Create a WordPress Website: Choosing the Right Theme and Plugins

Are you feeling overwhelmed by the vast selection of WordPress themes and plugins? You’re not alone. However, when agencies create a WordPress website, choosing the right theme and plugins is a crucial first step. With thousands of options available, agencies face a critical decision that can significantly impact the final product. Selecting the wrong tools can lead to design limitations, functionality issues, and ultimately, a website that fails to meet the client’s needs.

This blog post will share the key criteria these design and functional tools should meet. At White Label Agency, we have over 10,000 successful projects under our belt, and we will equip you to confidently select the perfect theme and plugins so you can build high-performing WordPress websites for your clients.

Choosing the Right Theme to Create a WordPress Website

Themes control the look and feel of your website. When searching for a theme, you’ll find both pre-built and premium options. Though they offer a fast way to launch your website, they can also slow down your site’s performance. Some of the premium themes provide more design options and ensure better performance than pre-built free themes. 

While you can switch themes later, customization can take time and lead to new issues such as losing sliders or shortcodes specific to the old theme. To avoid future headaches, spend some time researching themes so you can understand what works best for you and your client.  This upfront investment saves you time and frustration in the long run. You can also consider building a custom theme from scratch.  Check out our comparison between custom and premium themes here. 

These are key factors to consider when choosing a theme to create a WordPress website with maximum impact:

Design & Content-Type

The ideal theme reflects your client’s brand and desired tone. Before the search process begins, your agency should have a thorough understanding of its content type and brand image. Do they prefer a calm, minimalist look, or something bolder and more colorful?

Responsiveness and speed

Responsiveness is a non-negotiable factor for successful projects. No agency can afford to overlook it. Statista suggests that more than half of all internet users spend their online time on mobile phones, so a responsive theme ensures your client’s website reaches its full audience. When installing a free theme, you can simply run a speed test. With premium themes, your agency can use the demo URL for a speed test to gauge performance. 

Responsiveness goes hand-in-hand with speed, which directly affects loading time. Fast loading times create a positive user experience, which can improve search engine ranking. We recommend you to choose a theme that prioritizes a lightweight design over extensive features. Since complex code and large files can slow down your website.

Support

A reliable theme comes with adequate support and documentation. Look for a theme developer with a responsive support system that offers timely assistance. 

Our CEO, Einar, recommends considering established distributors and themes that have thousands of active installations. This increases the likelihood of ongoing updates and security from the developer. Popular options include Astra, Xtheme, and ones from Elegant Themes.

Compatibility

Most businesses rely on plugins for specific features like contact forms, e-commerce functionality, or social media integration. Therefore, a compatibility check is a practical decision that will help you avoid conflict when implementing new features.

Choosing the Right Plugins to Create a WordPress Website

Plugins are there to add action to the picture. With over 60,000 plugins in the official WordPress directory, agencies have a wealth of choices to optimize website functionality. However, this abundance can make choosing the right ones overwhelming.

Important Factors When Choosing Plugins:

Pay attention to these factors when selecting a plugin:

1. Reputation & Reviews: When selecting any WordPress tool, a track record of reliability matters. Reviews and ratings on the official WordPress repository offer valuable insights into a tool’s performance and overall reliability. Additionally, for further research the users can check the “support” section, which displays the number of issues resolved by the developer in the past two months.
2. Active Development & Updates: The WordPress ecosystem thrives on frequent updates. So it’s essential to prioritize plugins with recent updates. This indicates ongoing development by the creator and likely includes security fixes to keep your website protected. Within the plugin repository, you can easily check a plugin’s last update date. Additionally, the repository page often maintains a log of previous updates.
3. Compatibility with Other Plugins: Compatibility checks are essential to prevent issues that could harm your client’s website performance. Overlooking this step can lead to existing plugins malfunctioning or, in the worst case, crashing the entire website. To ensure compatibility, check if the plugin is compatible with your current WordPress version and examine the plugin’s documentation for compatibility information and any known issues. Additionally, you can look for recommended configuration settings within the documentation

Essential Plugins for Every Website:

Here we list core plugins, that every WordPress website needs:

1. Security plugins: Security plugins don’t need much explanation. To create a WordPress website free from malicious attacks and unauthorized access, they are simply a mandatory tool. We recommend using plugins like Google Authenticator to add an extra layer of security (requiring a verification code along with the password) or Sucuri (offering a robust suite of features similar to Defender Security and Wordfence combined).
2. Backup Plugins: Regular backups are the smartest investment for the website in case of data loss. Backup plugins automate this process, creating scheduled copies of your client’s website data. We recommend plugins such as UpdraftPlus, Jetpack Backup, and BlogVault. 
3. SEO Plugins: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools are essential for your client’s website online success. They equip you with tools to increase website visibility, increase organic traffic and gain more leads. For that, Yoast SEO remains a favorite among SEO plugins. It ensures your website meets technical SEO best practices while offering tools to optimize content for both search engines and readability.
4. Contact Form Plugins: Selecting the right contact form plugin can maximize your client’s online presence, especially if they run a small agency. These plugins offer versatile functionality for surveys, feedback collection, event registrations, and more. With a variety of options available, such as WPForms and Contact Form 7, you can find the perfect solution to fit your client’s specific needs.
5. Performance Optimization Plugins: A slow-loading website frustrates visitors and discourages them from exploring your content. This makes optimizing WordPress websites for speed an absolute necessity, not just a preference. While long-term strategies exist for maintaining website speed, Lazy Loading Plugins create an ideal solution to improve initial load times for images and videos. This technique prioritizes loading only the content initially visible to the user. Additional elements load as the user scrolls down the page.
6. Additional Plugins Based on Your Needs: Finally, consider adding plugins that address your client’s specific business goals and needs. However, be mindful – too many plugins can slow down your site and cause conflicts.

White Label Agency: The Right Partner

If your agency wants to create a WordPress website with a top-tier development team and advanced tools, we are here to help!

At White Label Agency, we provide access to industry-leading WordPress builders such as Elementor, Divi, and Gutenberg to optimize the theme development process. For a successful project management process, we ensure that your agency can follow a clear roadmap with milestones, deadlines, and on-time delivery. When using our services, we make sure that your theme and plugins are coded according to strict WordPress development standards.Feel free to contact us for more information.