How To Choose The Best WordPress Theme For SEO via @sejournal, @MaddyOsman

Your WordPress taxable encapsulates your marque and helps supply a bully idiosyncratic experience. But radical often hide astir the search motor optimization aspect of it.

A WordPress taxable that isn’t SEO-friendly (or worse, is bloated and slow) tin beryllium a existent hindrance successful the fiercely competitory conflict to onshore connected apical of the search motor effect pages (SERPs).

And since higher rankings tin thrust much integrated traffic, leads, and gross — this is 1 constituent you truly privation to get right.

In this guide, you’ll larn what an SEO-friendly taxable is, what you should see erstwhile selecting one, and which 5 WordPress themes are champion for SEO.

The Basics Of A Search-Friendly WordPress Theme

A WordPress taxable built with hunt motor optimization successful caput helps websites execute amended rankings connected SERPs.

Optimized WordPress themes are built to elevate your SEO efforts and supply a large idiosyncratic experience.

There are thousands of themes for WordPress users to take from and thousands much from third-party providers.

Most of these themes marque your WordPress website look stunning, but a glimpse nether the hood could archer a antithetic story.

Poor coding, dilatory loading speeds, and a deficiency of plugin enactment tin beryllium hiding underneath a beauteous facade. All of these flaws impact hunt motor rankings.

When you person important method SEO issues, Google won’t spot your website arsenic an manufacture authority, and you’ll apt conflict to scope the archetypal page.

On the different hand, the champion WordPress themes for SEO are some stunning and optimized with the latest SEO techniques successful mind. They’ll have:

• A responsive design.
• Clean code.
• Fast loading speeds.

And they’ll fto you optimize your WordPress website effortlessly.

How To Choose The Best WordPress Theme For SEO

So, however bash you take an SEO-friendly WordPress theme?

You should:

1. Pick A Responsive Theme

Mobile devices (excluding tablets) relationship for astir 60% of web leafage views worldwide.

A bulk of smartphone users look up websites, products, and related contented connected their phones. After all, erstwhile you perceive astir a chill product, you usually don’t privation to hold until you’re location to cheque it out.

SEO-friendly WordPress themes person responsive layouts. A responsive WordPress website volition set to varying surface sizes crossed devices with ease.

That way, mobile shoppers aren’t greeted with a poorly adjusted ecommerce homepage erstwhile they click through.

Google prefers mobile-friendly websites and offers a tool wherever you tin trial however your website fares and performs connected antithetic devices.

Screenshot Google Lighthouse, November 2024

2. Pick A Theme That Supports Most Plugins

WordPress plugins assistance unlock your website’s existent potential with further features for some users and website owners.

WooCommerce, Jetpack, Akismet, and Google Analytics are fashionable plugins. You tin besides download the champion SEO plugins to marque optimization easier.

The WordPress taxable you prime should enactment fashionable plugins, particularly those you usage regularly.

W3 Super Cache is an illustration of a plugin that’s ever progressive due to the fact that it maintains optimum leafage speed. You don’t privation it to neglect due to the fact that you switched themes.

Screenshot of W3 Total Cache dashboard successful WordPress CMS, November 2024

3. Pick A Theme With Clean Code

Your website is made up of code. If codification is poorly written, it tin impact your website’s security, speed, and resources.

The aforesaid applies to WordPress themes.

The champion WordPress themes for SEO person cleanable codification that makes them much unafraid and reliable, with little downtime.

Clean codification and SEO spell hand-in-hand. This is due to the fact that cleanable codification WordPress themes boost leafage load velocity and SEO ranking.

For example, an optimized taxable with cleanable codification speeds up updates of indispensable SEO elements similar meta, title, and header tags. This helps hunt engines to:

• Find these tags quickly.
• Crawl your website easily.

To analyse your chosen WordPress taxable and guarantee it has cleanable codification that conforms to the modular WordPress coding conventions, you tin marque usage of themecheck.info.

Upload a taxable to the website utilizing a zip file, and it volition measure the taxable for information and codification quality.

Note that escaped WordPress themes don’t person the cleanest codification and mightiness airs information threats, particularly if the developer copies and alters codification from an online source.

4. Choose A Theme That Works On Multiple Browsers

Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Opera are communal desktop and mobile browsers, but determination are respective more. You don’t request to cater to each of them, but your taxable should enactment crossed the astir fashionable browsers.

An SEO-friendly WordPress theme caters to each fashionable browsers, making it convenient for users to work and stock your content, careless of their browser choice.

Besides supporting antithetic browsers, cheque mentation compatibility. Not everyone uses the latest browser version. Often, updates are delayed based connected the instrumentality oregon operating strategy they’re using.

Ideally, your website should enactment seamlessly connected the past 5 versions of the astir fashionable Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux browsers.

You tin usage tools similar PowerMapper to cheque browser compatibility.

Screenshot of powermapper.com, November 2024

Developers tin besides manually tally tests to find compatibility.

5. Evaluate Page Builder Plugins Carefully

A leafage builder is simply a WordPress plugin that makes creating your website’s layout easier done drag-and-drop features. You tin rapidly take from premade layout options and resistance and driblet the elements to spot them wherever you want.

Page builders are an fantabulous enactment for casual website creation, and astir premium WordPress themes connection them.

If you’re a integer selling bureau moving with aggregate clients, you tin usage leafage builders to acceptable up aggregate websites quickly.

But leafage builders bash person a fewer issues.

Page builders make a batch of code, and, arsenic mentioned earlier, bloated websites are slow. This is atrocious for SEO.

More importantly, erstwhile you make a website utilizing a leafage builder and past power themes, the layout – and consequently, the contented connected it – volition necessitate respective edits.

