Once your WordPress blog is installed on your domain, you’ll begin the job of customizing it for your business. You don’t want to leave the default theme intact, it looks unprofessional.
So now you have a choice, do you opt for a free WordPress theme or upgrade and buy a premium level theme, which you’ll have to pay for? If you’re brand new to blogging, you might want to stick with the free themes temporarily and then upgrade once you know you’re dedicated to keeping the site active long-term.
Others may want to invest in a premium theme right away so that no changes have to be made once the site is underway. To access the free themes, log into your WordPress dashboard and click on Appearances and then Themes.
At the top of the page, you can click on Install Themes and choose from the Featured, Newest, Recently Updated, or the option to install your own. You’ll find many free WordPress themes online just by Googling for them.
But you have to be careful because nothing is truly free, the providers of those WordPress themes will have some sort of benefit included in the theme, sometimes in the form of an unsavory link pointing from your blog to their own domain.
Free Vs Paid WordPress Themes
Premium themes are usually clean and more search engine optimized than the freebies are. You can search for those on Google too and find a myriad of options. If you buy one, download the file to your hard drive and choose the “Upload” option in your blog area. Then extract the zip file so that the theme is available for you to choose.
When you see your new theme options, simply click “Activate” on the theme you prefer. You can swap these out at any time, but it’s best to find a good theme and maintain it so that your site builds brand recognition of its own.
WordPress themes vary between crisp and clean to colorful and cluttered. You want to choose something based on your personal preferences, but also keep the reader in mind. Don’t choose a theme where the words are hard to read or the colors cause people to click out immediately.
You can also choose to have a custom WordPress theme created for you if you have deep pockets, but a Premium theme will be a great alternative and it won’t break the bank.
I have used a lot of themes since I started building websites for businesses and professionals. I have found that most websites will work and look great with Salient. In includes the “Visual Composer” along with a lot of their own features added to it. In fact, this website is built with Salient. I’ve also used it for almost all of my clients’ websites since 2015.
Salient is not a perfect theme. There are issues as you will see with almost every WordPress theme. It will not do everything you want. You may need Plugins for WordPress in order to do specific things. For example, you will want to install SEO by Yoast or something like that for your SEO needs.
