There are large number of websites available for free and premium wordpress themes. You will get lot of additional functionality to enhance your website with premium themes. Also you can buy these themes for a price low as 20$-40$. In this post I am going to tell you about my checklist on selecting a premium theme for purchase. I hope this will help you to buy a theme for your next wordpress project or your own site.

1. Compatible with WordPress Template Development Guidelines

 

WordPress official website provides comprehensive list of guidelines for building wordpress themes. If you are planning to upload a theme to wordpress theme directory, your theme should definitely meet the given guidelines. It ensures that all the layouts and functions available to display any kind of data in your blog without generating errors.

 

WordPress also provides complete set of test data which can be used to validate any theme. So If you are planning to buy a premium theme and free version is also available. Get the theme and test it with wordpress test data. If the test data is not properly displayed in the theme,you should avoid buying that theme. WordPress test data can be found here. Next I’ll show you how to import the theme data and test.

Log into the admin dashboard and go to the tools section on left menu. Click on the import link and you will get the screen shown below.

 

 

Click on the WordPress link from the list of items and you will get a screen to install a plugin for data importing.

 

 

Click on Install Now button and plugin will be installed automatically if it has the required permissions. You will get the following screen once the installation is completed.

 

 

Then click on the Activate Plugin & Run Importer link and you will get the following screen. You can upload the test data xml file downloaded from wordpress website. Now everything is completed and your website will have various types of articles. Go through each of them and see whether everything is displayed properly. You can use advanced settings provided in wordpress test data guidelines here.

 

 

If everything is working properly the theme you are testing is properly coded. You should consider buying this theme.

 

 

2. Availability of a Demo Site

 

Another important thing is that you should check whether demo site is provided for the theme you are going to buy. I think if a demo is not available you should omit buying that theme. Also demo site should have enough articles to see. If it contains a Hello World Article only that is not enough. I prefer following 2 sites which provides a demo for their themes.

 

Themeforest
FThemes

 

 

3. Browser and WordPress Version Compatibility

 

One of the most important things in selecting a theme is browser and version compatibility. Generally theme should be compatible with the latest wordpress version. Since you visitors are coming from different browsers it is important that your theme displays properly in major browsers. Check browser version compatibility before buying a theme.

 

 

 

4. Sidebar Widgets Support

 

Sidebar widgets is another important thing I look before buying premium themes. WordPress provides default set of inbuilt widgets such as Archives,Categories,Recent Posts,Search,etc… Premium themes also provides addtional widgets to enhance site functionality. I look for following things in themes regarding widgets.

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You can use widgets option in admin menu under appearance to customize the sidebar widgets according to your preference as shown below.

 

 

 

5. Shortcode Support

 

WordPress shortcodes allow you to add custom functionality to your posts and pages. You can just place the shortcodes in the editor and generate output. Most of the premium themes provides various kinds of shortcodes to improve the design and functionality. I would suggest you to look for follwoing shortcodes when you are buying a premium theme.

 

• Custom Buttons
• Multi Column Layouts
• Typography
• Styled Lists

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Custom Page Templates

 

Another important thing to look for in wordpress themes is custom page templates. Every premium theme provides list of custom page templates to create other pages of your site. You should look for these templates according to your requirement. Generally following custom pages are available in a premium theme.

 

• About Page
• Contact Page
• Portfolio Page
• Services Page

 

 

7. Post Thumbnails

 

Post Thumbnails is a another important feature for your blog. Users prefer blogs with related images more than text content. If your theme supports post thumbnails it will allow you to upload a images and display it with your post. Normally small images is shown in post list page and enlarged images is shown in single post. Consider the support for thumbnail images when buying a thme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Custom Menu Support

 

WordPress latest version provides option to allow custom menu support in themes. Your theme can define separate menus for header,footer,etc.. Earlier we had to customize the links in the menu using coding. Now you can drag and drop the menu items you want to show in the menu. Following screen shows you how to add custom menus.

 

 

If your theme does not support custom menus, following message will appear. “The current theme does not natively support menus, but you can use the “Custom Menu” widget to add any menus you create here to the theme’s sidebar.” In such cases I suggest you to buy a theme which supoorts custom menus.

 

 

9. Comments and Trackbacks Design

 

Comments and Trackbacks is another 2 important features in a theme. Comments allow users to share ideas about your posts and Trackbacks allow you to share link of your article in other sites. These 2 components must have a clear design in the theme. I look for following list of features regrading comments and trackbacks.

 

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10. Theme Options Page

 

The last but not the least feature is Theme Options page. Most premium themes provides an options page which can be used to customize the layout according to the website. You can apply different images,color schema’s,menus and much more. FThemes provides nice options page separated into various tabs for customizing as shown below. Its better to buy a theme which can be customized according to your needs.

 

 

This is my checklist of choosing a premium theme to buy. What is Yours ? Use the comment section to share your ideas.