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How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO: Your WordPress theme captures the essence of your brand and contributes to a positive user experience. However, many people overlook the importance of search engine optimization (SEO).
A WordPress theme that isn’t SEO-friendly (or, worse, bloated and slow) can be a major impediment in the fiercely competitive race to the top of search engine result pages (SERPs).
And, because higher rankings can lead to more organic traffic, leads, and revenue, this is one element you must nail.
This guide will teach you what an SEO-friendly theme is, what factors to consider when choosing one, and which five WordPress themes are best for SEO.
The Basics of a Search-Friendly WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme designed with search engine optimization in mind can help websites rank higher in SERPs.
Optimized WordPress themes are designed to boost your SEO efforts while also providing an excellent user experience.
WordPress users can choose from thousands of themes, with thousands more available from third-party providers. Most of these themes make your WordPress website look beautiful, but a closer look under the hood may reveal a different story.
Poor coding, slow loading times, and a lack of plugin support can lurk beneath a beautiful veneer. All of these flaws have an impact on search engine rankings.
When your website has significant technical SEO issues, Google will not trust it as an industry authority, and you will most likely struggle to reach the first page.
The best WordPress themes for SEO, on the other hand, are both visually appealing and optimized with the most recent SEO techniques in mind. They’ll have the following:
- A responsive design.
- Clean code.
- Fast loading speeds.
And they’ll make it simple to optimize your WordPress website.
Also Read: WordPress Blog SEO Friendly | How to Make Your WordPress Blog SEO Friendly
Best WordPress Themes for SEO | How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
So, how do you go about selecting an SEO-friendly WordPress theme?
You should:
1. Pick a Responsive Theme
Mobile devices (excluding tablets) account for more than 54% of global web page views.
The majority of smartphone users use their phones to look up websites, products, and related content. After all, when you hear about a cool product, you don’t usually want to wait until you get home to try it out.
WordPress themes that are SEO-friendly have responsive layouts. A responsive WordPress website will easily adjust to different screen sizes across devices.
When mobile shoppers click through, they aren’t greeted with an ill-adjusted e-commerce homepage.
Google prefers mobile-friendly websites and provides a tool for testing how well yours performs.
Best WordPress Themes for SEO | How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
2. Pick a Theme That Supports Most Plugins
WordPress plugins help unlock the true potential of your website by providing additional features for both users and website owners.
Popular plugins include WooCommerce, Jetpack, Akismet, and Google Analytics. You can also get the best SEO plugins to help with optimization.
The WordPress theme you choose should be compatible with popular plugins, particularly those you use frequently.
W3 Super Cache is an example of an always-on plugin that ensures optimal page speed. You don’t want it to fail simply because you changed themes.
3. Pick a Theme with Clean Code
Your website is code-based. If these codes are poorly written, they can have an impact on the security, speed, and resources of your website.
The same applies to WordPress themes.
Clean code in the best WordPress themes for SEO makes them more secure and reliable, with less downtime.
SEO and clean code go hand in hand. This is because WordPress themes with clean code improve page load speed and SEO ranking.
Also Read: What is YouTube SEO / SEO For Beginners YouTube
An optimized theme with clean code, for example, speeds up updates of critical SEO elements such as meta, title, and header tags. This assists search engines in:
- Find these tags quickly.
- Crawl your website easily.
You can use Theme Check to analyze your chosen WordPress theme and ensure it has clean code that adheres to standard WordPress coding conventions.
All you have to do is:
- Install your preferred theme to WordPress.
- Install and activate the Theme Check plugin.
- Go to Appearance and select Theme Check from the list.
- Click on your chosen theme from the drop-down.
- Hit the Check it!
Another theme evaluation tool was Theme Sniffer. This plugin, however, is no longer functional.
It should be noted that free WordPress themes do not have the cleanest code and may pose security risks, particularly if the developer copies and modifies code from an online source.
Best WordPress Themes for SEO | How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
4. Choose a Theme That Works on Multiple Browsers
Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera are popular desktop and mobile browsers, but there are several others. You don’t have to cater to all of them, but your theme should be compatible with the most popular browsers.
An SEO-friendly WordPress theme is compatible with all major browsers, making it easy for users to read and share your content regardless of browser.
Check version compatibility as well as browser support. Not everyone is running the most recent browser version. Updates are frequently delayed based on the device or operating system being used.
Your website should ideally work flawlessly on the most recent five versions of the most popular Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux browsers.
To check browser compatibility, use tools like PowerMapper.
Developers can also run tests manually to determine compatibility.
5. Select a Theme With a Page Builder Plugin
A page builder is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create the layout of your website using drag-and-drop features. You can quickly select from predefined layout options and drag and drop elements to position them where you want.
Page builders are an excellent option for quick website creation, and they are available in the majority of premium WordPress themes. If you run a digital marketing agency with multiple clients, you can use page builders to quickly set up multiple websites.
But page builders do have a few issues.
Page builders generate a lot of code, and bloated websites are slow, as previously stated. This is detrimental to SEO.
More importantly, when you use a page builder to create a website and then switch themes, the layout — and thus the content on it — will require several edits. Your technical and on-page SEO may be impacted, so keep SEO in mind when planning a re-build.
Choose a theme that includes a popular page builder plugin. Install a separate page builder plugin that is compatible with most themes.
Also Read: What is SEO / What is Search Engine Optimization? Pros vs Cons
6. Choose a Theme That Loads Quickly
Users’ attention spans are extremely short. Many people will abandon a website if it takes more than a few seconds to load. SEO relies heavily on page speed.
Improving page speed has yielded fantastic results. According to a Deloitte Digital and Google study, reducing load time by 0.1s resulted in an 8% increase in conversions on e-commerce websites.
