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Archive of posts with the WordPress topic

Check out these stunning WordPress themes for e-commerce sites!

By Harries on October 15, 2024

Making an e-commerce website that is aesthetically pleasing and functioning is crucial to turning visitors into buyers. The correct WordPress theme can greatly improve the user experience, engagement, and sales. These stunning WordPress themes are made to stand out and provide excellent functionality for your online store.

Don’t miss out on these enticing themes!

Make Plus

Make Plus by The Theme Foundry is a modern and adaptable theme for e-commerce and business websites. Its drag-and-drop builder makes modification simple, which is perfect for store owners who wish to have control over the appearance and feel of their website without knowing how to code.

picture of Make Plus' demo page
Image taken October 2024 from a demo site

Key Features

  • Built-in Drag-and-drop Page Builder
  • Fully Responsive and Optimized for all Screen Size
  • Clean and Minimalist Design
  • Integration with WooCommerce
  • Customizable Layout and Structure to Fit your Brand
  • Widget Support
  • Template Designs

Ideal for: E-commerce store that wants a clean and minimalist aesthetic

Flatsome

Flatsome is one of the most adaptable e-commerce themes,  was created especially for WooCommerce stores. Among its many helpful features is a live page builder that allows for easy customization.

picture of Flatsome's demo page
Image taken October 2024 from a demo site

Key Features

  • Drag-and-drop UX Builder for Easy Customization
  • Fully Responsive
  • Optimized Load Times
  • Multiple Product Layouts and Quick View Options
  • Built-in Sliders and Banner

Ideal for: Fashion, electronics, and multipurpose stores

Astra

Astra is a popular option when it comes to speed optimization and lightweight construction. It is an excellent choice for performance-focused e-commerce websites because it is easily integrated with WooCommerce, configurable, and SEO-friendly.

picture of Astra's demo page
Image taken October 2024 from a demo site

Key Features

  • Templates for Quick Setup
  • SEO-optimized
  • Fast Loading Times
  • Page Builder Compatibility
  • Fully Responsive to all Devices

Ideal for: Small to medium business focused on speed and user experience

OceanWP

With so many customization choices, OceanWP is a good solution for companies looking to create a distinctive and customized purchasing experience. It is quite adaptable due to its extensive connection with WooCommerce and wide range of design possibilities.

picture of OceanWp's demo page
Image taken October 2024 from a demo site

Key Features

  • Fully Responsive and Mobile-friendly
  • Multiple Shop and Product Layouts
  • Floating Add-to-cart Bar and Quick View Option
  • SEO Optimized and Good Performance
  • Multi-language Support with RTL Translation

Ideal for: Stores that needs customizable product page and advanced functionality

Shopkeeper

The fashionable theme Shopkeeper was created with e-commerce in mind. Its sleek and contemporary interface makes it perfect for store owners who wish to present their goods in an eye-catching manner without compromising usability.

picture of Shopkeeper's demo paage
Image taken October 2024 from a demo site

Key Features

  • Pre-designed Templates
  • Drag-and-drop Builder Compatibility
  • Full-screen Product Galleries
  • WooCommerce Integration
  • Regularly Updated

Ideal for: Fashion, lifestyle, and creative e-commerce stores

Neve

Neve is a lightweight, quick WordPress theme that has been tuned for performance and speed. Its simple, minimalistic style makes it ideal for e-commerce sites that want an intuitive user experience with simple navigation.

picture of Neve's demo page
Image taken October 2024 from a demo site

Key Features

  • One-click Demo Import
  • AMP-compatible       
  • Customizable with Page Builders
  • Fully Responsive
  • Integration with WooCommerce

Ideal for: E-commerce sites looking for simple, fast, and minimalist theme

Porto

Porto is an effective and multifunctional theme made especially for WooCommerce. It provides a variety of sample layouts and a wide range of customization choices to suit different markets and specializations.

picture of Porto's demo page

Key Features

  • Multiple Demo Designs
  • Customizable Product Page
  • Optimized for Performance
  • Multi-vendor Support
  • Built-in Mega Menu and Header Styles

Ideal for: Large-scale Businesses and Multi-vendor Marketplaces

Let’s Wrap Things Up!

