Essential Features Without Which a WordPress Theme Would be Dead
We all know that WordPress themes are popular nowadays due to rise in usage of WordPress CMS. Hence we are writing this article to evaluate the necessary features we need for a complete WordPress theme to be used as a website.
Here are the list of features we think are most essential and should be there in any WordPress theme irrespective of whether they are free or Pro.
Sidebar widget: We all know there are sidebars used in the design as well as within WordPress themes sidebars can be either on the left or on the right side. But whenever you have a sidebar it should be widget friendly otherwise the problem would be that one has to get inside sidebar.php and then edit the sidebar. That will appear like a static html to people who don’t understand coding. And hence this is one of the most essential features we consider completes a WordPress theme.
Compatibility with Ecommerce plugins: Nowadays with ever increasing digital goods people can now buy these digital items like software, files, advice, consulting etc online and without the use of any physical delivery and hence more and more online shops are opening which allow them to sell their items online and get paid as well as deliver the digital files right away to the customers.
Hence in every WordPress theme we want the capability to be compatible with Ecommerce plugins like WooCommerce which are part of WordPress.org and allow anyone who uses WordPress themes to open an online shop as easily as possible. However many themes aren't compatible and don't properly show the shop pages and checkout page. Hence one should check the theme initially using E-commerce plugins and check compatibility so that in future if required all it is required is to install the plugin and start using it readily.
Compatibility with contact form plugins: Contact forms are essential and important part of any website because they allow customers to contact you back as well as allows visitors to ask questions, provide feedback as well as for customer testimonials, and booking appointments etc contact forms play a pivotal role.
Hence the WordPress theme which we use should have a compatibility with atleast one of 2 popular contact form plugins so that all you have to do is install the plugin and start using it.
Nowadays many premium WordPress themes have inbuilt contact forms but most of them are basic with no spam or captcha provisions.
Whereas contact form plugins have advanced captcha integration with simple captcha or integration with Google Captcha.
Some of the contact forms also allow datepickers which are useful in booking appointments and events. Also some of the contact forms also allow for PayPal payments for easy event ticket sales.
So its essential as per your usage to take the right contact form plugin and check its compatibility with your WordPress theme. If the theme is not compatible with major and popular contact forms then its time to search for another theme.
Social media integration: Social media nowadays are playing an important role in not just communication but as a news feed and as well as to launch any major product launches for businesses. Also businesses can easily informally get attached to their customers as well as get their instant feedback and expectations.
A good social media platform exposure with more and more feedback from clients and customers and better interaction with them can turn a very good marketing decision for many businesses and hence a website built on a WordPress theme should definitely focus on social media integration as it creates an opportunity for businesses as well as professionals to show their profiles and pages and get attracted to more and more customers plus it also is an informal way to get feedback, comments and solve pre-sales queries of customers. More and more businesses are nowadays emphasizing on social media and its powerful impact.
Static front page without posts for business websites needs: Many WordPress themes still look default blog posts site and this is what turns down many customers from using them. Because many customers just want a simple homepage with info about their business and what they do and who they are so that they can write in detail about their business and mission and vision etc in other pages. They may or may not use blog at all in their website and hence they don't want blog to be shown initially in their website. Hence WordPress themes should have a blog but it shouldn't be too much that you have to show your info in blog format. You can choose among the static pages and not show sidebar related to blog and should be able to have your info easily without any latest or recent posts peeking in from footer or sidebar.
Secured coding: Of course no one wants to get hacked or have an unsecured script dangling onto their website which may cause problems in future and hence it is essential that secured coding is done. Many WordPress theme developers while coding their website tend to focus more on functionality and giving the world to their customers while forgetting this basic aspect of security. It is equally important and hence figures in our list of essentials of WordPress themes that security is one of the most important factor for any WordPress theme.
There are few tools to check the security of a WordPress theme. First and foremost is wp-debug can be turned on using wp-config which allows one to see if their are any open warnings appearing from WordPress installation itself about the theme.
Secondly theme check plugin is another tool which can be effectively used to eliminate most of the junk coding and if a WordPress theme is theme check compatible then you should definitely use it as it is considered secured as well.
Lastly one may use theme authenticity checker plugin which checks for scrupulous scripts and their usage.
Copyright friendly: Of course on your own website you don't want advertisement of someone else and hence many free WordPress themes which you may find aren't copyright friendly and you should avoid using them. Instead you should use the ones which have copyright removal easy because you don't want anyone else to advertise on your own website and want to have your own copyright displayed.
This is yet another essential feature for a WordPress theme.!!!