Which to Choose & What’s Perfect!

It's fun knowing which WordPress

themes people use for their websites.

Many website owners are allergic to

revealing their themes. Here I bear all

and more!

Sharon May BloggersRefuge.com

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Contents Top Free WordPress Themes – Expert Collection, Best Features & Guide ................................................................... 2

Are Free WordPress Themes A Good Choice? ............................................................................................................ 2

Basic Things What to Look Out For ......................................................................................................................... 3

Digging Deeper Into Choosing Themes ................................................................................................................... 4

Theme Features to Consider ................................................................................................................................... 6

Make Sure There Are No Catches ........................................................................................................................... 7

Top Free WordPress Themes Recommendations ................................................................................................... 7

What to Expect When Changing Your Theme ............................................................................................................. 8

What are Stunning Themes? ................................................................................................................................... 9

Are There Perfect Themes? .................................................................................................................................. 10

Outsourcing Vs Recreating .................................................................................................................................... 10

Distinguishing What's Awesome ........................................................................................................................... 11

What Themes I Use On My Websites! ...................................................................................................................... 12

Which WordPress Themes Are The Best? ............................................................................................................. 12

Which WordPress Themes Do I Use? .................................................................................................................... 12

More About Genesis Themes: ............................................................................................................................... 13

More About Thrive Themes: ............................................................................................................................. 13

Which WordPress Theme Do I Like The Most And Why? ...................................................................................... 14

My Final Notes .............................................................................................................................................................. 15

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Top Free WordPress Themes – Expert Collection, Best Features & Guide

Welcome to my top free WordPress themes training guide to help you create a beautiful website

with zero fuss. This article is definitely worth reading and to take a look at all my free

recommended themes can be found at the bottom of this page.

When first choosing a theme, you'll probably be looking for something either eye-catching with

sliders or possibly big images at the top of the theme to represent your niche. I think there's a lot

wrong with that thinking and here is why. Simplicity is always a better option because these type of

themes rank better in Google. How can simplicity effect search engine rankings?

Are Free WordPress Themes A Good Choice? Google dislike big sliders and huge images. What they want to see is your content first. Another

thing, some free themes are coded awful which slow down your site. If visitors can't get on your

site within two to three seconds, they will go elsewhere.

One of the biggest bonuses that wins most people’s heart, is that ‘if it’s free then it’s for me’.

However, I found that there’s more to it than picking the first free theme you like or the one that

looks remotely appealing. You can check

out theme consideration below.

I'm not a big fan of free themes because

customizations are always limited.

Though that's not to say there aren't any

good ones available. It's for this reason,

I've created a 'top free WordPress

themes' at the bottom of this article.

The difference between bought and free

themes is that with bought themes you'll

need fewer plugins. The theme I'm using

on my bloggersrefuge.com is a good example of what to look out for.

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For example, it uses at least 50% less plugins compared to most other themes, check out my

Thrive Themes Minus Review – Multi-Purpose Feature Packed.

In most cases for your site to function at its optimum when using a free theme, you'll more than

likely need to load many plugins for your site to function as you want it to. And, there lies another

problem...badly coded plugins can slow down your site. Bought themes, and I know for sure Thrive

Themes are awesomely coded, their plugins are coded into their themes which causes less stress

on your website.

Warning: Before digging deeper into free themes, I want to stress that even cheap

bought themes can be just as bad and fickle as free themes. I have warned you so

please be on your guard!

Basic Things What to Look Out For Before browsing my recommended top free WordPress themes, we need to understand why I

recommended before using them.

I have found there’s no grey area with free themes, they are either bad or good. So, as far as my

top free WordPress themes go, I have to say they’re all pretty much the same year-in and year-

out, providing the creator updates and continues to offer support.

For me, support and updates are almost always the deciding factors as to which one to choose.

The fact is, without proper support and regular

updates, you might as well be swimming in mud.

I say this because eventually your site will either look

awful or it’ll crash. And, you don't want that because

you'll eventually lose all your hard work.

