Every company needs a high-quality, high-functioning, visually-appealing, and professional-looking website.
Fortunately, that’s no longer nearly as tall an order as it once was thanks to a content management system (CMS) called WordPress. Ever since 2003, WordPress has been making it incredibly easy for just about anyone to create the website of their dreams from scratch.
That said, a perfect website is no guarantee. To ensure you end up with one that’s the ideal complement to your company, you first need to decide if a custom WordPress theme is necessary or not.
3 Reasons Your Company Needs a Custom WordPress Theme
Simply by signing up to use WordPress, you’ll be presented with a number of themes you can use.
Choosing one of them isn’t recommended, though. These free themes aren’t very remarkable and lack the kinds of features that your, or really any, company requires to make the best possible website.
That’s why many prefer premium WordPress themes, instead. These are higher-quality themes, but that improved quality comes at a price. A premium WordPress theme can cost as little as $10, but they also could easily be as much as several-hundred dollars.
Still, many companies have specific needs that aren’t supported by premium themes. Instead, they opt for a custom WordPress theme.
Is this option right for your business?
Here are three reasons it’s certainly worth considering.
1. Better Security
On average, at least 1,000 sites are hacked every single day. It could be well over twice that, though. So, needless to say, security has to be a major concern for any company thinking about launching a new site.
Unfortunately, a large percentage of those sites are run on WordPress themes.
Now, part of that is simply because WordPress has become so popular. Almost 60% of all websites using a content management system (CMS) use WordPress. That accounts for almost a third of all websites in the entire world. So, it’s only natural that WordPress would be overrepresented when it comes to cyberattacks.
Still, another important reason is because of how many website owners use a premium WordPress theme for their sites. The problem is that hackers can also pay to buy these themes, which gives them complete access to analyze these themes and look for their weaknesses. Once they know what they are, it’s just a matter of finding sites that use these themes and taking advantage of these openings.
While security still needs to be a concern if you use a custom WordPress theme, you at least don’t have to worry about this major vulnerability. Hackers can’t simply download your custom theme to study it.
2. It’s Designed Specifically for Your Website and Company
Obviously, it should come as no surprise that a custom WordPress theme is one-of-a-kind, designed with your company’s unique requirements in mind and unlike any other.
The reason it’s worth bringing up is because many business owners mistakenly assume they can reach the same level of customization by considering premium themes.
Unfortunately, there’s a reason why the vast majority of websites utilizing premium WordPress themes tend to look very similar: they almost all use one of three different themes. In fact, while tens-of-thousands of WordPress themes exist (maybe more), the three most popular ones (Avada, Divi, and Genesis) account for 17% of market share.
So, while a great deal of customization is still possible, you’ll most likely be working from the same template as many of your competitors, greatly reducing your ability to stand out.
Instead, with a premium theme, your company can offer prospects a website with all the features it needs to turn visitors into customers.
This also means your site won’t be slowed by unnecessary features. In an effort to make premium themes as customizable as possible, many are loaded down with so many options that they actually cause slower loading times – a major disadvantage.
3. Working with an Experienced Developers Makes Updates Easy
If you do decide to go with premium WordPress theme, hopefully it goes without saying that you should do your research and make sure the developer of your choice has a respectable reputation.
Among other things, you want to confirm that they regularly put out upgrades for their themes. Otherwise, over the coming years, that premium theme you paid for may become outdated, meaning you’d need to go out and buy another to stay competitive.
A lack of updates could also leave your site vulnerable to those aforementioned security concerns.
Nonetheless, even if your theme’s developer stays on top of releasing updates, it’s still your responsibility to check for, download, and install them.
However, even then, you might run into problems, as WordPress theme updates are the main reason behind site glitches. So, even if you do immediately download and apply a new update for your company website’s theme, there’s a chance that you’ll have a lot more work to do afterwards.
While you still need to do your research before hiring a company to create a custom WordPress theme, it’s far less likely that they’ll need to update your site as often because of security reasons. But, when updates are necessary, you’ll have someone who can carry out the entire process on your behalf.
Similarly, whenever you want to add or otherwise change your custom WordPress theme, you can simply contact the developer and tell them exactly what you need. There’s no reason to worry about glitches when the work is done, either.
Is a Custom WordPress Theme Really Worth It?
The one major drawback of a custom WordPress theme is that it’s going to cost you more than choosing a premium option.
However, when you think of how important your company’s website is to its ongoing success, most would agree that this onetime investment is well worth it.
With a custom WordPress theme, your site will look absolutely unique, offering all the features your market desires when researching the solution your business offers. It will be more secure and maybe even faster, which Google appreciates.
Best of all, you’ll always have a developer you can contact whenever you decide changes are necessary, ensuring your company’s website is one that can grow and adapt right along with it.