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Given that your website is the first impression customers have of your entire business, it’s important to get the big picture and the fine details right. But it’s a misconception to think that the process has to take days, weeks, or even months. In fact, you can create a beautiful WordPress website in minutes, without having to be a graphic designer, developer, or code specialist. The secret to building a site with WordPress (the choice for more than 43% of sites) is to unlock the potential of WordPress themes.
In this blog, we break down the best WordPress themes for businesses so you can efficiently determine which best suits your needs.
What Is a WordPress Theme?
If you don’t want to build your site from scratch, WordPress gives you more than 20,000 ready-made themes to choose from, of which just under half are free. All you have to do is pick your theme, drag/drop your specific elements into the image or text blocks available, and set your style sheets.
Don’t confuse a theme with a template. Whereas the template is a single-page view, the theme dictates the look and functionality of the entire site using templates and style sheets. Your choice of theme will enable greater control over:
- Static or responsive layout
- Typography
- Content placement
- User experience, and more
How to Choose the Best WordPress Theme for Your Business
Unlike a personal blog or website, it’s important for a business site to have a professional design. If it’s clean, contemporary, and aligned with your brand, the right theme can significantly boost the perception and engagement customers have with your business.
It’s a good exercise to study the tone and feel of leading competitors in your sector. Law firms, real estate agents, and luxury fashion stores, for example, each have their own distinctive aesthetic. However, you don’t have to copy the competition.
Customization: Tailoring Your Site to Your Brand
You still want your business to stand out, which is why customizable appearance is one of the key benefits of a WordPress website. You can tailor the site to your brand’s signature look with a choice of free and paid WordPress themes.
With that in mind, here are some of the most popular WordPress themes for business.
Divi: Flexible, No-code Build
Many of the top-rated themes are from third-party developers, not WordPress itself. That’s the case for Divi, by Elegant Themes, which has arguably set the standard for what a WordPress theme can do. The drag-and-drop functionality will be familiar to anyone who’s used Squarespace or Wix, but this WordPress-specific theme allows you to create a wide range of business websites using the Divi Theme Builder and Library (over 1,500 pre-designed templates).
Divi is a paid theme, but membership provides access to the entire Elegant Themes portfolio. If you’re looking for a no-code solution with a stunning range of content elements to choose from (eg. adding testimonials, contact forms etc.) Divi won’t disappoint.
Astra: Believe the Hype
The rave reviews for Astra, by Brainstorm Force, focus on its lightweight handling and fast loading speeds. In other words, it’s the opposite of the clunking, resource-sapping themes that support sites that customers quit within seconds.
For the build, you can enjoy drag-and-drop placement with a huge amount of layouts to get you started. If you want to tweak the back end, Astra does allow direct editing of the site code too. There is a free Astra version, but as a business user, you’ll typically be looking for the full range of features and security updates that come with a paid subscription.
GeneratePress: Simplicity and Power
GeneratePress bills itself as a minimalist theme, and it’s certainly lightweight (just 61kb) to use, even as you add more features. It’s one of the fastest WordPress themes without compromising on features or functionality. However, there are easier themes to get to grips with (eg. Astra) if you’re a code agnostic. GeneratePress assumes a certain familiarity with WordPress concepts and site building. In exchange, you have a wide range of page-level controls and elements to work with in order to create custom layouts.
OceanWP: E-commerce Favorite
E-commerce businesses in particular will find that OceanWP is hard to beat, even if it is marginally less user-friendly than some of the other listed themes. OceanWP’s big selling point is that it integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce, the world’s most popular e-commerce platform, allowing you to deploy the full range of features that drive conversions. Bearing in mind that WooCommerce powers over 20% of all online stores, it makes business sense to choose the theme that offers the smoothest access to quick view mode, shopping cart popup and other e-commerce essentials.
OceanWP also has strong support for third-party plugins and a great theme demo system that makes it easy to import any WordPress design for customization.
Conclusion
It’s important not to allow site design to lead business function. You want to choose a theme that can do what you need, not fit your goals to what a theme allows. Your WordPress theme should empower your online business to generate leads, drive conversions, and satisfy users on both desktop and mobile. If it doesn’t, it’s not the right fit, so take advantage of free versions to test a shortlist before subscribing.
There will always be a trade-off between speed and functionality, but you never have to drop your standards on security. For expert advice on designing, building, and developing your business website, speak to our expert team today.