WordPress is the most used website creation tool because of its ease of usage of themes and plugins which can be extended whenever required. If you are going to create a theme for public distribution be it for free or commercial, there are a few things that should be kept in mind so as to make it the best for your future users. It is a great way to invest your experience and knowledge and earn some money. Be it a free theme or a premium one, you want your theme to be attractive and user-friendly. Let’s have a look at a few tips that might help you in creating a successful WordPress theme.
Tips For Building Awesome WordPress Themes
1. Think Differently
WordPress is the most widely used open-source website content management system. It implies that anyone can reuse it according to their need. While creating your own theme, you can use parts of the existing theme on your own as most themes are distributed under the same GPL license. You can take ideas from the available WordPress theme and design it then in a more user-friendly way with better templates. There are a lot of starter themes available from where you can take ideas and use it in your own project.
2. Having a Great Design Matters
WordPress theme with an attractive, clean, and usable design is what readers look for. Themes that will display the user’s content nicely are what they look for. You need to decide a purpose for your theme- whether it is a wedding theme or a family theme, a magazine theme, or an online shop. Have a look at the various popular themes sold by the vendors or have a look at the themes used by successful bloggers and websites. This will give you an idea of what people are looking for.
3. Coding according to WordPress Standards is Important
Remember that all software’s have their coding standards and so does WordPress. Creating a properly coded WordPress theme is very important without any doubt. Creating a theme by following all the standards of WordPress will make customization easier for the users. Remember that there are various developers working on creating themes, therefore use error-free PHP and valid HTML codes.
4. Compatibility with Plugins is very important
WordPress is designed in a way that it can be extended by the use of plugins. Users use plugins to extend its functionality or to add new features to WordPress websites. Make sure that your WordPress theme is compatible with the most used plugins. That will aid in your theme being a success.
5. User Support will Aid in your Success
No theme is going to be successful unless you provide good user support. And, if you plan to use the theme commercially having user support becomes even more important. Users, who aren’t familiar with the WordPress theme and have queries regarding customization, would need help. Dealing with them requires a lot of time, but that is going to leave an impact on your product. If a user is upset about not getting a proper response to his/her query, they might leave a negative remark about your product and that would influence your future sales in a negative way.
6. Your theme should be Translation Ready
Being the most used website creation tool, WordPress is translated into various languages. But, you have to make sure that your theme is compatible is with all the translations. Localizing WordPress themes plays very important and developers shouldn’t neglect it.
7. Create a Good Demo Website
After you have created your theme and have done its quality check, create a good demo website to showcase your theme. It will help users to see how their website is going to appear by using your WordPress theme. Make sure the demo is easy to understand explaining properly how to use the theme. Chances are high that the person will buy or use the theme if the demo is easier to understand.
Final Thoughts on Building Awesome WordPress Themes
The above tips are the most helpful ones which will help you in creating a successful WordPress theme. Remember there is no shortcut to success. Therefore, work on the quality of your theme before making it available for usage.