When looking for a suitable WordPress Theme – be cautious of the “Themed / Niche Business” Theme.
There is a growing trend of WordPress Themes being shoe-horned into a “purpose” by a Theme Developer in an attempt to attract customers within a particular business or niche – and usually those Themes don’t actually have any notable functionality geared towards the business being targeted. Typically we find a Theme Demo (a Live Theme Showcase) which appears to cater towards an interest – only to discover that there isn’t anything in the backend of the theme that will benefit the audience it’s being marketed towards.
For example, a Theme Developer might call their theme the “Dumpling” – and the Theme Demo is styled beautifully to look like Chinese Restaurant website – when in fact there is absolutely nothing in the Theme that will benefit a Restaurant (eg. no Food Menu post type, Reservation System, or Logogram Support). An actual Chinese restaurant may soon discover that they have installed a very basic theme that will require plugins and design/coding skills to get it looking and functioning anything like the website they saw in the Theme Demo.
We have seen this across the board… for example: “Gym” Themes, without functionality that would benefit a Gym. “Hotel” Themes, with no booking system integration. A “Soccer Club” theme, that is just a raw, featureless, standard blank theme.
In the case of the “Soccer Club” theme – the developer designed their Theme Demo to look like a Soccer Club, with team photos and competition ladder, player profiles etc. After installing this Theme, we find that there are no tools for adding Team Photos, Profiles or Rankings etc – The Theme Developer could have just as easily built a “Barber Shop” Demo with the same Theme and marketed it that way instead.
Remember – that a Theme will also usually not look like the Theme Demo after installation – as the Theme Developer likely spent days/weeks editing it after install to look a certain way. So – always choose your Theme based on it’s functionality, and not how it looks.
How to avoid this trap…
Usually a good WordPress Theme Developer will create a multi-purpose (well-rounded) Theme. The Developer of this Theme will then typically opt to show multiple uses across different industries -which showcases the in-built functionality and flexibility of the theme. But importantly, you should be reading about the documented Key Features of the Theme… ie Don’t choose a theme based solely on the way the Theme Demo looks. Ensure it has solid and well-rounded functionality that may suit a purpose. Ensure that any functionality doesn’t just come in the form of “Plugin Compatibility” – For example: Some Themes appear to have an Event Calendar built in, when in fact (in the fine print) it is only compatible with “Some Popular Event Calendar” plugin. Plugin compatibility is good – but be wary of developers who are not upfront about third-party only features.
There are definitely great Themes out there which have been built with a particular business type in mind – these typically go out of their way to ensure the Theme Demo highlights exactly what in-built functionality it has to benefit your business website and website administration.
My advice…
Use Elementor instead!
Install the very basic and lightweight “Hello Theme”, and then find suitable plugins to assist with the development and management of your websites purpose.
An Elementor Website can be designed to look like any other cool Theme Demo you can find.