Your method and on-page SEO could beryllium affected, truthful beryllium definite to account for SEO during a rebuild.

You volition request to measurement the benefits of drag-and-drop leafage builders against the improvement resources required to hole immoderate bloated code. If you’re gathering websites for clients you volition request to expend resources to guarantee that the sites execute good by fixing bloated code.

6. Choose A Theme That Loads Quickly

Users person precise abbreviated attraction spans. Many volition permission if a website takes much than a fewer seconds to load. Page velocity is important for SEO.

Improving leafage velocity has shown tremendous results. A survey from NitroPack successful concern with Google showed that compared to a 2-second leafage load speed, 50% much visitors driblet disconnected erstwhile a leafage loads successful 3 seconds. And a 0.1 2nd betterment led to an 8.4% summation successful ecommerce conversions.

It’s tempting to spell for a reasonably-priced taxable with a laundry database of features, similar customized widgets oregon Google Fonts. But if you don’t really usage these functions, past they’re conscionable slowing your website down.

You should prime a fast, lightweight, and customizable WordPress taxable with lone the features you need. Alternatively, you tin prime SEO-optimized themes that fto you disable functions you don’t use.

Use Google Search Console to find retired however accelerated your website is and spot if it’s slowed down aft you’ve installed a theme.

7. Select A Theme That’s Updated Regularly

Regular taxable updates are important for information and bug fixes. You don’t privation a WordPress taxable that’s updated erstwhile a year.

Developers usage updates to supply the latest information patches, hole bugs, code compatibility issues with the latest browsers and plugins, and cleanable up aged code.

Your SEO takes a deed erstwhile you usage an outdated theme. If your taxable isn’t compatible with the latest mentation of Google Chrome, it won’t load. You’ll suffer retired connected the imaginable postulation generated by Chrome users and springiness your competitors a accidental to leapfrog you.

Outdated themes mightiness besides person constricted functionality connected newer devices and browsers.

8. Choose A Theme With Good Ratings

The easiest mode to place the champion WordPress themes for SEO is to cheque idiosyncratic reviews and ratings.

Don’t conscionable cheque the reviews and testimonials connected the theme’s authoritative website – cheque for ratings connected third-party websites and societal media, too.

Users mightiness not permission SEO-focused reviews, but they volition often database things similar “slow loading speed” oregon “not mobile-friendly.” Compare these to your SEO checklist to recognize however usable and well-built the taxable is.

Compare communal idiosyncratic problems with issues that could impact your website successful general, and debar those themes.

While a tiny fig of speed-related complaints successful a oversea of affirmative reviews is OK, you should debar themes with mostly mediocre reviews.

Best WordPress Themes For SEO

• Divi.
• Astra.
• Kadence.
• Hello by Elementor.
• GeneratePress.

If you’re looking for the champion WordPress taxable for SEO, these are it. Let’s instrumentality a deeper look into each of them:

Divi

Screenshot of www.elegantthemes.com, November 2024

Divi is an SEO-optimized WordPress taxable with a wide scope of pre-built templates to suit websites crossed astir niches, including SEO agencies and blogging.

It lets you customize astir each facet of your WordPress website.

Created by Elegant Themes, Divi has built-in SEO optimization and is regularly updated, truthful you ne'er person to interest astir compatibility.

Astra

Screenshot from wpastra.com, November 2024

Astra is simply a almighty WordPress taxable with retina-ready premade leafage templates to suit antithetic businesses.

Its lightweight codification and accelerated load speeds marque it an fantabulous enactment for an SEO-friendly WordPress theme.

Astra supports fashionable WordPress plugins, including Yoast SEO and All successful One SEO. It besides supports drag-and-drop leafage builders specified arsenic WPBakery.

Kadence

Screenshot from kadencewp.com, November 2024

Kadence is simply a multi-purpose WordPress taxable that lets you make lightning-fast websites successful minutes. It has templates for brands, influencers, tiny businesses, ecommerce, and agencies.

It besides integrates with large plugins, including Elementor, WooCommerce, and Beaver Builder.

Kadence is built with the champion SEO practices for markup and schema and lets you customize each constituent of your website – including header styles, colors, and typography – easily.

Hello By Elementor

Screenshot of elementor.com November 2024

Built with lean, non-intrusive code, Hello by Elementor is the cleanable WordPress taxable for SEO.

It’s ultra-lightweight, responsive, and claims to load websites successful a 4th of a second. A faster website leads to little bounce rates and happier users.

Despite its absorption connected velocity and utilizing minimal resources, Hello inactive offers hundreds of templates, plentifulness of customization options, and regular updates. It besides has RTL support.

GeneratePress

Screenshot of generatepress.com, November 2024

Whether you’re a freelancer, startup, oregon agency, GeneratePress is simply a large WordPress taxable for SEO.

It’s fast, lightweight, and accessible. The escaped mentation of the taxable is focused connected velocity and performance, which are indispensable SEO elements.

Upgrading to the Premium mentation gives you entree to GeneratePress’ block-style website builder (so you ne'er person to larn a enactment of code), professionally designed starter websites, and customization controls.

Final Thoughts: How To Pick The Best SEO-Optimized WordPress Theme

WordPress themes are a large mode to spruce up your website, but they shouldn’t hinder your SEO efforts. Don’t fto the overwhelming magnitude of taxable options intimidate you into rapidly picking 1 and settling.

Instead, support your chill and prime an SEO-optimized WordPress taxable aft doing your research.

If you request immoderate much assistance with WordPress SEO, cheque retired our comprehensive adept guide.

More Resources:

• 6 Awesome WordPress Plugins That Will Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
• 13 Best WordPress SEO Plugins
• WordPress – WordPress plugins, themes, and SEO tips and champion practices

Featured Image: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock