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.

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​.

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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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 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.

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.

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 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.

2. GeneratePress

GeneratePress 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.

3. Schema

Schema 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.

4. OceanWP

OceanWP 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.

5. Neve

Neve 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Are there any Free Alternative Themes to Avada Theme?

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

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

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

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 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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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:

• Title/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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Before 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.

• Twenty Seventeen
• Twenty Sixteen (only packaged in WordPress 4.8)
• Twenty Fifteen
• Twenty Fourteen
• Twenty Thirteen
• Twenty Twelve
• Twenty Eleven
• Twenty Ten

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.

As of May 7^th, 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.

The 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.

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.

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.

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?

Find 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

Do 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:

• UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
• BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin
• JetPack

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 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 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

We 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

Often 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

Not 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?

A 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.

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?

AMP 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!

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 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

Let’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.

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/