5 Ways to Customize Your New WordPress Theme

You’ve picked out a WordPress theme and finally got it uploaded. Now it’s time to customize your WordPress theme to give it a personal flair and make your business’ identity recognizable.

Some things to keep in mind:

• Each WordPress theme is different and each developer has their own way of creating a WordPress theme. If you need support or require customized help for something related to your theme, be sure to contact the person that created the theme. They would have the best answer for you.
  
• Always backup your WordPress website before implementing new changes. If anything should go wrong, you can always go back and start again.
  
• Don’t compare yourself to websites made by professionals. Even professional website developers will hire someone to do their website because it’s difficult to work on your own website objectively. Resist the urge to constantly self-audit your website because you are comparing it to other websites.

Without further ado, here are some of the ways that you can customize your new WordPress theme.

Change the fonts and colors

One of the ways that you can build your identity on your website is to choose fonts and colors that match the personality of your brand.

You can even take it a step further and build a brand board for your website so you can see everything come together in one place. This brand board will not only be the foundation of your website’s aesthetic, but for any material you’ll make in the future.

Get a custom logo and favicon

Your website’s logo and favicon are ways that you can be identified with a simple icon. If you’re not a designer and you’re not sure where to begin, you can check out all of the different bundles and options of logos on Creative Market until you find one that matches the look you are going for.

Your WordPress theme may also come with its own logos. If it does, you can see if you can customize it to your blog name.

The favicon is the icon next to your website. This is a small, but nice touch to add a little more flair to your web presence.

Customize your navigation

Head over to the menus section of your website and customize the names of the links in your website.

Of course, you could stick to the basics, like About, Services, Blog, Contact Me. You can also add more personality and change it to, “Start Here, Work With Me, Blog, Get in Touch.”

Play around with how you name your menu options. See which words fit your personality the best.

Edit the sidebar widgets

If your WordPress theme comes with a sidebar, you might not need all of the widgets that are there. Add or remove the widgets as needed so it’s neat and concise on your page.

Most WordPress themes also come with social share icons, but they would be linked to the creator of the theme, or nothing at all. Be sure to put your own social media links and remove the icons of social media that you don’t use.

You might also want to put a headshot of yourself or your logo so your audience knows who you are.

Some other things you might want to add to your sidebar are:

• Mini bio with a link to your about page
• A link to your services page
• Links to your blog archives
• Link to contact you
• Affiliate disclaimer (if you have affiliate links on your blog)

Add names and descriptions to your images and pages

To optimize your page for be seen on search engines, make sure to properly name the pages of your website and add descriptions to what each page is about.

You can use a plugin, like the Yoast SEO plugin, to help you along, or manually input them in each page of your website.

You want to make sure that you name the pages after your own website and in your own words, rather than the generic theme name from the maker of the WordPress theme.

Are you excited to get your WordPress theme up and running?

I’d love to see what you’re doing with your websites. Be sure to comment below on how your progress is going and if you’d like, drop a link so I can share the love.