Choose the Best WordPress Theme and Plugins for Your Website
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WordPress themes and plugins are a huge part of your website’s design.
They provide the look and feel that your site will need to be appealing, and add useful functions while also giving you the freedom to tweak it however you like.
But what’s the best WordPress theme and plugins for your business?
If you have little money or search for something free that will fit your needs then the options are few.
Read on to get my picks of the best free WordPress themes and plugins for your website if your budget are slim.
What are the Different Types of WordPress Themes?
A WordPress theme is a collection of code that creates the look and feel of a website.
A popular type of WordPress Theme is the standard theme, which is available in many different shapes and sizes. These themes can be used to create a wide range of websites, from small businesses to large sites.
Most WordPress themes come with built-in functions that make them easy to use, but there are also plenty of custom-made WordPress Themes available online.
If you’re looking for a specific type of WordPress Theme, you can find them on the WordPress theme marketplace inside your WordPress dashboard.
There are two main types of WordPress themes: Static and Dynamic.
Static WordPress Themes preload all the content from your web server into memory, so you don’t need to worry about loading any files each time you visit your website.
Dynamic WordPress Themes use PHP variables to determine which parts of your page should be displayed based on user input (e.g., search results). This can result in faster load times and more responsive designs.
How to Choose the Right WordPress Theme or Plugins for Your Website.
Once you know what type of WordPress theme you want, it’s time for step 2: choosing the right plugins!
Hundreds of plugins are available online that fulfill all sorts of requirements – from simple single-page applications up to complex multi-page e-commerce stores!”The following tips will help you choose the right template for your specific website:
1) Take into account your target audience:
- Who will be using your theme?
- Are you building an app for iPhone or Android?
- Are you targeting people within macro-specific age groups?
- Do you need a light or dark design?
- Will users be visiting your website throughout the day or just at night?
2) Consider layout options:
- Which design formats do you want to support (eCommerce slider pages with images/gifs)
- How Many Features Do You Want to Include?
- Will users be loading pages all at once or does each page need to be loaded one at a Time?
- And more. (This will depend upon your website’s functionality)
When choosing plugins, it is important to consider the specific features and functionality that you need for your website.
Some popular plugins include functionality for SEO, security, contact forms, and social media integration.
Be sure to read reviews and check for compatibility with your theme and WordPress version before installing a plugin.
It’s also important to choose quality plugins and themes from reputable developers and to keep them updated and compatible with the latest version of WordPress.
It’s recommended to have a backup of your website before making any changes to your website’s theme or plugins, if for some reason when you update something crashes it, and makes your website unusable.
So now to what you came for:
What themes and plugins do I recommend?
To start with I always recommend that you stick to a limited amount of plugins for your website, that to make your website load faster when someone visits it.
KadenceWP
For themes, we have an undisputed king inside the free WordPress theme marketplace and that is KadenceWP
Kadence WP is a really good and free theme with a good selection of starter setups to choose from so you will get a good-looking website running in minutes. Go and look it up in the theme library inside the WordPress dashboard
The Kadence WP team has also built a compatible advanced block builder plugin among others and that one is free as well.
Kadence theme and Kadence Gutenberg block builder also come as premium products and I always recommend them due to their high build quality and that they are among the fastest products to use for a WordPress website regarding loading speed
You can find information about them HERE
SEOpress
Next you are going to need a good SEO plugin. I have used SEOpress for all my websites and it is my opinion one of the best ones you can have.
They also have a premium version of SEOpress that you can find HERE
They have a really easy 5 minute setup guide in video format that walks you through the process of setting everything up:
WP Compress
WP Compress is an image optimization plugin that will shrink the size of your uploaded images so that they can be served faster when someone visits your site. The number one reason that your site loads slow normally is image sizes. The images can even be served through a CDN of your choice in the plugin to help you optimize even further.
WP Compress has of course a premium version that you can read about HERE
To setup everything you can follow their quick start guide HERE
Google Analytics Plugin
This plugin is completely free and helps with pulling in your google analytics data from google so you do not need to go to another website to see your traffic data.
That can be helpful when figuring out if your efforts to attract new visitors is working
WPvivid Backup
WPvivid backup plugin is a must have! Everyone knows that at some point in time their website will be hacked, brake down or they need migrating it to a new webhost and that can be cumbersome, but with WPvivid it is easy peasy.
The backup plugin makes it easy to make daily or weakly backups that can be uploaded directly to a cloud account of your choice or emailed or downloaded to your computer and when disaster strikes you just install WPvivid plugin on the newly restored website and upload the backup and everything is back to normal again in about a minute or two
You can find the free plugin HERE
Antispam Bee
When you have written and published your blog posts it is always fun to get engagement from your readers but only the real ones that add value to your website. So keep all the spammers away with this nifty little plugin that is free to use.
You can download the Antispam Bee plugin HERE
Now you have a good WordPress theme and the basics of plugins to start your WordPress powered website.
Good luck with editing your website!
Best Regards,
Mario (The Webbiz Guy)
