Section 6: How to Find and Install Premium Church WordPress Theme Designs
Themes are website designs you can install that give you a head start on creating the look of your site.
They are NOT a magic button of website awesomeness however. Themes will still need to be adjusted and customized to your needs for your specific site.
Most themes being developed now have a “Theme Options” space in the dashboard that gives you somewhat easy to understand choices for making adjustments to how your website looks WITHOUT you having to adjust any HTML or CSS code.
This makes it much easier for you when updating the themes. If you manually change theme code without using the Theme Options and run an update, your changes could be lost.
A brief note about Child Themes
One way around this problem is to use what is called a “Child Theme”.
This theme is still connected to the main installation, but you can make adjustments to it so that does not get affected when you update your main theme files.
If the theme you choose has a Child Theme, it is a good idea to use it. Otherwise you will want to be careful not to change theme code, and make sure you have a backup before updating your themes.
To learn more about Child Themes check out this information from WordPress.
codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes
Make sure your WordPress Theme Design is “Responsive”
Responsive simply means that your WordPress Theme responds and changes how it is displayed no matter what desktop or mobile device people are using to view it.
Google is demoting website ranking in search on websites that do NOT have responsive WordPress Theme designs.
Google’s goal is to deliver the best possible search results to searchers in a way that looks great to that end user no matter what mobile device they are on. If your site is NOT mobile ready, you will be taking a hit and become harder to find in your local Church search terms.
Upgrading your Church Website to a responsive WordPress Theme design is worth it just to get better found in Google Search.
But there is a better reason to do it – potential NEW Guests who want to VISIT your Church. The more easily they can see your content on any device, the more likely they will choose your Church to visit.
This is also a huge benefit to your regular Church attenders. The more easily they can interact with your website, the more easily they can engage with your website content and events.
How can you tell if your site is Mobile Ready and Responsive?
The first way is obvious. Pick up a couple of different mobile devices and take a look. The way you see it is how a potential new visitor our your current Church member is seeing it.
A HUGE percentage of people are viewing your website on mobile so you NEED to be ready for them.
Another way is to see how Google views your website. Google has created a tool you can use to see how your site looks to them inside a mobile device.
Enter your website at the link below to check it out.
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly
Where can you find Responsive WordPress Themes?
Google Search:
There are a ton of sites that sell WordPress Themes. There are a few that you can find for free in the WordPress Themes directory, but for the most part you are at least going to want to invest $15-$50 or so to get a theme that has created easy to use tools for you to adjust site settings in the dashboard.
WordPress Theme Directory:
This is located at www.WordPress.org/Themes and functions very similar to the plugins directory. You should be able to find any theme you like here in the WordPress Dashboard Theme search as well.
ThemeForest:
This site has thousands of quality trusted WordPress Themes that will give you an excellent chance of having a great experience creating your website. These vary in price, but you can get a decent Theme for as low as $10. An average price to pay for a functional Theme with a lot of features would be anywhere from $40 to $75.
WordPress Dashboard:
You can search for, upload and install Themes directly from the WordPress Dashboard similar to plugins. Go to “Appearance” then “Themes”. Here you will find the preinstalled themes already on your site, which may be good enough for a simple Podcast install, but probably not for your entire Church website. This is also where you will find the Themes you have installed, and you will Activate your Themes from this page.
To search for Themes or Upload Theme files from your computer, click “Add New”. You can choose to upload files or search for Themes on this page using Featured, Popular and Latest searches.
If you used the Easy Install option with the website hosting process explained earlier, you should also have access to Premium Paid Themes through the Mojo Marketplace.
If you use a Free Theme, click install. If you choose a Premium Theme, you will purchase then install.
You can also hover over a Theme and click “Details and Preview” to get more information and a demo of the Theme. Just know the many times it is challenging to get your site to look exactly like the demo as each Theme has a different way of organizing their Theme Options. It will take some time to figure it out.
After installing you will go back to the main “Themes” page under “Appearance” in your sidebar, hover over the Theme you installed then click “Activate” to put it in place as your Church Website design.
Jupiter WordPress Theme:
This Theme design is extremely flexible and can do nearly anything you would want for your Church Website. It is very responsive, and looks great on every device when setup correctly.
>> Check out the JUPITER Theme here…
https://themeforest.net/item/jupiter-multipurpose-responsive-theme/5177775
Jupiter Video Tutorials:
https://themes.artbees.net/support/jupiter/videos/
>> Go to Section 7: SETUP YOUR CHURCH WEBSITE HOME PAGE AND BLOG PAGE