WordPress accounts for almost one-third of all websites today. That’s an astonishing number for a company that started in 2005. The secret is in the uncompromising approach to user-friendliness.
WordPress websites aren’t catering to enthusiasts or beginners. The powerful open-source code is always being improved and added upon. Because of its strong community, you also have the best collection of themes on the internet.
With so many WordPress template sites, it’s hard to choose one for everyone’s needs. We also need to understand that premium WordPress themes don’t always mean quality. Not everybody is ready to invest money into themes they’ve never tried before.
Because of this, we have decided to compile a list of free WordPress template sites for the most-popular uses.
These five template sites are graded on quality, variety, and insight. You’ll find many themes are shared across different categories. Most themes are also highly customizable to suit whatever needs you have for your website.
A well-known website that is dedicated to all things WordPress. CodeinWP is a great source for free mobile-ready themes. Their guide helps sort through all the updated WordPress themes optimized for mobile devices.
Speed is king on mobile, so you need to know how to make your website load lightning-fast. That starts with a solid mobile theme that is streamlined and knows how to handle images/media. It also needs to have a built-in responsive design that automatically fits everything on a mobile screen.
The key is getting the best layout without compromising on information or visual attractiveness. Responsive websites essentially shrink down everything while keeping it legible, no matter what device you’re using. This is not only necessary for aesthetics, but it also contributes to the success of your mobile website.
Free WordPress themes that are optimized for mobile help with SEO. This allows your website to rank better on search results for any device. It also improves social media signals, making content more readily shareable.
Choosing to use one of these mobile-ready themes on CodeinWP will save you a lot of time and money. There is no need for creating duplicate content for mobile and desktop users. With proper optimization, your website will load in seconds no matter which device it’s on.
If you want, free, dynamic, and artistic templates for portfolios, Color Lib has them. This is an often neglected category of WordPress themes. Sure, there are plugins out there that help you set up a portfolio, but none as easy as a premade template.
Color Lib’s list of free WordPress themes is a godsend for freelancers, artists, and professionals of all types. Showcase your work properly with appropriate themes and navigation. These WordPress templates also come with tools to make your site mobile friendly.
Don’t settle for the default portfolio section add-on that comes with WordPress. You don’t want your portfolio to look and act like a carbon-copy of everyone else.
With a strong portfolio, you can move at the top of the resume pile. A professional WordPress theme needs to showcase your work in the right frame. You’re going to want a template with compact navigation, a nice contrast of colors, and a simple layout.
You can tweak all of these features with the appearance options in WordPress. The free WordPress themes on Color Lib also come with pre-built customization features. You can swap between styles and themes within seconds and not have to worry about compatibility issues.
You don’t need a special template to turn a dog-walking blog into a protein shake blog. You do, however, want a WordPress template that is optimized for Adsense or affiliate marketing. Niche Pursuits is a great place to start if you want to make money online with a blog.
These niche website themes help with creating multiple niche websites each with their own unique look. This is very important for attracting the attention of your target audience. It’s also what Google looks at when determining the legitimacy of your website.
Being able to assert your niche website as an authority, filled with valuable content, starts with a great theme. Niche Pursuits is the best place to start when building your niche websites. They have plenty of great WordPress tools, advice, and up-to-date information.
Niche Pursuits is written from the point of view of someone who has successfully built hundreds of niche sites. Their years of trial and error has resulted in a treasure trove of useful advice. Using these themes will help you get approved by affiliates to use their ads on your website.
The more professional and complete your niche website looks, the better your chances of getting approved. These free WordPress themes help make it easier to create a unique look to your site.
If you want free WordPress templates for your business, this is a good place to start. These themes are centered around bold, sharp, and succinct designs. They are functional and subdued to avoid wasting any time.
These themes contain simple navigation, practical use of embedded media, and clear text. They work great for both digital and physical stores, too. If you need a place to list all your business events and contact information, don’t pay thousands for a web developer.
These free themes do a great job at listing product information, searching inventory, using online reservations, and so forth. You can use these themes to integrate email marketing and build a subscriber list for special announcements.
You can add as little or as much as you want to encourage buyer engagement. These themes are highly flexible for any type of business. Just Free Themes also has tutorials on how to incorporate social media features and extra security to control the flow of data.
