How to Design the Perfect WordPress Theme for Your Business
Making a WordPress theme can sound hard, especially if you’re not a designer or very technical.
However, with thousands of WordPress themes already out there, making your own theme can be very rewarding. Not only does it give you the ability to make your website unique but you also have complete control of the user’s experience and interaction with your site.
Think about it, if every business used the same WordPress theme then the internet would be a very boring place.
Luckily that’s not the case and many businesses have created unique website themes that help improve their brand image and ultimately their conversions.
If other businesses spend the time to make their own WordPress theme, then why don’t you?
Now you’re probably thinking, you don’t have the knowledge or experience, but don’t worry, we’re going to change that.
Why Make a New WP Theme?
Before be discuss what to include and how to design your new WordPress theme, it’s important to understand why creating a new theme is worth the time and effort.
WordPress is a very customisable piece of content management software that allows users to customise basically everything on their website. However, most of this customizability comes from the actual WordPress theme itself. Therefore, if the developers didn’t make the theme very customisable, then you’ll struggle to change any of the colours of pictures.
In addition to this, many WordPress themes are fixed in their structure and layout which brings up another problem. You might be able to change the colours and pictures, but you can’t change the overall layout of the theme. This means sometimes you’re stuck with a 3 column layout when you only want 1. For certain businesses and users this is bad news, it’s much easier to make a great theme when you’re not limited to a certain layout or structure.
This is where making your own theme comes in.
When you have the ability to create your own theme you can literally let your imagination run wild. With no constraints or limitations, you can create some really beautiful themes. Before you put pencil to paper be sure to understand what features to include.
Features to Include
Before designing your WP theme, there are a few important things you should consider. The first thing is to make a list of all the pages and features you want on your website. To give you some basic ideas these might be things such as a products page, contacts page and email sign up box.
The best way to get more ideas of what to include would be to check your competitor’s websites to see what pages they have and if they have any interesting features.
The features and pages you’ll want to include on your website will also depend on your industry and business. It would be strange to include an online e-commerce store on a website for a restaurant but would make total sense for an online gifts shop. At the same time, there’s no point having an email sign up form if you don’t have a newsletter and no intention of starting one.
By thinking about what features and pages your website should have before you design your theme will stop you from over cluttering it. Too many features and pages will leave your visitors feeling confused and generally lower their user experience. If it’s not essential to increasing your conversions and profits, then don’t include it.
WordPress Themes for Business
If you have a WordPress website, then you need to make sure you have a unique theme that is very different from your competitors. Not only does this help with brand recognition, but it also gives you the chance to improve on user experience.
Here’s the deal:
The best WordPress themes for businesses are always the cleanest.
Simple WordPress themes such as 1 or 2 column layouts are always the best. Not only do they give a good user experience but they are usually much more responsive compared to other themes.
Having a responsive website is great if you are expecting to get lots of visits from mobile and tablet devices. Non-responsive themes look terrible on these devices and risk ruining the user’s experience and making them leave.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your new WordPress theme, then searching for existing themes can be very helpful. For example, if you’re a restaurant that needs a new theme then simply Googling “themes for restaurant” will bring you plenty of results to explore.
Once you have your list of features & pages and have explored a few existing themes it’s time to finally put pencil to paper.
Get Designing
The first thing to start with when designing your theme is the navigation bar that allows users to visit all your pages. Once you’ve decided if you want it on the left, right or top you can start to include other things such as logo placement, contact information and call to action buttons.
You should then focus on the user’s experience and how they will view your website. Put yourself in their shoes and think about what they will be most likely looking for. Are they looking to buy a product or service? Or are they looking for advice? Thinking hard about what your visitors will want can help you make a great website that converts really well.
By looking at other WordPress themes you should be able to get an idea of what is popular and what everyone is including in theirs. It might take more than one attempt before you get something that looks good and useable but great websites aren’t designed in 5 minutes!
Turn Your Design Into A Functioning WordPress Theme
Now you’ve finally designed your WordPress theme, the chances are you’ll need someone to build it.
If you’re looking for someone capable of creating professional WordPress themes, then you’ve come to the right place. Purplebox Digital have helped design and build WordPress themes for hundreds of clients. No matter how rough your design or sketch is, we can help bring it to life.
With our team of experienced designers and developers we can help the perfect WordPress theme for your business. Contact us for a free consultation.