A smooth purchasing experience may be achieved by selecting a theme that complements your brand, connects well with WooCommerce, and provides the necessary customization capabilities.

Key Takeaways

Flatsome and Shopkeeper offers modern designs.

Astra and Neve focus on performance and speed.

Porto is ideal for large, complex stores.

Make Plus by The Theme Foundry offers clean and modern design.

While following the best practices in choosing a theme try these suggestions out for an easier theme shopping experience!

How to Choose the Perfect WordPress Theme for Your Website

By Harries on October 11, 2024

Your choice of WordPress theme determines the success of your website. A theme influences both functionality and design, so it’s critical to select one that best suits your requirements out of the many available options. This blog is a short guide to assist you in choosing the ideal theme.

Grab this chance to make your site a star!

Define Your Website’s Purpose

Determine the main goal of your website first. Consider these:

  • Is it an e-commerce site, portfolio, business website, or blog?
  • What essential features do I need?

The goal of your website will guide you in choosing a theme with the appropriate features and design.

Simplicity is Beauty

A clean, straightforward design improves usability. Stay away from themes that:

  • Contain an excessive number of features or animations
  • Have complex designs that can be confusing to users

Choose a simple and effective design that puts the user’s experience first.

Search Engine Optimized

The search engine rating of your website can be improved with an SEO-optimized theme. Verify the theme:

  • Makes use of neat and organized code
  • It loads quickly and is optimized for performance.

Verify whether the theme developer prioritizes performance benchmarks or SEO elements.

Plugin Integration Ready

The theme should function flawlessly with all necessary plugins. Test if it works with:

Making sure your website’s compatibility is essential because plugins increase your site’s functionality.

Customize with your Imagination

Select a theme that lets you modify important components. Seek out:

  • Integrated tools for changing layouts, fonts, and colors
  • Compatibility with page builders for easier customization (Beaver Builder, Elementor)

Without requiring coding knowledge, customization allows you to make the site uniquely yours.

Active Community Support

A strong theme should have solid support. Seek out themes that provide:

  • Availability of support forums or developer help
  • Comprehensive tutorials and documentation
  • Active user community for an accessible fix of a common issue

 It is simpler to troubleshoot themes with extensive support services.

Updated Regularly and Secure

Maintaining your website secure and up to date with WordPress requires regular updates. Seek out:

  • Themes that are updated frequently
  • Themes with good security features or practice

A theme that is kept up to date keeps your website safe from security vulnerabilities.

Here are your key takeaways. . .

Choosing the appropriate WordPress theme is essential to creating a polished and beneficial website. Don’t just focus on the aesthetic; prioritize security, ease of use, support, plugin compatibility, customization, and SEO also. Investing the time to select a premium theme will help position your website for success.

Don’t waste the opportunity to look at these trendy themes from The Theme Foundry to give your website a more polished and expert look!

Try these popular WordPress themes from The Theme Foundry in 2024

By Harries on October 8, 2024

The Theme Foundry is known for creating high-quality, beautifully designed WordPress themes that cater to a wide range of users. Due to their responsiveness, simplicity of use, and crisp style, these themes are well-liked in 2024. Whether you’re a business owner, blogger, or creative professional, The Theme Foundry sure has something for everyone.

Introducing the 3 Shining Splendors!

Make

Perfect for: Beginners, small businesses, and non-technical users

Key Features

  • Drag-and-drop Builder: No coding is necessary. With an easy-to-use interface, you can easily build your website and arrange its pieces in any order you choose.
  • Responsive Design: Your website will appear great on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
  • WooCommerce-ready: Integrate WooCommerce with an online store easily.
  • SEO-optimized: Search engine visibility is enhanced by your site’s quick load times and clean code.
  • Highly customizable: To fit the design of your brand, select from a variety of fonts, colors, and layout options.

