Myths about Using WordPress Themes
There is a lot of hype surrounding the WordPress theme industry, which has been growing exponentially and has become a very profitable business venture. There is a massive market for professional themes, which is crowded with WordPress designers, who are releasing new themes every day. The good news is that there is no shortage of options available to people, but that makes things confusing for everyone. This is because people start to think that they don’t need to get a premium WordPress theme for their blog. The amount of misinformation being shared on the internet further confuses people because no one knows what to do anymore. Most people believe that if they paid good money, they should get exactly what they want. However, while almost every WordPress development company promises to deliver great services, not everyone manages to provide quality. There are also a lot of myths attached to the subject of using WordPress themes. So, to prevent customers from falling into a pit, we are going to debunk major myths surrounding WordPress themes in the industry today.
1. There is no difference between WordPress.com and your own WordPress themes
Most people will tell you that there is no point in getting a premium WordPress theme because you will get the same experience on WordPress.com. However, nothing could be further from the truth because if you have used WordPress.com, and gotten your own self-hosted WordPress installation, you will know that they are worlds apart.
You can choose to buy premium themes for your WordPress.com blog, but you can’t customize them, or access custom features. When you get a self-hosted blog, with your own WordPress theme, you have complete access, along with the ability to customize every single aspect of that theme and its code.
2. Premium themes are expensive
This myth makes no sense because $39 – 99 for a license to a premium theme isn’t a lot of money when you consider the costs of building one from scratch. You will be charged more by a freelancer or a company like Astound for a custom-built WordPress theme. It will cost you around $2,500 – $3,500 to get it done; just the theme. This does not include the back-end development that’s needed to facilitate the whole process. Oh, and you won’t get all the custom features which you’ll likely want and need either.
For some people, it is the opposite — they think that just because WordPress premium themes are inexpensive, it must mean they’re not up to the standard. However, that is not the case because if you use a premium theme, you will notice that it has all the features you would ever want and then some. More often than not a theme is purchased and then scaled down to what the client actually wants and needs. This enables the client and website to grow organically as the needs change.
3. SEO isn’t a concern
If people are really talking about SEO not being a concern for WordPress, then they don’t know anything about the platform. SEO is a major part of WordPress, and developers have been scrambling around to find the best technology and integrate SEO features into WordPress themes. There are numerous WordPress plugins being released for SEO purposes so that your blogs can rank easily on search engines. So, the next time you order a premium WordPress theme, make sure that it comes with SEO features, otherwise, you will find it difficult to gain online visibility.
4. Premium themes aren’t security proof
Most people believe that premium themes are full of bugs and therefore shouldn’t be considered, especially if you are getting them from 3rd party sources like Themeforest.net. There are myths related to how premium themes are encoded to hide things, contain phish links to scam websites, and have security flaws.
If you have used a premium WordPress theme, you will notice that all the above are false statements because premium themes come with premium security features and almost always include support from the theme’s authors. There may be a few bugs that need to be ironed out, but that happens rarely, and doesn’t mean that premium themes aren’t safe.
5. What you see is what you get
This myth is a dangerous one because it stops people from buying premium WordPress themes. People believe that if you want more features, you must invest more money into the business that sold you the theme. That is completely wrong because speaking from experience; we guarantee that premium themes don’t require you to pay more money for special features.
They come with custom features and you don’t have to spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars to take advantage of new features and updates.
6. All themes are equal
There is a significant difference in the quality and level of premium themes offered by WordPress. Many people believe that all WordPress themes are the same, with small changes, but that isn’t the case. The feature panels may look similar, but the features that are offered within the theme are vastly different. The coding is done differently because they are designed for a different purpose.
7. Single theme license vs. annual subscription
There are a lot of WordPress theme developers who have started offering annual subscriptions for their themes, which means that you must pay them extra, on top of what you have paid for the theme. However, that isn’t the correct way to think about it because you are given instant access to a host of themes that the business is offering, which may be beneficial in the long run.
Apart from the massive variety of themes that are available to you, with an annual subscription, you get ongoing customer support for your WordPress theme. This will vary from case to case and we’re happy to work with you to find the best solution.
8. Regular theme updates
This is a very common myth in the community, which dissuades people from getting premium WordPress themes. They worry about constant theme updates. The myth is that anytime a new theme is published, there will be an update waiting for approval, which can be frustrating. However, that is again the wrong way to think about it, because once you get a theme, you must update and maintain it in order for it to continue functioning the way that it should. Premium WordPress themes often include integration to social platforms, payment process platforms, and more and all of these things are important to take into account as platform, theme, and plugin updates are released.
The initial premium WordPress theme that you got, was just to get the ball rolling.
The bottom line
These myths have been around in the industry for a long time, and don’t just apply to the developer, but to the average customer as well. The developers are the people who must deal with all these myths surrounding WordPress themes because these themes play a crucial role in website building in 2018.
The alternative for Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, and Nonprofits is spending upwards of seven thousand dollars ($7,000+) for a customized theme, labor, design, and coding all of the functionality needed for your project.
It’s not that we can’t do it. We eat, sleep and breath PHP, Java, HTML, CSS, and SQL. We just prefer to do right by our clients.
We at Astound Media are here to help you navigate the misinformation and help you achieve your goals. Take a look through the services we offer and choose the one that best fits the needs of your company and let us help you redefine the status quo & CAPTIVATE your audience.
My areas of focus include marketing strategy development, marketing operations design and optimization, marketing automation, sales operations, content development, content marketing, content monetization, web development, design, and information architecture.
I pride myself on being technical, strategic, and tactical. I work well as the liaison between the technical and non-technical project stakeholders, and I work diligently to achieve results.