It’s tempting to choose a low-cost theme with a long list of features, such as custom widgets or Google Fonts. However, if you do not use these functions, they will simply slow down your website.
Choose a WordPress theme that is fast, lightweight, and customizable, with only the features you require. Alternatively, you can choose SEO-friendly themes that allow you to disable functions you don’t need.
Use Google Search Console to determine how fast your website is and whether it has slowed down after installing a theme.
Best WordPress Themes for SEO | How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
7. Select a Theme That’s Updated Regularly
The importance of regular theme updates for security and bug fixes cannot be overstated. You don’t need a WordPress theme that is only updated once a year.
Updates are used by developers to provide the most recent security patches, fix bugs, address compatibility issues with the most recent browsers and plugins, and clean up old code.
When you use an out-of-date theme, your SEO suffers. Your theme will not load if it is not compatible with the most recent version of Google Chrome. You’ll miss out on potential traffic generated by Chrome users, giving your competitors a leg up.
On newer devices and browsers, outmoded themes may also have limited functionality.
8. Choose a Theme With Good Ratings
Checking user reviews and ratings is the simplest way to identify the best WordPress themes for SEO. Check for ratings on third-party websites and social media in addition to the reviews and testimonials on the theme’s official website.
Users may not leave SEO-focused reviews, but they will frequently include phrases such as “slow loading speed” or “not mobile-friendly.” Comparing these to your SEO checklist will help you determine how usable and well-built the theme is.
Compare common user issues to issues that could affect your website as a whole, and avoid those themes.
While a few speed-related complaints in a sea of positive reviews is acceptable, you should avoid themes with mostly negative reviews.
Best WordPress Themes for SEO
- Divi.
- Astra.
- Kadence.
- Hello by Elementor.
- GeneratePress.
These are the best WordPress themes for SEO. Let’s take a closer look at each of them:
Also Read: Best Web Hosting For Small Business
Best WordPress Themes for SEO | How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
Divi
Divi is a best-selling SEO-optimized WordPress theme that comes with a plethora of pre-built templates suitable for websites in a variety of niches, including SEO agencies and blogging. Almost every aspect of your WordPress website can be customized.
Elegant Themes created Divi, which has built-in SEO optimization and is regularly updated, so you never have to worry about compatibility. It’s the most popular WordPress theme.
Astra
Astra is a powerful WordPress theme that includes retina-ready premade page templates for a variety of businesses. Because of its lightweight code and fast load times, it is an excellent choice for an SEO-friendly WordPress theme.
Astra is compatible with the majority of popular WordPress plugins, including Yoast SEO and All in One SEO. It also works with drag-and-drop page builders like WPBakery.
Also Read: Local SEO Strategies: How to Do Local SEO for Multiple Locations
Kadence
Kadence is a multi-purpose WordPress theme that allows you to build websites in seconds. It includes templates for brands, influencers, small businesses, e-commerce, and advertising agencies.
It is also compatible with popular plugins such as Elementor, WooCommerce, and Beaver Builder.
Kadence is built with the best SEO markup and schema practices in mind, and it allows you to easily customize every element of your website, including header styles, colours, and typography.
Best WordPress Themes for SEO | How to Choose the Best WordPress Themes for SEO
Hello by Elementor
Hello by Elementor is the ideal WordPress theme for SEO because it is built with lean, non-intrusive code.
It’s lightweight and responsive, and it claims to load websites in a quarter of a second. Lower bounce rates and happier users result from a faster website.
Despite its emphasis on speed and resource efficiency, Hello still provides hundreds of templates, numerous customization options, and regular updates. It also supports RTL.
Also Read: Books on Blogging: Best Books About Blogging
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is an excellent WordPress SEO theme for freelancers, startups, and agencies.
It’s quick, light, and easy to use. The free version of the theme focuses on speed and performance, both of which are important SEO factors.
Upgrading to the Premium version grants you access to GeneratePress’ block-style website builder (no coding required), professionally designed starter websites, and customization controls.
Final Thoughts: How to Choose the Best SEO-Friendly WordPress Theme
WordPress themes are a great way to personalize your website, but they should not interfere with your SEO efforts. Don’t let the overwhelming number of theme options intimidate you into quickly selecting and settling on one.
Instead, keep your cool and select an SEO-optimized WordPress theme after conducting research.
FAQs Regarding Best WordPress Themes for SEO
1. Are WordPress themes good for SEO?
A WordPress theme designed with search engine optimization in mind can help websites rank higher in SERPs. Optimized WordPress themes are designed to boost your SEO efforts while also providing an excellent user experience.
2. Is Elementor SEO friendly?
Elementor can assist you in improving your technical and on-page SEO. You can optimise your website’s SEO without leaving the Elementor editor thanks to integrations with popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and Rank Math.
3. Is Astra a good theme?
5/5 Stars Based on over 5000 customer reviews. Astra is a simple, fully customizable, and fast theme that I wholeheartedly recommend to all Elementor users. I like how it comes with dozens of pre-built sites that were created with Elementor and can be used to create a full website with a single click.
4. Which domain is best for SEO?
.com
Most SEO experts recommend the ‘.com’ TLD because it is familiar to the majority — if not all — of users. Consider the domains of behemoth brands such as Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft. Alternative gTLDs, on the other hand, have a silver lining: they can help make your domain name more meaningful and industry-specific.
5. Do agencies use Elementor?
Flywheel and Elementor are used by all agencies to produce their best work. While there are hundreds of hosts and page builders available, these agencies (and thousands more) believe Flywheel and Elementor are among the best.
