What to look for when choosing a wordpress template at Envato Market (themeforest)

Height of slider

Many wordpress templates feature large sliders. This is not good for SEO. Google penalizes websites where the text is low on the page. In fact, I think that sliders are bad for SEO since they don’t contain any text.

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Page builder

With the outbreak of the page builders like WPbakery, Elementor, Beaver builder, I can’t imagine going back to the old wordpress widgets system to build homepage layouts. That’s why it is important to check if the website is compatible with a page builder. Using a page builder gives you the maximum of freedom to build a page on WordPress using blocks without CSS code. It is much easier than using wordpress widgets.

Inline pictures

When there is a row of thumbnails, check if every block and or pictures are in line. If a picture is bigger than others or if a block is bigger than others it likely means there is a problem with the theme. Be cautious when a block is not inline because of a title that is too long.

Typography

Check if the font is not too small or too big compared to the titles. Check also the spaces between the titles and the text. Check if the fonts are ok on every major page.

Counter-productive elements

Some template designers love to add unnecessary CSS animations, CSS effects. It worsens the user experience by slowing down the access to an element of a layout. The least CSS animations and CSS effects and the better it is. It is quite frustrating to buy a wordpress theme and starting by understanding how to remove unnecessary CSS animations. We feel like we waste our time.