Choosing the right theme in WordPress is one of the hardest things you’ll face. At RSW we made it a bit easier by only including themes that were well coded and well designed. So no matter which theme you choose from our library, it’ll work. Given that, here are a few things to keep in mind on how to choose the best theme for your specific needs:
Draft Your Plan & Requirements
Draw out your site the way you envision it, or, at the very least, write down your basic requirements. Do you want an animated slider? Widgetized footer area? Is your content going to be mostly text, photos or video? Is mobile/responsive a must for your market? There are plenty of themes in RSW that would fit each of these criteria, and it’ll make it so much easier to choose the right theme once you understand what kind of content and functionality your site will need to have.
Here is a list of great responsive themes available on RSW.
Theme Author Considerations
Providers. Every theme provider tends to handle theme options and controls in the same manner for all their themes. So once you use one theme by Elegant themes, for example, you’ll be familiar with all the options for all other Elegant themes. The same applies to all StudioPress/Genesis themes, CSS Ignitor etc.
Use Before You Lose!
Once you’ve found a few themes that appeal to you, click on the provider link under the themes and locate the themes that interest you. Read the providers’ descriptions, and then click the actual demo link. Looking at the demo sites will save you a ton of time and potential headaches. It’ll eliminate themes that are missing your requirements and narrow down your choices based on your needs.
Choose with Your Strengths in Mind
While tempting, it’s not a good idea to choose a theme simply based on how pretty the demo site looks. A lot of themes will look stunning, but when you break it down, you’ll realize that the visual appeal was all in the imaging, and unless you have stunning high res images, your site won’t look nearly as nice.
Please note that with some providers, notably StudioPress themes, the demo sites are heavily custom coded, which simply means that you will likely not be able to get your site to look exactly like the demo unless you can custom code css or can hire someone who can.
Oops Free Zone!
And lastly, keep in mind that with RSW hosting, you can change your theme as many times as you want and you won’t lose your content. So it’s perfectly ok for you to activate and play with a bunch of themes until you find one you really like. That was the whole point behind creating RSW for us – to give you the ability to play and experiment until you create something that works for you. And don’t be shy about asking for help in our forums. That’s what we are all there for.