I’ve listed many top free WordPress themes below for

you to choose from. Generally, I’ve found that these

stay at the top year-in year-out with some slight

fluctuations.

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Digging Deeper Into Choosing Themes When starting a new website, I found choosing a theme to be one of the hardest. It has to be right;

you need to be happy with it, and it needs to function as described. There are so many free

themes on the internet these days; in fact, last I looked the WordPress directory is loaded with

more than 2,600.

Support: I would love to say there’s no particular order in what you ought to consider, but

there is, support and updates are a must as said earlier. If everything else is perfect, but

there’s no technical support, then you’ll end up pulling your hair out!

Checking out the creators support can be a piece of cake, go to their forum and browse the

type of questions asked and the developer’s response time. This is also true of premium

themes. If they don’t have a support and/or forum ditch them.

Features: Free WordPress themes often lack the features that you’d acquire with bought

themes. Again, every bought theme can be capricious so even here you’d need to shop

around.

Lite themes: Instead of latching onto a one-man theme creator look for a company who

owns free and premium themes, it is unlikely their themes will be neglected. Their free

themes are often lite versions of the premium and often known as freemium, these are

often considered the top free WordPress themes.

They can be an excellent choice if you’re starting out, then at some point when your

commissions start rolling in you could opt to buy the premium.

Niche themes: I’ve learned not to look for niche themes; however, it makes no sense to

grab a blogging theme when you’re a photographer. In this case, you’ll definitely need a

photography theme to suit that need.

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Themes size: The size of the WordPress theme matters a lot; you do not want it to be huge

since it will weigh your site down, load time will be slower thus it will affect your SERP

(search engine ranking position) with Google.

Some modern themes are so big that WordPress cannot upload them; this means it has to

be uploaded using FTP such as

Filezilla. WordPress will only allow an

8MB upload; an Avada theme I

looked at once weighed in at 265MB

– that’s not funny so I’m glad I

ditched it!

To check the size of a theme folder,

download it to your computer, extract,

then right click to open the properties.

Most properties will show how many folders, files and its size. Otherwise, hover over the zip

file to show its size. (MY TRAINING LINK TO WA)

Styling: Some free themes do not offer the option to code their CSS; in this case, you will

be very limited to making customizations. Trust me, even if you currently have no

knowledge of coding, you will eventually want to do it even if it’s a little bit.

Coding: Some free themes can contain seriously bad coding, which will eventually screw

up your site. This is more evident when you upload plugins and you’re hit with the white

screen of death.

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Theme Features to Consider Here some examples of what you need to be looking out for when browsing themes, whether

bought or free. I suggest that you pick out which are the most important to you, make a note of

them in your notepad and try not to deviate from them too much.

Shortcodes Flexible header

BuddyPress Bootstrap

Google fonts Translation ready

Sliders Banner Ads

Sticky navbar Infinite scrolling

WooCommerce Unlimited colors

Regularly Updated Support

Features Theme Size

Quantity & Quality CSS3

Responsive Customizable Style

API hooks Frontpage widgets

Columns One-pagers

Star rating Forum

Cross browser tested HTML5 up-to-date

Retina ready Lite theme upgradable

Recently updated Widget options

Portfolio Feature posts & pages

Landing pages Pricing tables

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Make Sure There Are No Catches To avoid jumping into one bad bowl from another we need to consider the following when

considering my recommend themes:

Customizr by Nikeo is a great theme. It's one of the most downloaded on the internet. However,

for it to function at its optimum you’ll need to buy their two plugins and they’re not cheap.

Granted not all themes require you to buy their plugins, but I can guarantee that you’ll always be

searching for plugins to make your site function better. Obviously, too many plugins will eventually

slow down your site and that's a big turn off for your visitors.

Tip: When choosing a theme make sure there are no catches otherwise you might find

you'll have to jump into another ditch!

Top Free WordPress Themes Recommendations Aside from the popular Twenty Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen and Fourteen, etc., here are some

rocking themes. The two that consistently remain at the very top are Responsive by CyberChimps

and Customizr by Nikeo.

