1. Make Note of Your Desired Features
Unless you want to make a bunch of design customizations to your WordPress theme after you install it (not ideal for most people), it’s always best to select a theme that has the major features you want.
For example, do you want to have one column, two columns, three columns… ? Do you want to customize your colors? Do you want to have a main image or featured area on the homepage to display a photo or form for people to enter their name and email to join your mailing list? Does it need to display on all mobile devices?
Make a list of the main features that are most important and search for themes that meet as many requirements as possible. That way you aren’t spending time having to customize the code and design later.
This is especially true if you opt to go with one of the free themes provided by WordPress. They can be a bit more challenging to customize because they may not give you as many customization options as the “premium” themes (usually around $25-$99).
2. Identify the Purpose of Your Site
For example, if the primary goal of your site is to collect email addresses for future promotions then you might want to use a theme like the Generate theme by StudioPress.
If you want to build a membership site and sell an information product, or if you want to have several landing pages for different products or offers, you might want to use OptimizePress. It has membership functionality and integrates with shopping carts and email autoresponder services.
If you want a blog site, you could go the route of a free theme and find something that’s clean and efficient without being overwhelming with tons of features and customization options.
3. Consider your navigation.
The navigation is one of the most important parts of your site and one that many people starting out screw up.
The navigation needs to be concise and make sense to your visitor. Think in terms of what THEY want to learn, not what YOU want to share. How can you organize your content so it focuses on the visitor finding what they want to know as quickly as possible? Too many options can be confusing. Navigation that’s only about you, your experience, your credentials, your location, your hours etc. may not be compelling to your audience.
Think about whether they know about you before they get to your site. If they do, what questions are they looking to answer when they find you? If they don’t, what are they looking for that you are offering them a solution to?
