Key Features to Look for in a WordPress Theme for Authors and Writers
Are you looking for the best WordPress themes for writers and authors? If so, then you’ve landed in the right place! WordPress is the world’s largest and most widely used open-source website creation platform (formally, a content management system (CMS)), so there’s certainly no shortage of WordPress themes available for professional writers and authors in every niche imaginable. Though virtually any of countless themes could be used for a writer’s website, some text-based themes are better-suited for professionals in this niche, who want and need to highlight their creative abilities, is so important, than others.
Because there’s an endless array of WordPress themes, trying to narrow down the options and choose the right one for your website can seem like a daunting task. In order to find the right WordPress theme for your site, there are some key feature that you’re going to want to take into consideration. In this blog, our WordPress web designers from Liverpool have highlighted those features, which you should keep in mind when you’re looking for a WordPress theme for your blogging website.
Features to Consider When Selecting a WordPress Theme for Writers and Authors
Before you pick a WordPress theme for your website, it’s first important to identify the elements that make a theme suitable for professionals in this niche. When you’re searching for a quality and effective theme for your writer or author website, keep the following factors in mind.
Flexibility
Whether you write articles, blog posts, or books, as an author, you are constantly creating and adding new content to your portfolio, and your website is the perfect place to showcase any new content that you create. As such, when you’re looking for a WordPress theme for your website, flexibility is a key factor that you’re definitely going to want to consider. It should be easy to modify so that you can add new books, articles, blog posts, or any other projects that you’ve created.
Fortunately, there are dozens of WordPress themes that have been designed with flexibility in mind. Examples of some of the different options include Astra, Divi, and Neve.
Loading Speed
Loading speed is another key factor that you’re going to want to consider, as it has a direct impact on the functionality and usability of the site. Loading speed will affect the among of time site visitors will remain on a page, and subsequently, the chances that they will take the next step and purchase a book from your library or subscribe to your newsletter. That said, choosing a theme that isn’t overly bloated or laden with large files is definitely the way to go. If the theme is jammed up with large files, loading speeds will be impacted, and when that happens, visitors are likely going to end up getting frustrated and instead of sticking around and waiting for it to load, it’s likely that they’re going to click off and go elsewhere.
Page Builder Compatibility
A WordPress page builder is a plugin that allows you to easily create pages with a drag-and-drop interface. Rather than needing to code for everything from scratch, like you have to in HTML and CSS, you’re able to design detailed layouts with just a few clicks of a mouse. Page builders are particularly useful for writers and authors, as they let you create a well-designed site without having to devote a great deal of time, energy, and effort; after all, you want to focus your attention on your writing – not your website!
Responsiveness and Mobile-Friendliness
The vast majority of people are browsing the internet from their mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets. As such, your website must be responsive and mobile-friendly. The term “responsive” means that the site will instantly adjust to the size of the screen that the site visitor is viewing it on. Many of the newer WordPress themes are responsive, but you should still take the time to check out how the theme looks on several devices, and see if it can be customised. Some WordPress themes claim that they’re responsive, but in reality, they only look good when they’re in a demo version that has been extremely modified. Other themes will only work well on mobile devices when certain options are used; for instance, if the menu only features two items.
eCommerce Capabilities
Self-publishing has become increasingly popular and quite lucrative among writers and authors. As a matter of fact, if you’re looking at it from the perspective of profits, self-published books often perform much better than those that are published in the traditional manner. With the traditional publishing process, writers and authors usually only earn a small percentage of the total revenue of the sales. If you publish your book on your own, you’ll get to keep all of the profits; however, in order to acquire that profit, you’ll need to sell the books first. Your website is the perfect place to sell them!
That said, if you’re planning on self-publishing – or even if you’re not – you’re going to want to look for a WordPress theme that has eCommmerce capability. Of all the different types of eCommerce solutions, WooCommerce is by far the most popular; at the time of writing, there were more than 3 million active installations!While WooCommerce works with any WordPress theme, it’s far better to choose a theme that is specifically designed so that it will display products.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the practice of boosting your ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs), the goal of which is to get your site to appear as high up as possible in the results for specific keywords or searches. To clarify, if you’re a romance author, you’ll want your writing to appear in internet searches that include key phrases that relate to the genre; “romance books”, “romance stores”, “best romance writers”, etc. The results that show up in the top positions when these types of phrases are searched will garner significantly more traffic than pages that appear further down in the SERPs. Results that appear past the first pages are largely ignored; in fact, they’re seldom viewed.
Because SEO has a huge impact on the position and the success of your website, choosing a WordPress theme that is optimised for SEO should be a top priority.
Minimal Distraction
Believe it or not, some writers and authors load their websites with information that is completely irrelevant and that doesn’t have anything to do with their books; photos of their personal lives, collections of their favourite recipes, their views on current political events and world issues (two things that can spell disaster if you draw attention to in today’s climate). While it might seem like including this kind of information would personalise your website and make you more relatable; in reality, not only will it distract visitors to your site, but it may also scare them away – and you’ll end up losing potential sales!
When you’re designing your website, keep in mind that it should not be personal; rather, it should be a professional marketing tool where you can showcase your work, garner attention, promote your writing, and hopeful garner the attention of your targeted audience – and make conversions. Therefore, when you’re selecting a WordPress theme for your website, it should be hyper-focused on helping you achieve your goals as a writer. That means that you really aren’t going to need anything flashy, such as animations or introductions.
The Best WordPress Themes for Writers and Authors
Now that you know what features to consider when you’re searching for a WordPress theme for your site, here, we’ve included some of the best themes that incorporate the above-mentioned features that would be a great choice for your site design.
Divi
This WordPress theme and page builder replaces the standard WordPress post editor with its very own visually focused designer. It includes more than 195 layouts, some of which are optimised for writers; the “author” layout pack, for example.
Astra
This is by far the most popular WordPress theme. There are loads upon loads of templates to select from, a lot of which are particularly useful for writers, including the following two:
- Author
- eBook author
If you’d like to create a complete store of products, Astra has that covered for you, too, as the theme is optimised for WooCommerce.
Writers Blogily
This WordPress theme is designed for bloggers, as well as other types of writers, who would like to display their work on the internet. The design of this theme is clean and minimalist in nature, and it places all of the focus on your writing, so there are no distractions to contend with.
MyBook
A simple, yet well-designed theme, you can create pages using the drag-and-drop MyBook visual composer; you can customise the layout, colour scheme and you can customise the layout the colours, and switch up the design elements, too
Find the Perfect WordPress Theme for Writers and Authors
The above are just some examples of WoodPress themes that would be ideal for writers and authors. Whether you chose one of those themes – or you opt to look elsewhere, to make the best choice possible, keep the above-mentioned factors in mind when you’re shopping.
As part of our bespoke web design service in Liverpool, Blue Whale Media will ensure that your WordPress website uses the most appropriate and efficient theme.