Atahualpa by Bytesforall Attitude by Theme Horse

Catch Kathmandu by Catch Themes Customizr by Nikeo

Danko by ThemesKingdom December by iThemes

Expound by Konstantin Kovshenin Flozo by FlyerZone

GeneratePress by GeneratePress Graphene by Silverks

Hueman by Aleander Agnarson Lensa by ColorLabsProject

Magazine by GavickPro Mantra by CryoutCreation

Meet Gavern by GavickPro MesoColumn by Richie KS

Moesia by Athemes Multi-Web Design by Crocoblock

Perfetta by GavickPro Point by My Theme Shop KS

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Portfolio by GavickPro Responsive by CyberChimps

Revera by FabThemes Serene by ElegantThemes

Snaps by GraphPaperPress SoCute by YiThemes

Solon by Athemes Sparkling by ColorLib

Sugar and Spice by Alex27 Thoughts by WPExplorer

Vantage by Greg Priday Virtue by Kadence Themes

White by InkHive Widely by ThemesKingdom

What to Expect When Changing Your Theme Prior to my current Thrive Themes Minus theme, I searched high and low for a good theme. I’d often

change my theme, which meant I discovered some things along the way.

Often they didn't do what I wanted them to do. My posts were not easy to read, I couldn’t alter the

line-spacing, some themes coding was awful making my site slow, right sidebar was too small,

images were aligned wrongly, my logo wouldn’t fit, there weren’t enough menus and the list went

on.

Maybe these themes could have been edited to suit me, but time was my enemy so I’d move on

looking for yet another theme. Maybe I could have coded it fit, but back my coding knowledge was

limited.

Here’s what I think the answer is...

Instead of loading and activating a theme onto your professional site, load it onto a testing

website. For this you can use SiteRubix because it’s free or you can buy a cheap domain for

pennies from SiteGround and host it with their cheapest plan. I use Wealthy Affiliate, because I’m

a premium member I can host up to 25 sites free. SiteRubix is Wealthy Affiliates free option, either

way both are very good.

With a test site or dummy site as some people call them, you can test as many websites and

plugins as you like.

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Somethings to lookout for are:

Those little code snippets you added to your website header such as Google Analytics, Bing

Webmaster Tools, Alexa, Pinterest or whatever it maybe, may not carry over when you change

your theme.

It is important to go into your editor and check they are there whenever you change your theme.

Even today with my current bought theme, I always have a backup of my custom CSS and header

snippets in case I need to replace lost code. When you change your theme double check that your

snippets are working otherwise you’ll lose all your stats.

It is not a good idea to keep changing your theme. Therefore, make sure you choose your new

theme carefully.

What are Stunning Themes? I believe carefully chosen WordPress themes can increase your conversions rates to a greater

degree and of course your rankings. This is why so many people who’ve worked on the internet for

some time end up switching their theme to something much more powerful.

When I was using free WordPress themes, prior to Thrive Themes, I found one major obstacle for

me was not being able to restyle it. I wasn't much good at coding back then, so it was super

difficult for me to express what I wanted to convey. After about six months of using free themes, I

gave up and bought Thrive Themes Minus theme.

What do I mean by more powerful?

SEO friendly

At least 80% faster than other sites

Less plugins

Theme design is clear not cluttered

You can edit your footer

Focused call to action on your FrontPage

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Okay so this may not sound like much, but these alone can make a huge difference to your

conversions.

By this, I mean how many people go to your website, read your content, stay on your site, return to

your site, subscribers, social shares, money you make and much more.

Are There Perfect Themes? It’s not easy finding awesome WordPress themes because there are so many. It can be very tiring

and often boring, and then just when you thought you bought the right one, you realize it wasn’t

that great after all. As in my experience!

I’ve been there, done that and it’s frustrating!

I’ve previously bought a ton of themes from Envato Market, but today they just site in a folder

doing nothing. It is my belief that most themes from Envato are full of unnecessary coding, full of

shortcodes that you may never use and worst of all you don’t know the size of the theme until

you’ve bought it.

Take for example, Avada, yes it’s a very nice-looking theme, but its size is a colossal 250MB.

