Sometimes we might want a premium/pro theme without knowing our options or what should we look for in those themes and that’s when the problems arise.
Before paying for anything, it is better to do some research, right?
So we thought “Why don’t we give you some guidance on what you can do to make the best decision for your website and your wallet?“
Do i really need a premium theme?
The first thing that you should ask yourself is “What do I have available for free and what do I gain by getting a premium/pro version?“. So let’s take some steps first on the free part to see what do we have.
I have a free theme but what can i do with it?
The first thing we should be checking is your theme’s customization options in Appearance -> Customize.
There we should go 1 by 1 checking what does it allows us to do.
Then I would look for information about the theme(tutorials, documentation, problems, advantages…). This way we may discover a fix to our problems because some other person probably has had that problem too. And we can find these fixes in many ways too.
And some of those problems or fixes will lead us to the next point.
How can i add new features to my free theme?
Sometimes free themes have plugins(free) that will expand their functionalities.
Other times you can expand the functionalities of WordPress itself to get what you need(new blocks, sliders, extra customizations, events, menus…).
We do this all the time when we need forms, security, SEO, optimizations, redirections… So why wouldn’t we try to do the same for the visual part of our WordPress?
And even if plugins don’t offer us what we need, sometimes some easy and small codes can make it.
I already checked all that. Now tell me what should i get.
If everything was so easy…
But we have to see our options. Luckily for us, WordPress has plenty of them.
Visual editor or theme?
And yes obviously the first decision is if we want to design our website ourselves or just have more options on our design and a default structure.
For the more “creative” people out there or people that like to design(from scratch or almost) then obviously Divi or Elementor will be your best options in the market right now.
They will give you all the options that you want to design your website like you want, but it will take time and effort, although, using some templates might help alleviate the work charge.
The good thing about Divi and Elementor is that they are heavily supported by a big team, which means that any problem that could arise will be fixed in an appropriate amount of time.
They are pretty popular too so the amount of content on how to use them or customize with them is almost endless.
But if you don’t want to do all that design or want to start with some parts already done or have some more options in customization then probably a theme will be more suitable for you.
But that makes other questions appear.
Is the theme supported?
I think the initial test is to see if the person in charge responds quickly to questions about the theme and its features. If such an answer is delayed a lot, let’s continue our journey in search of another premium theme.
See if it has regular updates too because it would be weird if it doesn’t. It doesn’t need to be updated every month but if it has been a year since the last update it might not be the best option. Because problems arise with any kind of software and they need to be fixed.
You should also read the terms and conditions of use of the theme to confirm when the support you will receive expires and its scope. At the slightest doubt, send an email.
Look for references from other customers.
Googling gets you everywhere. Let’s do a thorough search by entering the name of the site and having a preference for forums. Users who feel they have been ripped off do not hesitate to write about it on their favorite forum and write about their experiences with the company in question.
Obviously, we cannot believe everything we read, but we will have negative opinions to evaluate. We may also be lucky enough to hear from customers who were satisfied with their premium theme and that will encourage us to decide to buy it.
look for what features does the theme add that are valuable to you.
Does it have what I need? It doesn’t but it is the closest to it? I like the designs etc.
And before you make the final decision definitely look for videos and tutorials on how can you make your website look like the examples they give that caught your attention and how to add the features that you wanted from the theme. Because we don’t want those kinds of surprises when we finally purchase a theme and can’t do what we wanted.
And then we need to pay someone to do it for us(paying twice for the same thing).
Try any demo available that they might have and even better if you can see how does it change the SEO compared to your other pages.
Finally, let’s remember that we can always choose to hire a freelancer to design the theme for us. Sometimes it is difficult to make payments to the USA and Europe, so it is an opportunity to bet on finding designers of our nationalities and maybe we will be amazed discovering very talented people.
So what about you? Are you looking for a visual upgrade on your website? What options are you considering? Tell us and ask for our input so we can help.
