From my 20 years of designing websites I’ve feel that WordPress is currently the best way to go. After I turn it over to my client, they are going to want to make changes. This is most easily done using WordPress.
As a designer I need to create a professional appearance on top of this powerful tool. Since every client will want something unique, the simplest approach is to use a pre-designed template. This will have to be modified of course, but it can save you many hours of programming, “reinventing-the-wheel”.
Complexity
- Do you want your website to be very unique or complicated?
Or do you mind if it is similar to other websites that you like. - If it can be like other sites then a template may be the way to go.
If it is more complicated then the costs usually go up. - Do you mind if another website somewhere has the exact same appearance?
- Create a priority list. Websites should be constantly improving and updating. In what order would you like to see each component improved. Ie- Maybe you don’t want an intranet now, but will you at some point?
Layout
- How many columns (Usually 1-3)
Themes
- Button themes- Do you want links to be selected by clicking on large colourful buttons. Or are you happy with a simple pull down menu?
- Others like Magazine themes or photo themes. Figure out what you like by comparing with other sites.
- In this instance, we are looking for white, clean, professional, sparse, simple navigation. I think we probably want a simple banner and minimal text on the front page.
- Do you like the header art of the theme? It comes a part of the theme so you don’t have to worry about copywrite.
Customization
- Decide on fonts and symbols for branding.
- If you don’t like what you see in a template, but the features are great, don’t worry, the colors, fonts can be changed fairly simply.
Design Appearance
- The closer the design appearance is to what you want then the cheaper/less time consuming it is to change it. Use the right theme for the job. Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you want a site for a church use a church theme.
- Select design elements. Do you prefer Arial or Times New Roman?
Do you prefer small 10pt font normal 12pt font or large 14pt font? - What color scheme do you want? What colors help describe the church?
- How do you want linked text to appear? (bold and underline?)
- In looking at a theme, do you like the appearance of the text in block quotes, how the “Next” or “Previous” buttons appear, how the sidebar is displayed, etc…
Technical requirements.
Some changes are easy like changing the banner. Some are harder like changing the CSS. The hardest are code based (ie- PHP)
Functional Elements
- This is, in many ways, more important to a web designer than the appearance. The other features can be simply adjusted. These are the guts that can make a site simple or complex to design. Most coders can make any template work for them, but each of a templates features can save a coder many hours of time.
- Many features plugged into a template are often free elsewhere. Consider though that the template designer probably found just the right options to incorporate into his theme and already paid for some of them.
Does it have a strong options panel that is widget ready (as it can save time coding)? How customizable is this theme?
- RSS- Do you want to push information to subscribers? Do you want a blog area where prayer requests, sermons, blogs, or other regular updates can be posted? (Do you want all of that RSS’d)
- Do you want a contact form? (To protect your email from spam.) Do you want an option to sign up for 1. Newsletters, 2. Rss feeds. (On the contact form.)
(Contact Form 7 is a wonderful/free plugin.) - Do you want users to quickly access Facebook and twitter from your site, including being able to “like” pages? Does it have a customized social widget to add a twitter or Facebook feed?
- Do you want a button on more than one page? The bottom of every page? Do you want a page of information about 501(c3)? Do you want a donation button for each ministry?
- Calendar: Do you want a grid, or linear list of events? Do you want this on an RSS feed? Can someone click on a calendar item and get more information, be notified in the future of this event, or add this to their own google calendar?
- Do you need a sitemap?
- Do you want a photo or video gallery?
- Do you want users to be able to interact on a forum. (I recommend MyBB)
- Do you want a site-wide search? (Free plugin usually)
- Do you want to create and manage your own mailing lists? (I recommend using mail chimp.)
Compatibility
- Do you want it to be mobile friendly? This is an important and already tested feature of prepaid templates.
(According to Google, 75 percent of users prefer a mobile friendly website.) - Is it compatible with the latest version of WordPress?
- Is it compatible with IE9, IE10, IE11, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome? (Always make sure that your new theme is compatible with all browsers, even the older versions.)
- Is it compatible with WooCommerce, Bootstrap, bbPress, MyBB, Gravity Forms (or another forms tool), Events Calendar
- Is the theme integrated with PayPal?
- SEO features?
- Is it easy to implement a Child Theme?
- Custom Favicon?
- Optimized for WPML – International/Local interaction? Multilingual?
- Threaded comments?
- Gravatar ready?
- Custom 404 page?
- Custom CSS option?
- Is an XML Demo content file included?
- Free plugins like paid sliders?
Read Reviews
- Take some time, before purchasing a theme to search out what other users of this template are saying.
- Check to see how many times it’s been downloaded. A popular theme is probably robust with many features.
Support
- Before purchasing a theme be sure to find out what kind of support is offered.
- Does it offer free template updates?
- Is there a support forum for users to interact?
- Is the designer available to answer questions?
- Can you pay a fee to get support if you need it?
- A company that makes money by selling themes will have more resources to dedicate towards support, theme documentation, theme updates, etc…
Cost
- Do you only get one site usage out of the template, or can you modify it for various sites that you are designing.