Compare this to my preferences as stated, which average 1-8MB.

Outsourcing Vs Recreating a) You can outsource a designer for your site to get exactly what you want, but the

drawback to this, is that, it can be expensive. However, it can save you a bunch of hours,

which will enable you to concentrate on content writing or whatever you do.

b) You could choose a theme that you like, then ask the creator to tweak it to your liking.

Some theme developers will do this free if you’ve bought a particular package they offer,

but others are more reluctant so will charge a nominal fee.

c) An alternative is to put your thinking cap on and get creative yourself, which is the

cheaper option. Bought themes are much easier to redesign compared to free themes, and

I’ve found that developers of paid themes are more than willing give you html or CSS

coding to recreate the changes you want - this happened to me with Thrive Themes.

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Distinguishing What's Awesome a) Other than the powerful inclusions stated above, your theme needs to look minimal or for

want of a better word ‘uncluttered’. If your site appears complex, then it can look

amateurish, which could more than likely turn prospective readers off.

b) Your site needs to be consistent throughout. Too many fonts and colors can make your

site appear confusing or at worst messy. A minimum of one to two font types and color

schemes are all that is needed.

c) Your site's typography needs to be clear cut, in that, your H1, H2, H3 etc and your

content font should be readable. Readability will depend upon color and size, I suggest your

content font size needs to be 16px or 18px, test your titles what looks good and their color

should be near black.

d) Your footer is so important; it can put money in your bank account. Serious content

readers want to know what theme you use and the first place they head for is your footer. It

doesn’t matter if you’re not promoting WordPress themes, so my advice to you is that you

sign up to your developer's affiliate scheme and add it to your footer.

e) Visual hierarchy of the most important elements on your site converts - period! If your

most import work isn’t visual, then you could be missing out on important conversions.

Visuals draw in your readers so make the most of creating appealing optin forms and

emphasizing specific words in bold or italics where needed. Plus, remember your

FrontPage needs to be the most compelling since it's the most visited.

f) SEO friendly themes are becoming more popular and in essence it basically means that

the developer hides all or most of the themes coding behind the scenes whereby it can only

be found via your FTP. Furthermore, since you can't alter the themes CSS unless you're

savvy with FTP and coding, then the theme needs to supply a Custom CSS.

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What Themes I Use On My Websites! It's fun knowing which WordPress themes people use for their websites. Many website owners are

allergic to revealing the theme they're using, I still can't fathom why it's such a big deal being so

secretive.

If you love what someone else uses, there are decent tools that are quite good at disclosing what

themes and plugins bloggers are using. I for one use Spybar, it's cheap and cheerful and can be

used on various browsers. I think it's worth having as I feel it's very useful at times.

Which WordPress Themes Are The Best? It is a matter of personal opinion which theme to

choose, but there are some guidelines what to look out

for.

When first choosing a theme, you'll probably be looking

for something either eye-catching with sliders or

possibly big images at the top of the theme to represent

your niche.

I think there's a lot wrong with that thinking and here is

why...simplicity is always a better option because these

type of themes rank better in Google.

Which WordPress Themes Do I Use? This is a very good question. I used to use DIY Thesis Themes, though clean and beautiful they can

be a little tougher to set up and use compared to Genesis Themes and Thrive Themes.

I currently own four websites, two are blogging sites and two are business sites. Here are my other

sites for you to check out and read my reviews:

VizoVizo.com - this is a worldwide business site and it uses Genesis Parallax Pro (direct link) or

read my review Genesis Parallax Pro Review by StudioPress – Entrepreneurs Choice.

SkillWorx.com - this is a local business site and it uses Genesis Infinity Pro (direct link) or read

my review Genesis Infinity Pro Theme Review by StudioPress – Stylish & Modern.

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BacktoBeautiful.eu - this was European based, but is now worldwide and uses Genesis Academy

Pro (direct link) or read my review Genesis Academy Pro Theme Review by StudioPress – Built for

Courses.

