Looking for the Best WordPress SEO Theme? You are in the right place !
The theme you use affects content structure, your metadata, user experience, loading speed and many other parameters that are important in SEO.
The advantage of WordPress is to provide you with more than 30,000 themes. The downside is that it’s hard to choose the right one for your needs! That’s why we are going to discuss the criteria to check before installing the template, then list down 7 Best SEO Friendly WordPress Themes!
Why Choose the Best WordPress SEO Theme?
Apart from the design, the theme used on your website contributes to the experience you provide to the visitors. It plays an important role in the responsiveness of your pages, the speed of their loading and the ergonomics of web design.
From a technical standpoint, search engines don’t actually look at the visual interface of your website, but the code that builds it. If the latter is poorly structured and HTML tags are used incorrectly, crawlers will not understand the content of your pages.
Many templates may use multiple H1 tags to style your home page text. Even if you get a good design, it will have a negative impact on your SEO.
Other themes may also ignore headings altogether, leaving your pages with only the title tag and some content divider elements (div). Crawlers are able to understand the text contained in the div, but important parts of your site will not be highlighted. And who says bad structure, says slow site!
So, How to Choose the Best WordPress Theme for SEO?
6 Criteria for Choosing the Best WordPress SEO Theme
We have compiled a list with our favorite WordPress themes for SEO. But if you want to do the research on your own, here are the things to check for adopting an SEO-friendly template!
1) coding
To avoid SEO issues, it is important that your theme is developed according to up-to-date coding standards. In a way, this criterion is related to page load speed: accumulating code can slow down loading times for the end user, as well as for search robots trying to index your site.
However, as a beginner not knowing any coding language, it will be difficult to look at the code and get an idea of ​​its quality.
To make sure your theme uses clean code, check for errors with the W3C Markup Verifier. If the errors seem excessive, you can consider other options.
2) Loading speed
Themes are sometimes the cause of slow page loading, especially if they contain custom widgets or Google Fonts, which will only slow down your website.
The one you choose should be fast, lightweight and customizable, with only the features you need. For this, check if it is possible to disable certain settings to improve site speed.
Finally, take a test! Install the template, then use PageSpeed ​​Insights.
3) Compatibility with all content
The best SEO-friendly WordPress themes are compatible for all browsers regardless of operating system, device, and screen size. The goal is for all users to be able to read and share your content.
When choosing a design, check the description to see if the developer has listed compatible or tested browsers. It should work with modern browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome and Edge.
4) A responsive design
The best WordPress theme for SEO adapts its layout to the screen size and resolution. It should be as user friendly on a smartphone as it is on a computer.
Hence the interest of choosing a responsive template, which improves the overall user experience as well as your SEO. Do we need to remind you that Google favors mobile-friendly pages in its rankings?
Generally, developers specify whether the theme is responsive or not. If in doubt, you can install it and use the mobile-friendly test tool to find out!
5) Material Priority
Themes should use appropriate HTML tags to make it clear to search engines what the body of the content is. But also to avoid the creation of duplicate content.
If the chosen theme includes a builder (Divi, Elementor, Themify Builder, Beaver Builder…), in the main content section
There should be tags. For header sections, they must end in H1, H2 and H3 tags.
With a theme that takes care of these aspects automatically, you can focus on other tasks.
6) Regular Updates
11% of WordPress site vulnerabilities are caused by an outdated theme. Regular updates are important for security and bug fixing.
They also allow you to maintain compatibility of your site with the latest versions of web browsers. In case of incompatibility, your site will not load properly. As a result, you will lose traffic and space in the SERPs.
The most popular WordPress themes are updated frequently. However, before downloading or purchasing the template, check the date of its last update.
7 WordPress Themes for SEO
To make your choice easy, here are our top 7 best WordPress SEO themes!
1) Divi
Divi is the most popular WordPress theme in the world. It must be said that its SEO features are undeniable:
- Along with being highly customizable, the theme is fully responsive.
- It offers 800 pre-made designs that can be suitable for any business and for any purpose.
- Divi has a page builder that allows for easy drag-and-drop editing.
- The theme allows you to optimize on-page SEO and optimize URLs.
- Divi is compatible with various SEO plugins offered by WordPress.
Price: From $89/year for the theme and access to all Elegant theme plugins.
2) SEO Crawler
As its name suggests, the SEO crawler template offered by the publisher Theme Forest provides everything you need for natural context. Its minimalist and modern design will suit marketing agencies, start-ups, healthcare companies etc.
Its main features are:
- GDPR compliance.
- Compatibility with the largest SEO plugins.
- Advanced customization options.
- Google Web Font Integration.
- Regular Updates.
- A responsive design.
Price: $64
3) Astra
Astra deserves its place in our list of the best SEO friendly WordPress themes! Light and fast, it weighs less than 50KB and does not rely on jQuery.
Among its main properties are:
- Automatically adding important schema tags.
- Short and quick to load code.
- An optimized header tag structure.
- Built-in AMP compatibility.
- Compatibility with all major builders: Elementor, Divi, Thrive Architect, etc.
Price: $59
4) Ecocoded
If climate change is important to you, Ecocoded WordPress theme is there. In addition to being lightweight, fast and optimized for search engines, EcoCoded minimizes power consumption while loading on your visitor’s device.
At a minimum, the template only loads a font, while minifying and compressing the code. There are no built-in animations or frames to make the display as light as possible.
In addition to these benefits, EcoCoded:
- Provides a responsive design.
- Provides many SEO features.
- Compatible with Elementor.
- Advanced design allows customization.
Price: FREE!
5) Origin
Genesis is not just a subject, but a framework. Choosing this solution is providing yourself with a very practical toolbox for building your website.
Origin has several advantages:
- Clean, lightweight code that helps your site load quickly.
- Automatic addition of schema tags.
- Regular Updates.
- Great flexibility thanks to its integrated tools, which are activated and deactivated according to your needs.
- Option to control SEO title/description and add noindex tag to certain content.
Price: Origin offers a free version with limited functionality. The cost of the Pro version is 335€ per year including all devices.
6) Generate Press
Among the best SEO-friendly WordPress themes, we can mention GeneratePress. A template with multiple features to improve the reach and context of your site.
Among its main strengths are:
- A lightweight and minimal code that ensures super fast loading.
- Basically advanced antivirus protection.
- Easy support for schema.org tags.
- A library of pre-built designs to expedite the process of launching your new website.
- Compatibility with Beaver Builder and Elementor Builders.
- Full optimization of mobile display.
Price: $44 per year or $219 for life.
7) Neva
Simple and effective, Neve deserves its place at the top of the best WordPress themes for SEO! Its attractive design suits all types of businesses and allows for the creation of a showcase site, e-commerce or blog.
In terms of functionality, we can mention:
- Native support for AMP format.
- Compatibility with most builders: Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, SiteOrigin…
- Full customization options to make the site in your image.
- Regular Updates.
- Responsive and efficient technical support.
Price: Free, but also present in paid version (from 69€/year) if you need more features.
our tip
Don’t hesitate to read the comments and know the opinions of other users to make sure you choose the best SEO-friendly WordPress theme. You will find interesting information there to make an informed choice.
And if you have a WordPress site building project in mind, consider getting support from a WordPress developer. Post your ad on Codeur.com now!