While not always, often this kind of complexity will mean an extension of the sites load time. Load time is increasingly becoming a more important in Google’s ranking factors. A slow loading site, especially the mobile portion will be penalized for having a slow loading time. Consider Google’s AMP as a partial fix for those who want a fast loading site for mobile but a flashier site for those using PC’s and laptops. More on AMP here !

Sometimes themes have unnecessary bloat in them. So even if the theme you end up choosing is not flashy it still can have a lot of plugins, css and images to load. Many plugins that are  shipped with themes are not needed so you may want to deactivate or even delete them. The KISS principle can apply in many parts of life but it is particularly pertinent in website design.

2. Look At As Many Themes As Time Will Allow

Search for a themeOften a client will come to me after seeing one particular site and want me to replicate it. We have all been there. Seen a site that we have been smitten by and want an almost exact copy of it. There are usually a few problems with this. The site might not be a WordPress site and the theme might be a privately bought theme.  If this is the case you may require the  services of a web developer and depending on your budget this may get more expensive than you want.

If it is a WordPress site then either go to WordPress.org which has many free great but usually simpler themes. Look through the examples. I usually tell them to browse through at least five pages. Then I will point them at Themeforest.net and tell them to look through at least 5 pages again or enter some search terms and see what pops up. These themes cheap but are not free. They are however usually much nicer looking, optimized, well supported by the author and will not break your bank balance.

You will probably see a theme that similar to the one you had in mind or you might see one that is even better. If you have seen a site that you like test it with WordPress Theme Detector as it might have a theme you can get.

3. Choose A Responsive Theme

Responsive WordPress ThemeNot long ago responsive theme choice was exactly that just a choice. Those days are now gone. responsive themes are now mandatory. Mobile traffic has surpassed pc traffic on the web years ago, so theme choice and theme design should think mobile first. Not only are responsive much more comfortable for mobile users, they also have the benefit of helping with SEO. Google has long held the view that ease of use should help SEO. Responsive themes make mobile navigation easier and Google has made it clear that responsive design along with AMP is what it considers best practice.

4. Page Builders

Does the theme support or include page builders? Page builders are not mandatory if all you are doing is creating a blog. Page builders make it easier to create landing pages and to make sites look more professional. A couple of negatives are that they do add a layer of complexity and require a more knowledge about page layout. If the page builder plugin gets deactivated then the page builder extensions will revert to ASCII code and could be lost.

5. SEO Optimized

There are some good plugins for WordPress that can Optimize the onsite SEO of your site, we recommend Yoast SEO, All in one SEO used to be the best SEO plugin but is starting to show its age, The SEO Framework. A theme needs to work well with these plugins but should inherently have some onsite SEO modifications.

6. Reviews and Ratings

If you have narrowed down the field to about 5 possible themes but can’t decide which one, the reviews and ratings can be a great guide.

Free Themes on WordPress.org will have the review and ratings just below the download button. At themeforest.net the reviews are under the theme thumbnail in the WordPress sub directory.

7. Ongoing Support

As the core of WordPress CMS changes from update to update, themes will often need to modify to work with the new code. This can pose some problems especially for relatively old or unpopular themes.

While many themes at WordPress.org are well supported, especially the popular ones. There are many old and little used themes that have not kept up to date with core functionality of WordPress.

Themeforest.net theme developers tend to keep their themes up to date as they have a monetary incentive to do so. This is not a hard and fast rule and that is why we recommend popular themes. If a theme developer is making a good living from their theme then it is in their best interests to keep it modern and working.

8. Think About Color and Font

Color is important. Marketing is all about visual appearance. Matching the logo should not be the only consideration. The colors of the website should enhance the logo or as web developers like to say “make it pop”. Unless you are in a creative field dark colors should be avoided and neutral colors with a hint of color should be employed.

9. Consider a Premium Theme

Premium WordPress themes have come a long way. Most have the best page builders and sliders built into them. What we like most about them is that they are well supported. As we have said before when a theme is monetized well, that is the best incentive for a theme developer to update and support the theme. Some themes like Avada have had over a half a million sales at Themeforest.net. Other popular themes are BeTheme, The7 and Newspaper. These themes have many pre-made web designs that you just need to load.

10. Is it Fit For Purpose?

How to select a WordPress themeA website has a purpose. That purpose could be a blog, news site, enterprise, marketing, e-Commerce, Informational, Photography and many more. The theme should match the purpose of the website. Most premium themes have many different designs that can be applied to almost any niche. Free WordPress.org themes also have these designs but usually not to the same extent. Choose a theme that either is built around the niche you are interested in or has a built in design available that fits the niche you are interested in.

Google’s AMP Plugin For WordPress Now Supports AMP Stories

AMP Stories plugin

What is AMP?

We won’t go to deeply into what AMP is here but as a brief guide it is a Google hosted subset of html that speeds up the user mobile experience on your website.

Is it good? Yes it is but it has its drawbacks. It definitely makes the mobile experience much faster in most circumstances. The problem arises with the fact that google tends to host this and as such is in control of your content. The AMP page will most likely not look anything like the original page on your website and there are many html/java elements that are not supported. For a much broader explanation of AMP go here

As you would expect WordPress users would love to take advantage of AMP by Google. So in very quick succession a plugin to enable AMP on WordPress sites was developed.

