How to know if Wordpress theme is SEO optimized?

[Danlucy]

Hello,
How to know if you are going to buy a Wordpress theme for your new blog and want to know if it was a theme optimized for SEO or not? What things to remember while selecting a Wordpress theme to get better rankings on Google search result?
Please share your advice?

 

[biGGuns]

Hello,
...

Few very important things about WP themes are, site speed and post/page title injected in H1 tag.
Make sure to pick lightweight non-bloated theme. There are some beautiful themes but they are slow as ****, I generally stay away from them, you will need some web dev knowledge to judge which theme is suitable.

The other key thing is to check when you make a post if the theme convert your title in H1 or not, because in the end you need only one H1 tag and don't want to confuse the bots.

 

[rainmaker11]

rainmaker11

I support this is a good point that we should follow when choosing a wordpress theme on theme marketplace.

From experience I bought some themes from themeforest, wpzoom but for beautiful with more effects then they are really slow for loading webpages and I had to replace by some other themes with simple design and less effects, also more text on design are better than more images.

 

[NahidHasan]

NahidHasan

This is the point you should focus on. Speed and H1 tag is really an important part for your SEO success.

 

[Miguelito203]

I use pretty popular themes on all of my sites, so I don't have to worry about that too much. There was one time when I had to upgrade the theme on my IM blog. If I remember correctly (seems like it was a couple of years ago now), I got a message about it needing an upgrade from inside WP -- like the ones you normally get from inside the dashboard when you need to update a plugin or something.

Joey

 

[savidge4]

When it gets right down to it... wordpress in my book.. its not SEO optimized by any stretch of the imagination. Good SEO structure would have a decent taxonomy choice.. I ALWAYS use a custom one. Good SEO would have the ability to manipulate tags - aside from what? site title.. you cant. Good SEO would allow me to position some lines of code where i wanted them.. forget that LOL. Good SEO would allow me to manipulate the load order of page elements.. uh forget that.

Basically get what ever theme you want. once you start using that theme and figure all the above out and set up plugins etc... you wont want to switch themes at that point.. it gets ugly sometimes... but one vs the other... I would say they are all about the same.

 

[projectpop]

You can install ALL IN ONE SEO or YEastSEO plugin to help with your Wordpress SEO.

 

[Sandra]

Has anyone tested the importance of fast loading? Is it niche related? I ask because I bumped into the infamous exception to the rule researching for a new project. Found a site that is doing really well, yet it is annoyingly slow.

 

[SenseiSteve]

SenseiSteve

I haven't done any testing to determine the importance of fast loading, but there will always be exceptions to the rule. I especially love the mobile friendly test by Google, for example. I've seen sites that were not even remotely optimized for mobile passing their test.

I also always install YoastSEO, using that to optimize my sites.

 

[tairear]

I've rarely heard of any pre-optimized WP theme in terms of proper SEO or social media integration. I've purchased quite a few portfolio and ecommerce WP themes for my local clients' needs and always get trusted SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO, as well as social media buttons, installed before I do anything design-wise to the template' functionality.

 

[vishwa]

The theme you are choosing must be responsive and using decent frameworks. For example premium themes like Genesis, Mythemeshop etc are providing ultra responsive WordPress theme with decent page speed score.