What is a WordPress theme and how do you choose one?

If you’re reading this post, you probably just started blogging on WordPress. Either that or you’re re-evaluating your current theme choice.

What is a WordPress theme?

Simply stated, a theme dictates the design and functionality of your website without changing the basic WordPress software.

It’s your superhero clothing. Your WordPress Pages, Posts, Permalinks and other basic structural elements are the arms, torso and legs of your superhero. The theme is the cape, lariat, boots and gloves.

Depending upon your theme, your site could look like this (yikes):

Or like this:

How should I choose a theme?

Changing themes is not as easy as pressing a button, so you should really start with a few basic questions about the goals of your WordPress blog:

Are you using WordPress for only blogging or an entire website? The more complicated your site design and functionality, the more robust and flexible you’ll need the theme to be.
How does the theme reflect your brand or personality? Some themes have a very fixed look and feel which can only be tweaked with code. Other themes, like Headway (affiliate link) are extremely flexible in both style and functionality.
Can the theme enable your site to change and grow along with you and your goals? Again, you’ll want something flexible enough for future growth.

You also want to be asking a few questions related to the theme itself:

What kind of support does the theme developer offer? This is one of the main differences between free and premium WordPress themes.
How flexible is the Page layout? Does it allow you to have 2 columns on single posts and one column on your about Page? This will be more important if your designing a website and not just a blog that’s added to an existing site.
Does the theme have a developer community that shares creative ways of using the theme?
Who else is using the theme? How are they using it? What industries do they represent? If you’re launching a website to talk about legalizing marijuana and most of the users are lawyers, pick another theme.

Tips for new sites

In order to get a better idea of how your site will look with a specific theme, create a Page, a Post and install a few sidebar widgets. This will provide some content to see the theme wrapped around.
If you’re a complete beginner, look at a 5-6 previews of free themes to get an idea what elements of your site will change with a theme (watch this video on previewing themes). Even if you end up buying a premium theme, you’ll be better educated about what you like and what you don’t like.
Colors can be changed, so don’t focus on that. Instead, focus on the overall layout – where elements are placed on each Page.
Once you install a theme, look at archives, multi-post pages, single-post pages too see how the layout changes.
If you’re not sure if blogging is for you, start with a serviceable free theme. Focus on writing posts instead of getting bogged down with theme choices.
Be aware that most a-list bloggers have paid developers to tweak their theme.
If you’re on Twitter, join the #SBT10 chat – every Tuesday night at 9:00PM (EST) for a variety of topics around blogging.
Read Lorelle’s post called “Choosing a WordPress theme”.

How did you choose your theme?

Many of my friends have asked me why I changed my WordPress theme from Thesis to Headway, given the fact that I was a rabid Thesis fan for over a year.

I hope this post answers this question.

Note: If you’re wondering whether making commissions was part of my decision to switch to Headway, it wasn’t. I was also an affiliate for Thesis.

First of all, let me be clear: This post is not about bashing Thesis, but rather a comparison of the two. I’ve used Thesis for about a year and considered myself an advanced user (111 posts in the user forum since July of 2008). It’s a solid theme, for sure. But now, it’s not the only game in town.

When Grant Griffiths told me his son was developing a theme that would “kick the pants off Thesis” I think I responded with something like, “Yeah, whatever. Guthrie (my 5-year old) just got his orange belt in karate. I think he’ll be the next Bruce Lee.”

I wrote off his enthusiasm as a fatherly response. Plus, I was sold on Thesis and nothing would get me to change.

It was not until Clay (Grant’s son) gave me a beta copy of Headway that my love for Thesis started to wane.

The videos below cover five features I’ve found mind-blowing about the Headway theme that I wished Thesis had.

You’ll see how I’ve been able to make changes to my blog without the need to code anything. You’ll see how the visual layout editor works, how to easily change colors, drag and drop editing of my navigation bar, and how to place various different widgets on each page of your blog.

Video1: Why I switched my WordPress theme from Thesis to Headway (Reason number 1 of 5)

Video 2: Why I switched my WordPress theme from Thesis to Headway (Reasons number 2 and 3 of 5)

Video 3: Why I switched my WordPress theme from Thesis to Headway (Reason number 4 and 5)