No doubt WP is a great platform to explore your website skills and establish your business online. It is currently powering up nearly 50% of the active websites on the internet which clearly shows how powerful the platform is. When launched for the first time, it was simply a CMS system but now the WP has become a complete career option for website & theme developers.
Most WP premium themes are your excellent online business partners. But you have to be extra careful while investing in a premium theme. Failing to do so may lead you to themes with low-quality codes. Such a theme will negatively impact your business. If you’re planning to buy a premium website theme, stop and read this article first to save your money.
In this article, we will discuss the methods on how you can evaluate whether a theme is good for your website or not. Read the complete article.
Why Cross Checking Is Important for WordPress Premium Themes?
WordPress has two sections of themes- free & premium. Free WP themes are made by newbies or armatures whereas premium WP themes are created by professionals, companies, and expert individuals in the field.
The statement is simple- Anyone who is looking for an online business website must go for premium themes. But here is the catch. WP is very strict about its security & services so it has imposed a quality check system for free themes but no such system is there for premium WP themes. This sometimes causes issues as some premium WP themes look good but fail to function.
Methods to Evaluate THE Codes of WP Premium Themes:
Evaluating the codes of any premium theme allows you to cross-check the various aspects of a theme such as security, performance, and quality. Apply the following methods to evaluate the code quality so you get the best deal in your hands.
Install the test version of any premium theme for a trial period. Then move to all the testing procedures that are mentioned below.
1. Check for Valid HTML and CSS:
The biggest issue a theme can have can be in their core coding. HTML & CSS are the building blocks of any website theme. If those building blocks are not compact & direct, and simple, you can’t expect your website to work as per the standards.
Use online validation tools to evaluate the coding quality of a website. Some of them are as follows.
– W3C Markup Validation Service (HTML & CSS separately)
– CSSLint (CSS)
– Validator.nu (HTML5)
– Nu HTML Checker (HTML)
2. Test the Theme on Different Browsers:
As not everyone uses Google Chrome to crawl the internet, cross-browsing is a must-have property for all premium themes. As suggested earlier, install the trial period of a theme and check its compatibility through all the popular browsers.
3. Check the Responsiveness of the Theme:
Nearly 70% of the total global searches are done through mobile phones. Missing such a big number is no good for any business. Make sure that your website is compatible with all different screen sizes, including mobile devices & tablets.
4. Check the Speed of the Theme:
90% of users move on if a page takes longer than 5 seconds to load. That’s a critical sign that people are not patient enough to wait while your website loads.
Use Google Page Speed Insights or GTmetrix-like tools to access the theme’s loading time.
5. Security & Vulnerabilities:
Never compromise with your security on WP. Hackers are always trying to invade your website. Use some security tools to evaluate the security features of your website.
– WPScan
– Sucuri Site Check
– Nessus
– Qualys (Cloud security and compliance solutions)
6. Theme Documentation:
Quality themes made by professionals or individual experts always come with documentation. This documentation includes the details of the theme, the process to set up, and the customization available.
Themes without documentation are a red flag. Don’t go with them or else read their public reviews in detail. Be careful if you’ve bought such a theme.
7. Plugin Compatibility:
Install any premium theme’s trial version and install several plugins to check whether it’s working flawlessly or not. This will help you ensure that there are no conflicts going big with this theme.
8. SEO-Friendliness:
SEO is essential for any website to draw organic traffic in the long run. Look for only premium themes that have excellent SEO-friendliness. Most themes use a tag or special mention of SEO optimization in detail. Look for that and go for public reviews too.
– Use Google Search Console
– MOZ
– Frog SEO Spider
– Ahrefs
– Schema Markup Testing Tool
9. Translations & Internationalisation:
Go for a theme that supports multilingual features for international business opportunities. Such a theme code will help you expand your business across seas.
10. Support & Update:
This advice comes under off-beat ideas to evaluate any theme’s code. Support and updates are very crucial when you’re working online with a premium theme, especially when you’re no tech nerd.
– Check the developer’s previous track record.
– Look for the recent updates of the theme and its update frequency.
– Evaluate the support system by dropping a message or calling. The quality depends on their reply speed.
11. Manual Code Review:
Finally, let’s do it old school. If you are a programmer or you, yourself are an expert in coding, go for a manual review of the PHP, Javascript, and CSS files to check the quality of codes a developer has used. Look for readability, organization, easy accessibility, and compact, and fast design.
Conclusion:
Unlike the free ones, WordPress has not imposed a security check for premium WP themes. This sometimes causes users to lose their valuable money & time. If you’re looking for a WP premium theme to start your online business, evaluating the codes of any premium WP theme is a must. In this article, we have listed down the ways you can do so. Try all of them out and get your business a worthy premium WP theme.
