Using Themes

Just what is a WordPress Theme, anyway?

A theme is your WordPress website’s template or skin. It’s what makes your site look good and work well. Depending on how it was designed, your theme should also have built in functions for the site, including menus (for upper, side, and bottom navigation of the site), widgets, blog integration, and different page templates.

Basic WordPress theme components:

• Widgets – the theme should (at the very least) have a widgetized sidebar.
• Custom Menus – WordPress added this feature as of version 3.0, so your theme should be able to utilize it…at least for the main navigation.
• Easy Customization – If you’re using a premium theme, and you didn’t hire a designer, you should be able to upload your own logo to and change some basic colors in your theme.
• SEO – your theme should be set up for easy integration of SEO plugins. Things like breadcrumbs, custom meta tags, custom page titles, etc.
• Fewer Plugins – Your theme should not require tons of plugins to function properly. The more plugins you use, the greater risk of increasing your load-time.

Okay…so what’s a Widget?

Widgets are tools or content that you can add, arrange, and remove from the “widgetized” areas of your site. Widgets make it easy to customize your layout. They show up within your WordPress dashboard in the Appearance menu (see image to the right). Typically, the widgetized areas of your site will be labeled (this one is labeled Blog Side Bar). You’ll be able to select the widgets you want, then drag and drop them into any area you want. You may have a widgetized sidebar area, or footer area. Using these little gems, you can add a search box, Social Media links, a blog roll (list of links), recent blog posts, blog categories and much more….making your site unique.

Creating a Custom Menu

To find out if your theme uses Custom Menus, visit the “Menus” link in the Appearance menu of your dashboard. In the Theme Locations box, it will tell you how many (if any) custom menus your theme supports. You can create menus and name them whatever you’d like (such as “Top Navigation”, “Footer Navigation”, etc.). Once you’ve created and saved a menu, you will then be able to designate which of your new menus should be used in which area of your site. In my example on the right, I created two menus: Top Navigation Menu, and Footer Navigation Menu. I then selected the Top Navigation Menu as my Primary Navigation, and the Footer Navigation Menu as my Footer Navigation.

Theme Types

There are some basic types of themes available, the main difference being the home page layout:

1. Blog – Used if your site will function only as a blog. This theme will show your most recent blog posts on the home page, and you’ll have static pages for “About” and “Contact”. You can also add your blog categories as sections of your top navigation, or as a list in your sidebar to make it easier for your viewers to find content.
2. Static Home Page – Best used for a brochure site, a theme with a static home page allows you to put in whatever home page content you’d like. With this type of theme, you can create a separate “blog” page (for news or updates), or no blog at all. You would typically utilize the pages in this type of theme and not the posts and post categories.
3. Magazine Style – A magazine style theme is becoming very common amongst WordPress users. With a magazine style theme, your home page contains many sections. Those sections may contain blog posts from specific categories, widgets, image galleries and more. With the right theme setup, you’ll be limited only by your imagination! This type of theme can also have a separate “blog” page, where all posts can be accessed in one place. Magazine style themes allow you to showcase your content.

Your theme can also be divided into columns (for displaying your content); from one column all the way up to several columns.

How do I choose a theme?

The best way to decide on a theme is to know beforehand what you want that theme to do for you. Choosing to use the WordPress platform for your site was a smart step. The next one is to sit down and create a flow-chart of your site. Once you know your site’s basic sections, you’ll have an idea of how you want the site to function overall. This will then help you determine what type of “home page layout” will best suit your content.

Remember to keep your target market in mind when deciding on a theme. Usability is important, and if your readers are confused by your content, your site will not do well.

Another determining factor will be ease of use. If you do not have the budget to hire a designer, you’ll need a theme that’s super easy for the end user.

Colors matter! Make sure that the theme you’ve chosen also matches your branding color scheme. If it doesn’t, then it should be easy to change those colors without knowing CSS or HTML. If you have basic HTML and CSS knowledge, then you’ll be able to do even more with your theme, and colors will not be a factor.