Why Use Make?

For users who require flexibility without complication, Make is perfect. It offers both power and simplicity in design, making it ideal for portfolio sites, personal blogs, and small enterprises. Whether you’re an utter beginner or an experienced user, this theme is very flexible to your needs.

Linen

Perfect for: Magazines, content-heavy websites, and online publications

Key Features

  • Magazine-style Layout: Ideal for websites with plenty of content. Emphasize important areas, categories, and featured sections directly on the homepage.
  • Custom content Sliders: Use the built-in sliders to showcase news or significant stories in a dynamic manner.
  • Grid-based Design: Make sure your viewers have a positive experience by arranging your content in a clear, simple-to-navigate structure.
  • Responsive and Mobile-friendly: Ideally suited for screens of all sizes, including desktop and phones.
  • Widget Areas: You may quickly add personalized widgets for social media feeds, recent posts, and more.

Why Use Linen?

For content-rich websites seeking a polished and well-organized magazine layout, Linen is ideal. A blog, news website, or digital magazine with multiple categories might benefit from having an attractive and user-friendly content showcase thanks to Linen.

Finder

Perfect for: Creative Professionals, agencies, and businesses

Key Features

  • Portfolio-focused Layout: Designed with built-in portfolio capabilities to allow creative professionals to display their work.
  • Clean and Modern: Finder is perfect for photographers, designers, and agencies since it is sleek, minimalistic and puts your work front and center.
  • Flexible Homepage: Add project highlights, client endorsements, and service highlights to your homepage.
  • Fast-Loading: Performance-optimized to guarantee quick page loads for users.
  • Responsive: Looks amazing on high-resolution screens and fits any screen size with ease.

Why Use Finder?

For creatives looking to showcase their projects in a polished, visually striking way, Finder is an ideal choice. It is a top option for agencies and independent contractors wishing to make a big visual impression because of its portfolio functionality and stylish appearance.

Our Final Thoughts. . .

The Theme Foundry never stops producing amazing WordPress themes that perfectly combine design, usability, and functionality. The top three options for 2024 are Make, Linen, and Finder, which have something to offer everyone, including creatives, startups, and websites with a lot of content.

Check out these well-liked themes to improve your website’s polished and professional appearance!

Follow the best form design practices

By Harries on October 7, 2024

Designing effective forms is essential to increasing user experience, generating leads, and promoting conversions. You have all the resources you need to design forms that are easy to use, visually appealing, and functional with Happyforms and The Theme Foundry. To assist you in creating polished, business-like forms for your WordPress website, we’ll go over five best practices for developing forms with Happyforms together with The Theme Foundry in this blog post.

Best Practices make forms Perfect!

  1. Keeping it Simple and Straightforward

The easiest forms for users to complete are the finest ones. Form completion rates rise when forms are simple to use and guarantee that users are not overwhelmed.

  • Limit Form Fields: To save labor and user fatigue, only ask for the information that is necessary.
  • Organize Logically: To establish a smooth flow, group related fields together.
  • Use Clear Labels: Users will be able to understand exactly what information is needed.

  1. Match with the Site’s Theme

A well-designed form should fit in with the overall layout of your website, giving visitors a unified and consistent visual experience.

  • Color Coordination: Coordinate the form’s color scheme with The Theme Foundry’s primary and secondary colors.
  • Button Styling: Customize your submit buttons to stand out while maintaining consistency with the overall design.
  • Padding and Spacing: Use ample white space between fields.
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  1. Add a Clear Call-to-Action

The submit button on your form should clearly communicate what the user is doing.

