Make a List of Technical Requirements

Do you have basic HTML and CSS skills? If not, then you’ll need a visual webpage builder. Do you plan to integrate basic ecommerce functionality into your website? If so, then you’ll need a theme that’s compatible with Woocommerce or another popular shopping cart. Make a list of these and other technical requirements and features before selecting your theme. Often, you’ll be able to use these attributes to filter results on websites like ThemeForest. This will limit your choices to a more manageable list of potential WordPress themes for your project.

Make Sure It’s Compatible With Popular Plugins and PHP 7.2

Make sure the theme works with popular plugins like Yoast SEO, Woocommerce, and others. If you have time to wait for a response, then you can try to reach out to the theme developer. Make sure the theme works with top plugins. In addition, make sure that it’s compatible with the latest version of PHP, or you’ll have issues installing and upgrading it.

Keep it Simple

Less is more when it comes to WordPress themes. It’s great to have the functionality you need, but too much can bloat your website. Not only will it slow down your pages, but too much code could present unnecessary security flaws. So, think about your requirements and avoid things that you don’t expect to provide immediate value. Remember, this is WordPress. You can always add plugins later on if you find you need additional functionality.

Confirm That the Theme Follows WordPress Best-Practices

Don’t choose a bloated theme. Pick one that uses lean, and clean code. Otherwise your pages will take forever to load. Don’t buy a theme unless there’s a demo link. Click through it and then adjust your screen-width to all common sizes, including mobile. Make sure that the theme is responsive and displays well on mobile devices.

Make a List of Brand Requirements

Does your brand use specific colors or fonts? If so, then make sure that the theme either comes with those parameters, or that you can adjust them. The best premium themes make it easy for you to adjust colors and fonts, and they’re not terribly expensive. For less than $100, you’ll save hours of work.

Pay Attention to Readability

Make sure that the fonts you choose are easy to read. The size, and style of the font should make it easy for users to consume your content. Not only is this good for users, but it’s good for SEO.

Multilingual-Ready

Most likely, you’ll want to be able to offer your website in more than one language. Make sure it’s multi-lingual ready. This will expand your market to include many other customers that your competitors may not reach.

Thoroughly Test Your WordPress Theme After Installation

A visual inspection is usually enough to determine whether a theme is worth buying. Don’t forget to test it in every major browser including Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox. Also test it on mobile browsers. However, this is not enough and you need to be sure that your theme is well-designed. After you install it, add the Theme Check plugin to your website and run it. You’ll learn about some basic issues that might exist in your theme, and you can then decide whether to keep it, or replace it.

Select a Reliable Web Hosting Provider

After you’ve got your theme, you’ll want to launch your website. Pick a web hosting company that fits your budget and needs. You’ll find lots of web hosting reviews on HostCalc, so take your time and select a plan that’s right for your project.

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What is the Long Term Vision of Your Website?

The answers to some basic questions will help you to determine how many resources you’ll need to run your website.

How do you plan to drive traffic to your website?

If you don’t depend on SEO for traffic, then you can often get a fast start by utilizing a hosted service like Shopify. This is a simple way to launch an ecommerce website. However, it is not as flexible as installing WordPress (and Woocommerce) or some other software package onto a web hosting account. This means that you’ll have less control over URL structures and other SEO elements. If you do utilize SEO, then you’ll likely want as much flexibility as possible.

Is it an ecommerce website, a content site, or something else?

Generally, ecommerce websites are more resource-intensive than content websites. You’ll need to utilize lots of database queries and processing power to handle pages, order processing, and integrations. If on the other hand you have a content website, then you can often get away with less processing and database power. In either case, you can think about utilizing a CDN to serve static pages instead of database-driven pages that are constructed on the fly. A good first step would be to use a free service like Cloudflare.

How much traffic do you reasonably expect to get on a daily basis?

If you have a local business, then you can probably get away with using a small website hosting plan. On the other hand, if you have a national, or international business, and your website gets a lot of traffic, then you might need a VPS or dedicated server.

Will you serve heavy video files or other content that requires a lot of bandwidth?

Are you streaming videos, or running a chat service? If so, then you will likely need a dedicated server for these services. You can then decide whether you want to serve all of your content from this server, or if you want to serve your webpages from a smaller hosting account.

Will you require heavy database queries?

Think about how much database use you’ll require. If you’ve got an ecommerce website with a lot of products or customers, then this is a likely case. If you’ve got a content site with 1000s of pages, then this may be true as well. On the other hand, if you’ve got a small website, or static content, then a simple shared hosting account may be the right decision.

So, What Kind of Hosting Do I Need?

Once you’ve got some answers to these questions, you can begin to think about the different types of website hosting. Check out some of the different types of hosting in our reviews, and then make an educated decision. You’ll want to compare these three options:

• Shared Web Hosting – simplest, cheapest option
• VPS Web Hosting – requires a bit more configuration, relatively inexpensive and scalable
• Dedicated Server – a robust hosting option that gives you a great deal of customizability, but which also requires a degree of technical knowledge

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