A custom WordPress theme is a theme that is built specifically for your website.
Unlike a pre-made WordPress theme, custom themes are tailored made to meet your needs and requirements, and to incorporate your branding and style. Normally, you will team up with a web designer and developer to create this for you.
While pre-made themes can be a great option for many people, there may come a time when you need to look for something more bespoke. But how do you know when is the right time?
In this post, I’m going to share the various different signs that you’re ready to invest in a custom WordPress theme.
When you want to stand out from the crowd
Don’t get me wrong, I think pre-made themes are great; I wouldn’t run a theme store if I didn’t believe that!
However, one of the major downfalls of pre-made themes is that you’re not going to be the only person using that theme. Even with some customisation, sometimes it’s super when a website is using a pre-made theme.
If you’re ready to have a website that stands out from the crowd with a unique design specifically for your business, then a custom WordPress theme will be the best option.
Teaming up with a web designer and developer to create a custom WordPress theme with result in a website completely unique to you and that looks more polished that DIY website.
When you need the functionality that can’t be provided with a plugin
One of the benefits of building your website on WordPress is the access to plugins. There are currently over 50,000 plugins available for you to use to add additional functionality to your website.
But you may find that there’s certain functionality that you can’t achieve with a plugin alone. And even if you do find a plugin that can provide the functionality you require, it might not be compatible with your pre-made theme, or it may require some additional styling work to ensure that it fits in with the rest of your website’s design.
This is one of the advantages of working with a web developer on a custom theme project. They will be able to help you to set up the functionality that you require that you can’t achieve with a plugin, or help you to integrate a plugin into your website’s design so it looks seamless.
When you’re ready to take SEO seriously
SEO (search engine optimisation) is something that many business owners want to prioritise as it can be a great way for your ideal customers and clients to find you.
WordPress theme actually play a major role in SEO as they can affect factors such as the loading time of your website (which in turn has an impact on SEO), the structure of your website and user experience.
And while many pre-made themes are optimised for search engines, they won’t be as optimised a custom theme that is build solely with your business and your SEO strategy in mind.
In addition, pre-made themes and page builder plugins can be bulky with lots of features and functionality you may not even utilise on your website. A custom theme will only contain the functionality that you require and this can result in a much more streamlined, faster loading website.
When you’re wasting too much time on pre-made themes and page builder plugins
Setting up a website takes a lot of time. You have to figure out the right platform to use, pick a domain, find a suitable design to use, figure out how to use and customise it, add in content, imagery, logos, colours, fonts, etc. And if you don’t consider yourself to be a particularly technical person, this might take even longer to set up.
If you feel like you’re wasting too much time trying (and maybe failing) to get your website looking the way you want it to, it might be time to outsource this area of your business to someone else.
Your web designer and developer can work on bringing your dream website to life while you spend your time working in your zone of genius.
When you know your business works
When you first start your business, you might not be 100% sure if your idea is going to work or not. And so you might not be ready to invest a lot of money into your venture at the very beginning. Or perhaps you want to spend your start-up budget on something else you consider to be more important.
That’s absolutely fine, and completely understandable! I barely made any investments in my first year of business because I just wanted to see how things would pan out.
At the very beginning of your business journey, a pre-made WordPress theme might be a better option for you as they are a lot cheaper than custom themes (some are ever free!).
But once you reach that point where you know that your business works and that it is something that you want to continue doing, you may feel more ready to up your website game and invest in a custom WordPress theme.
Hot off the WordPress!
Join my FREE email community today to receive helpful tips and advice on building and maintaining your website directly in your inbox every other Friday. Just pop in your name and email address.
Pin for later?
