Do you want to create your website for your business and install a theme on WordPress to save time? In this article, you will understand that this is not always a good idea. But then, why create a custom WordPress theme instead of downloading one?
Creating your own WordPress theme is the ideal way to develop an effective website and adapt it to your marketing strategy.
By customizing your site, you will be able to differentiate yourself from the competition more easily.
Let’s take a closer look at the 5 reasons that make you want to build a custom theme for your WordPress site! Read here why you must create a website for your business
1. Optimize your semantic tags in HTML
Among all the reasons to create your custom theme on WordPress, this one remains for me the most obvious: Optimize the HTML structure of your pages.
Indeed, most of the WordPress themes available on the market do not use the right semantic tags proposed by HTML.
As a reminder: semantic tags are used to determine the meaning of a text or another element on a web page.
For example, there are 6 levels of content tags in HTML (H tags), from H1 to H6.
There are also specific tags for paragraphs, buttons, tables, sidebar, navigation menu, and footer…
Here is the order of the elements to respect:
HTML tags are a great way for Google to understand the content data on a website.
If a page is poorly optimized, you don’t help Google to understand your content better… And therefore, it may not “rank” you well in the search results.
You can find all HTML5 tags on this Mozilla documentation.
Anyway, to come back to the most common problems encountered on WordPress themes, even if the H1 is the most important HTML tag in the content of a web page, it is, unfortunately, missing on many WordPress themes.
But sometimes, it’s worse.
On many themes, this tag is duplicated or inserted in the logo of the website.
Tip: Creating your WordPress theme is above all about taking back control of your website! You will be able to structure it as you wish, whether it is for your WordPress page templates or the structure of your posts.
2. Customize the layout
Are you inspired by Themeforest.net themes?
There is one that you particularly like (that you may have already installed?), rest assured, you can do much better…
Customizing your layouts provides at least 3 main reasons
- Reflect your visual identity,
- Differentiate your brand from the competition,
- Optimize your marketing strategy.
Reflect on your visual identity
By creating a layout design on your website, you will customize all the visual elements of a website (colors, fonts, navigation menu, Call To Action…).
All these elements are customized according to your graphic charter in order to reflect the visual identity of your company.
Differentiate your brand from the competition
In Digital Marketing, you must give a lot of importance to the visual aspect of a brand.
Customizing your layouts is not just about looking good or better.
It’s a necessary step in building a strong brand.
You want to stand out from your competitors, so why download an affordable theme?
Optimize your marketing strategy
Showcasing your offer on a custom website always has more impact than on a template…
Themes can save you a lot of time, but they were not designed for your marketing strategy.
If you are an entrepreneur and you use a theme from a library, it is probably to save time.
On the one hand, you are right! Creating your own theme requires time, web design skills, as well as SEO…
But beware, free or licensed themes do not necessarily reflect the vision of your project.
In most cases, WordPress themes are either :
- Generalist: the designs have no particular theme… These are often the themes that cause problems.
- Nested: some themes are well-themed, but the layouts are not in “agreement” with your strategy.
Related: How to create a website easily with WordPress
3. Controlling your search engine optimization
The choice of your WordPress theme also impacts your natural referencing.
Here are at least 4 reasons:
- The theme may have 301 redirect issues (Yes, I’ve seen this before…)
- It may include security holes (but I’ll come back to that below),
- It may include zombie pages. These pages are useless, either for the users or for Google,
- Finally, it can generate X categories pages (often empty)…
This is usually due to bad management of the PHP code…
By creating your own theme, you avoid taking risks. You have full control over your code. If a problem occurs in a particular place on your site, you will know immediately where it comes from (logically…).
4. Secures your website
Security is essential. And yet it is not one of the priorities of many WordPress themes…
In fact, the security of a WordPress site is not visually measurable (just because a site is ugly, or not in HTTPS, does not mean it is not secure).
According to BDM, there are at least 5 types of vulnerabilities in a WordPress site:
- Directory traversal attacks,
- SQL injections,
- Malicious file downloads,
- Cross-Site Scripting (XSS),
- Authentication bypass vulnerabilities.
This is one more reason to create your own theme.
You simply avoid existing vulnerabilities, present in many themes and plugins… You have to be careful!
For the security of your own WordPress theme, I recommend the WordFence plugin which is very professional, with regular updates.
WordFence constantly discovers new vulnerabilities in the WordPress core, plugins, and themes. It warns you about attacks and protects your files during installation. What’s more, the basic version is even free.
5. Optimize the loading time of your pages
Optimizing the loading time of your WordPress website is important to improve the user experience. After all, your visitors don’t appreciate waiting for your website to load.
And if that happens, they may leave your site (and never come back…). That’s why optimizing your loading time is essential.
In the majority of themes on WordPress, CSS and JS files are loaded when they should not be.
I’m thinking for example of :
- jQuery which is loaded on every page, even if it is not used,
- Or too many CSS files in builders like Elementor, WPBakery, Visual Composer…
When creating your WordPress theme, you will load the files only when necessary. And this way, you are sure that the loading time of your pages is optimized.
FAQ – 3 frequently asked questions about the advantages of creating your own custom theme on WordPress
Why create your own custom theme on WordPress?
Creating your own WordPress theme allows you to optimize your web pages very easily. You design a site that perfectly meets the needs of your business. Today, there are still many themes (free or licensed) that are unfortunately not optimized. Developing your own tools within your website is a great idea to optimize page loading time, develop an optimized HTML page, integrate a customized graphic model, and meet the specific objectives of a website…
How to analyze a WordPress theme (and decide whether to create a new custom theme one or not)?
To analyze your WordPress, you can simply use GTMetrix. It is a tool to analyze precisely the loading of each file of a web page. Another option is the Chrome inspector, which you can access by right-clicking and inspecting. You will determine whether your HTML code is correct. In the case of general analysis, use a plugin that makes it easier for you.
When is it a bad idea to create your own custom theme on WordPress?
Developing a WordPress theme is not very complicated. However, it can be time-consuming. If you don’t want to waste time optimizing your site, then I advise you to start with a WordPress theme. But it should be chosen with care using the testing tools mentioned above.
Conclusion: Why create a custom theme on WordPress
If you are considering creating a WordPress site, one of the first decisions you need to make is whether to develop a custom theme or download an existing theme.
While both approaches have their advantages, developing a custom theme offers several key benefits:
- Having a unique look for your site that cannot be replicated by any other WordPress site.
- Having full control over the layout and functionality of your site.
- Optimize your website with lighter pages.
If you’re looking to create a truly unique WordPress site, developing a custom theme is the way to go to ensure the best possible user experience.
So, convinced of the value of having your own custom-designed WordPress theme?