Business websites don’t always need to look gray and boring. With the right theme and a few tips on design, you can turn any ugly site into a beauty. WordPress themes make rolling out custom page templates and RSS news feeds second-nature.
You can create separate pages for career interests, employee profiles, and a look inside company culture. You can deliver a premium experience, even with free WordPress template sites. It all boils down to coding.
Some paid themes may look amazing but have terrible coding. This is not good for businesses that rely on customer experience and security. The better the coding, the better your pages will load, too.
Stay away from themes that rely on a lot of graphics animations, images, and scripts that pull a lot of information.
Why settle for a picnic when you can have the whole grill? Theme Grill is a great place to find the best free WooCommerce themes. If you plan on doing any online storefronts, you’re going to want a template that is safe, stable, and fast.
These themes come with WooCommerce support (and other e-commerce platforms) out of the box. The storefronts are all easy to customize and come with some great starter templates. We recommend using these themes even if you aren’t trying to sell any goods at the moment.
You can always go back and add a shop to sell ebooks, software, and other digital goods. Physical products can also be sold through an e-commerce store with either drop-shipping or a supplier. You can set up your store just for services or subscriptions, too.
Going this route allows you to keep the number of email inquiries down. WooCommerce lets you sell almost anything, even other products from other companies. Some affiliate marketers will link another store’s products to make it easier for customers to buy.
Using free WordPress themes to set up an online store is easy, thanks to sites like Theme Grill. You’ll find most of these designs are very clean and simple. You don’t need anything competing with the products for attention.
The structure should be clear and not busy at all. A guest who’s unable to browse easily won’t purchase anything. The inside column needs to catch the person’s eye directly after they arrive.
You should let the template decide the number of sidebars you need. You may only need one at the top with a cart notification. This has to translate well on a smartphone, too.
Around 80% of your customer base is going to come from a phone, so make sure your free theme looks nice on one first. Any sluggish or hard-to-read sections on your storefront will result in lower conversion rates. Clear menus and a search bar are standard features every store theme should have.
Since there are so many themes out there, it’s important to test them. You won’t know how it will look or perform until you have it live. When you’re trying to test out multiple themes, the standard method of uninstalling and installing is not very user-friendly.
Luckily there are a few different alternatives available to you for testing your theme before going live. The fastest and safest route is using WordPress’ own test software. The WordPress Theme Unit Test Data lets you create a mock-up of any WordPress theme to see what it looks like in practice.
It can simulate any number of pages, posts, and menu entries to test the responsiveness of a theme. Use this to play with features and see what works best for how you want to work.
Once you’ve got a general idea of how your website is going to look, pick a free WordPress template site and install it on your web host. When it’s done, make sure you grab the standard WordPress security and backup plugins first.
Now, you can play with your new WordPress template without worrying about breaking anything. Next, go over every default page on your theme and see if the menus and sidebars, headers and footers, line up correctly. Repeat this for every device you have, preferably.
You also want to use this opportunity to test different fonts and sizes and see how they display. Each theme handles text formatting differently. Some provide very intuitive spaces, while others may require some modifying.
If you feel like you can’t get your posts to format properly on your own, move onto another template or hire a web designer for help.
Our list of the best WordPress themes is geared towards all-in-one solutions. This means that the templates already have all the essentials of things you’ll use. Social media widgets, feedback forms, and subscription fields are some examples of extras you want built-in.
In terms of plug-ins, it’s good to have these included with themes, too, for compatibility purposes. The publisher has already made sure these plug-ins are secure and won’t inhibit your WordPress theme. If you already have plug-ins install, you’ll need some time to test compatibility.
Once you’ve done all your testing, then you’ve successfully found your perfect free WordPress theme. Remember, the paid themes aren’t a shortcut to building your website. They need the same type of testing, too.
You don’t need to have years of experience building websites for WordPress. That’s the beauty of these free WordPress template sites. Much of the heavy lifting is already done for you. Thanks to the huge community of programmers, designers, and businesses that use WordPress.
Take that first step to building the perfect website today. Secure a reliable and trustworthy website host before you do anything. You can get affordable, secure web services to host your WordPress site right here.
Choose from three different hosting packages based on your needs. From established firms to small portfolio websites, find your home at Host.ie.