What is AMP Stories?

Instagram StoriesAMP stories is another innovation by Google to compete in the “stories space”. We are all pretty used to Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat stories by now. Those funny little icons at the top of the page with more images and text or mini videos that help you outline what you done during your day. Basically a new visual storytelling format. People have expanded these into micro-vlogging and I know many people who no longer look at the standard Instagram feed but only look at the stories.

Google has implemented a version of these stories for AMP. Why should we care? With WordPress rolling out the block based Gutenberg editor it has become much easier to add visuals to posts. Stories technically didn’t need Gutenberg to do stories through the AMP plugin but the new editor does definitely allow for a simpler stories creation. The AMP plugin will now take those stories and add them to the AMP stack and format them in a nice way for users to access it with their phones.

Will this revolutionise how mobile users interact with your site? In the short term the answer is no. Don’t let that put you off though. Stories are gaining in popularity in all the social media apps that have implemented them and as mobile users become more aware and stories savvy, they may come to expect all parts of the mobile universe to have a some form of stories capacity. Watch this space!

Gutenberg Editor vs Classic Editor

Gutenberg editor vs Classic Editor

Love it or Hate it Gutenberg is here

The new Gutenberg editor has divided the WordPress community like no other change in the history of WordPress. Some people love it but many and I would say most people are not loving it. This is partly due to the innate human resistance to change but also because quite frankly this first iteration of Gutenberg is not that great. I am sorry to you Gutenberg fans, it just isn’t. It has some great features and there will be people who are new to WordPress who will know nothing other than Gutenberg. They will probably love it and never bother with “Classic Editor”

What is Gutenberg Editor?

Gutenberg EditorGutenberg is a modern and sleek block-based editor that borrows some of the best features from page-builder plugins like Visual Composer. Here is the thing we love “Visual Composer” but Gutenberg just doesn’t match the feature rich environment that is Visual Composer. To us it is almost like the developers of Gutenberg were to scared to go all in and that is their biggest mistake. What it does well is allow people with almost zero knowledge of HTML, to layout a website.  What it does badly is let these same users to layout terrible websites. They look bad, they feel bad and they just are bad. As mentioned above everything is laid out in blocks and depending on how they are laid out controls how good or bad a site can be.

Some useful blocks are:

  • Paragraph
  • Image
  • Heading
  • Gallery
  • Quote
  • List
  • Video
  • Audio
  • Cover image
  • Table
  • Button
  • Separator
  • Pull quote
  • Preformatted

Classic Editor

Classic editor WordPressLet’s start with what is bad about classic editor. The layout of the visual elements is not instinctive. There is a haphazard feel to what elements are included in the visual tab as opposed to the text tab. If the developers at WordPress.org wanted to change the way we edit, they should have started with baby steps and just made this fundamental change to the editor.

However, what is good about classic editor is that it allows you to get straight into writing the article with out having to think about how the page will look visually. Do new users even care how an article or page is laid out? No, they generally want the layout to conform to the theme styling. Themes are so good these days at laying out posts and pages that most users of WordPress don’t even want the distraction of post layout.

Final Thoughts on Gutenberg

It has it’s place but vast majority of WordPress users it is just a distraction and gets in the way of making content. For those who want to go back to classic editor, you are in luck. There is a plugin that will take you back to pre-Gutenberg editor called Classic Editor, install it and forget that Gutenberg ever happened.

WordPress Theme Detection

WordPress Theme Detection

What are the difficulties in detecting a WordPress theme?

Having used and played with WordPress for about 10 years one of the most common questions I get asked is. How do I find out what theme a particular WordPress site is using?

This sounds like it should be something a person who has been using WordPress for a long time should find easy to accomplish. I can tell you now it is not.

There are literally 100’s of thousands of themes and and that is not including the modified variants of themes and child themes. WordPress is by far the most commonly used CMS on the web and its popularity does not look like it will be slowing down anytime soon.  WordPress owns about 33% of the total website market and considering there are about 180 million websites on the internet, WordPress CMS makes up about 59 million of those sites.

So yes while you would think I would be able to easily view the source of a site and find what theme a site is using, the reality is not that simple. Generally when viewing the source of a WordPress Site, you only need to look for the string wp-content/themes/ and the next bit of text (the directory name) that falls between the next “/” is the theme. Sometimes these directory name are very descriptive and reasonably unique and you can search google for this and will find the Theme name. A good example of this is the site shove.com.au, viewing the source we find that after the directory structure wp-content/themes/ we find the directory “the-fox”. A quick search of google finds the theme is listed at themeforest.net and it is called TheFox | Responsive Multi-Purpose WordPress Theme.

However that is just one example and we are lucky that in this case the theme has a relatively unique name. This is not always the case. A good example is the word “Responsive” while lots of themes are responsive in nature, many theme makers have named their themes responsive. A google search of this name will give you many results and usually not the result you are looking for. So to find a unique theme name we have to dig deeper into the source code of the theme. This is an article for a later date.

For now a good way to find what theme is being used by the website you are interested in is to plug the url into http://wpthemedetector.org/