My bloggersrefuge.com is worldwide and it uses Thrive Themes Minus (direct link) or read my

review Thrive Themes Minus Review – Multi-Purpose Feature Packed.

I use both Genesis Themes and Thrive Themes because they're sophisticated, simple and clean.

You simply cannot get away from their uncomplicated coding. You can count on both being fast

and lite, HTML5, CSS3, schema.org markup, flexible, mobile responsive design, optimized for fab

SERPs, great security and much more. Genesis offers inbuilt SEO, but with Thrive Themes you

have to use Yoast or something similar.

More About Genesis Themes: Genesis themes are actually child themes built on the amazing Genesis Framework by StudioPress.

Check out Why Genesis is the Foundation of Any Smart WordPress Design? They are responsive on

any device, offer powerful coding, compatible browser support with the most recent versions, can

translate into any language you prefer, GPL license with StudioPress Pro Plus, Customizer,

unlimited domain usage and more.

Unlike Thrive, StudioPress don't offer compatible plugins for their themes on their site, you need to

look for them in the WordPress Repository.

One thing I love about Studiopress is that a few years ago I splurged out on their Pro-Plus All

Theme-Package. That was the best decision I ever made because I now get access to every theme

they've developed and all their new releases. It’s the best deal, especially if you like to update your

theme from time to time like I do or own more than one website. Click to Tweet

More About Thrive Themes:

Thrive Themes was founded by Shane Melaugh and tech crazy Paul McCarthy. Thrive offer a

similar package deal to Genesis which is their Thrive Themes Membership. For many bloggers,

Thrive Themes is the first port of call for themes and plugins because they are a reputable

company offering outstanding compatible products all in one location.

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Thrive Themes are totally different to Genesis themes because Thrive has 'what I call' inbuilt

plugins/features into their themes and also offer separate compatible plugins. These

plugin/features are social media, image optimization, 404 page, related posts, commenting options

and much more.

Some exclusive benefits owning their membership is that you get unlimited support, constant

updates, monthly webinars, email content courses, regular website reviews and feedback, regular

homepage improvement tutorials, Thrive Themes University and much more. Don't take my word

for it, check out my article Thrive Themes Membership Review – Is Your Business Toolbox Empty?

Which WordPress Theme Do I Like The Most And Why? Please bear in mind each website is niche dependent, therefore, my recommendations are based

on my own likings and experience.

Thrive Themes: Thrive Themes Rise and Focus are particularly smart, but I opted for Minus

because it suited this site better. All of Thrive themes are easy to install, set up is quick and

features are relatively similar, though each theme's look and feel are different.

Genesis Themes: Not one are alike in look and feel, and all are different in setting up. For me, it's

a case of which company is better to buy a Genesis theme from? Hands down, it has to be

StudioPress because they're currently the only company that offers a good forum, quality coding is

guaranteed and they appear to be the only company offering a Pro-Plus Package at an exceptional

price. Out of all their themes, I like their Genesis Academy Pro because it's sophisticated, clean and

super easy to set up.

StudioPress or Thrive Themes? In essence, I believe Thrives Themes are better. But, to answer

that properly, you'd be better reading my article Genesis Vs Thrive Themes – Be Informed Choose the

Right Tools!

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My Final Notes When a website theme is simple, easy to navigate and loads fast, it gives the user a better

experience. Avoid sliders and big images at the top of your theme or posts and pages.

Always check out the Demo and Details first before loading onto your site. If you're looking to start

a new website or customize the one you have, then create a test website to check the theme first.

Paid themes are the best way to go if your budget allows, otherwise choose a lite freemium from a

reputable developer. My recommendations are Genesis themes by StudioPress and Thrive

Themes. Both companies are sophisticated, simple and clean. You simply cannot get away from

their uncomplicated coding.

Here’s the plus to choosing these type of themes – you can count on both being fast and lite,

HTML5, CSS3, schema.org mark-up, flexible, mobile responsive design, Genesis has inbuilt SEO,

optimized for fab SERPs, great security and much more.

Copyright © 2014-2018 All Rights Reserved by Sharon May at BloggersRefuge.com