  • Use action-driven Text: Put some useful words on the button, such “Get Started” or “Submit Request.”
  • Make the Submit Button Stand Out: Use a color that complements the theme of your website but contrasts with the rest of your form.
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  1. Minimize Required Fields

Requiring too much information might be burdensome and decrease the number of forms submitted.

  • Only ask Essential Information: Keep the number of essential fields to a minimum.
  • Include Tooltips: Give consumers information in fields where they might require it.
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  1. Testing Before Launching

It’s crucial to test your form before it goes live to make sure it looks fantastic and works as intended.

  • Cross-browser Testing: Examine the behavior of your form in various browsers.
  • Functionality Test: Make sure all fields and buttons work as expected.
  • Form Submission Test: Make that form submissions are emailed, stored, and integrated with your CRM appropriately.

Let’s Wrap Up

These practices can assist you in creating forms that improve user experience, guarantee accessibility, and blend in with the aesthetics of your website. Reduce the number of needed fields, include a call to action, keep things simple, make sure the design is consistent, and test everything before releasing it.

Try Building with Happyforms Today!

Download Happyforms plugin for free and create effective, user-friendly forms for your website in a matter of minutes. Happyforms will improve your WordPress experience, whether you’re handling surveys, generating custom forms, or gathering leads! 

Start Using These Tricks to Create Better Forms In Happyforms

By Harries on September 24, 2024

Start designing effective, user-friendly forms for WordPress using Happyforms, an effective and user-friendly form builder. Explore features that boost functionality and elevate the user experience overall to get the most out of the plugin. These five essential tips will help your forms stand out.

Come and let us learn these tricks!

  1. Minimalist Forms Using the Show/Hide Field Label Feature

Happyforms’ “show and hide labels” function lets you construct minimalist forms by hiding labels that aren’t necessary.

How to Use: When field labels are self-explanatory or user guidance can be obtained from placeholders inside the fields, hide the field labels. This keeps your form clear and organized.

Why It Works: Reducing visual distractions helps consumers concentrate on filling out the form. Additionally, minimalist forms often load quicker and have a more professional appearance.

  1. Utilize Conditional Logic

By using this technique, you may display users with just the fields that are essential depending on their responses, avoiding overwhelming them with too many options.

How to Use: Establish conditions so that some fields only show up when a particular response is chosen. For example, if the user selects “shipping required,” then the shipment information inquiry should only come up.

Why It Works: Because conditional logic makes the form appear more individualized and shorter, it lowers form abandonment. Additionally, it increases the accuracy and general efficiency of data collection.

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  1. Multi-Step Forms for Longer Forms

Long forms are divided into digestible pieces by multi-step forms, which walk users through the process step-by-step and reduce the sense of overwhelm.

How to Use: Using the page break field, divide your form into several pages or sections, with each one concentrating on a certain type of question, like payment information, preferences, or personal details.

Why It Works: Because they lessen form fatigue, multi-step forms increase completion rates and the division improves the user experience overall by making complex forms easier to understand.

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  1. Use File Upload for Better Interaction

Your forms become even more functional when you include a file upload feature that accepts documents, photos, and other types of material.

How to Use: To enable users to submit additional files, like resumes for job applications, ID scans for verification, or photos for feedback surveys, add a file upload field.

Why It Works: This increases the flexibility of your form especially for registrations or applications that call for more documents.

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  1. Handle Real Time Validation

Real-time validation helps users complete forms more quickly and accurately by providing immediate feedback when they miss a needed field or enter information incorrectly.

How to Use: Happyforms may be configured to provide real-time validation, which verifies user inputs including phone numbers, email forms, and required fields quickly. As soon as a user moves to the next field, they will see an error notice or correction prompt.

Why It Works: It improves form accuracy, which results in better-quality submissions and fewer follow-up emails to address errors.

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A few things before you go . . .

You can significantly improve your Happyforms’ usability, effectiveness, and completion rates by implementing these five tricks. Simple contact forms or intricate multi-step applications, all of these tips will make the user experience better for you and your users.

