As I am asked oh so often, “Adam, what is the BEST theme for my new WordPress installation?” I often answer (as many things in the WordPress realm) “It Depends…”

With over 2200 themes in the WordPress repository (as of this posting), plus all the options for premium themes/frameworks, where do you start? (“You” being the client or even ME as a developer/designer).

In thinking about the question for a recently I came up with these questions:

• What are your business goals?  Is the site for information only or are you selling something. If e-commerce, is it an information product (digital download) or a physical product. Knowing this will help pick the theme for the options that it has or could have added to it.

• Who’s is going to update & maintain the site?  If you find something (pre-made) that is close to what you need, great. Maybe some minor color and font changes are all you need. But if you get a custom design and features added, who takes care of it? This is a biggie!

Considering these 2 questions as a STARTING point and then go from there.  Go where you ask?

Well, I would start by looking around at sites that you like the look of.  Keep and save a list using Evernote or Pinterest. Then write down the features that you NEED and then ones you WANT (remember Need/Want are two separate things!).

Once you have about 5-10 sites, then you can pick and choose the items from each one to mashup your own.

Final thought – as long as the site works for YOU then it’s perfect. Tweaks, changes and updates are all a part of the process.  The key is Progress, not Perfection.

Final Final thought.  I’m still a fan of Headway Themes. Though they recently revamped the entire Visual Editor, I still dig it & like the fact that they (HW) keeps adding features.  I explain it this way to people:  Every house has walls, windows, doors, floors, ceilings and a roof.  Where do you want them?  Headway allows me to put them where I want them.  Learning curve.. Sure.. Just like anything else, but once you have the design down, the content is still entered and generated on the WordPress side.