Get started for free

Download Happyforms plugin for free to begin constructing your own WordPress forms using natural language. The best part is that you don’t even need to know how to code to use Happyforms!

Don’t avoid plugins

By on March 29, 2016

If you’re ever interested in the pain points associated with WordPress, you should ask someone in the trenches of providing technical or customer support. We’ve heard it all, over and over again. One recurring theme I’ve noted since my tenure in the support forums is this: users are afraid of installing plugins.

The original tickets are usually about some feature they need on their website. I’ll pick a common example we’ve dealt with — a mailing list subscription form. A user, we’ll call her Jane — asks her theme authors, “How do I add a mailing list subscription form to my website?” and we explain, “The theme doesn’t include this kind of functionality. But you can install a plugin to do this for you.”

Jane balks, “I’m trying to avoid plugins.”

***

I’m sure the first time Jane installed WordPress, she was giddy with power. She instantly sought out a new theme to change the look and feel of the front page. Because the more modern-looking and featured themes on WordPress.org are typically well-maintained, this experience likely went pretty well for her. Change theme = success.

Next, Jane learns about plugins. Understanding that plugins add all kinds of cool things, Jane searches for a social sharing plugin. “This plugin hasn’t been updated in two years…” Well, it’s here in the search! “This plugin hasn’t been tested with your version of WordPress.” What does that even mean? Install, activate. Best case scenario? Sidebars look wonky. Worst is the white screen. What kind of experience has Jane had now? Plugins = things breaking.

Then something magical happens. Jane notices a theme that includes social sharing functions. A lightbulb goes off in her head. It will just work, and that’s all that matters to her.

***

It turns out, the WordPress plugin directory is not the greatest resource for people seeking out well-maintained plugins. Developers might initially have altruistic intentions when they added their plugin, but it’s all too easy to get overwhelmed by the demands of support and maintenance, so abandoned plugins abound. It’s one thing for WordPress folks to understand this is essentially a volunteer gig — but it’s not easily communicated to the other sixty million users out there who expect things to just work by virtue of it being listed on the website.

On the other hand, there are also so many brilliant and useful plugins out there — built by passionate, professional, and generous community members. It’s just harder for new WordPressers to sort those out in the search results.

We shouldn’t be avoiding plugins at all. In fact, I wholly advocate going plugin crazy. Just be smarter and more responsible about it. Look for plugins that have been updated in the last year (at least!). Check out the developer’s other work and suss out whether they’re valued members of the community. And…

Don’t avoid plugins, review them

Most of all, I think we all should be writing useful and insightful reviews for the plugins we’re using — when they work well, and when they don’t. Keep in mind that a review is not the appropriate place to request support. If something is broken, it’s really important to open a thread on the appropriate support forum — even if you end up moving on and using a different plugin.

If the WordPress community would be better about those two items, users would have an easier time sorting through the results for well-supported and updated plugins. I recently went through my own website plugin list and left a review of each one I’d activated and used. I even wrote a review for one I activated and liked, but ended up going with another I liked better. I explained the feature difference in my review, and I hope it’s useful to the next person whose looking for a fancy Instagram integration. ?

Here’s a template you can use for your own plugin reviews:

I installed[plugin name] on my blog/business site/portfolio.

The plugin has these features which I really like:

I wish these features could be improved upon:

These features didn’t work for me, even after I tried to get support in the forum:

Overall I would recommend/not recommend this plugin if you’re trying to accomplish __________.

***

I get that reviews and open threads in the WordPress.org forums alone won’t solve the problem of abandoned or poorly coded plugins. I know that we’ll still see unfortunate conflicts between plugins and themes. But I think as a community, we could do a lot better about flagging what we notice. Who knows, your review or your open ticket just may save some new WordPresser from the panic that goes along with their very first white screen of death. It could even save someone from getting so frustrated with WordPress that they jump ship altogether.