The Maine SEO Blog

• Theme: a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design.
• Themes alter the look and presentation of material

Understanding your site (Knowing what you’re looking for)

• Information architecture: the structure and organization of your information
• Kinds of information
  - Posts
  - Links
  - Media
  - Pages
  - Comments

Things to think about

• Homepage
  - An informational page with information about my business
  - My recent posts
  - My best posts
  - All of the above
• Primary buckets of information
  - Top level nav should incapsulate your 5(ish) most important buckets of information
• Building a sitemap: outline of content on your site intended to organize the information so people who visit can understand it (love this definition)

Understanding your site: Vocabulary

• (Photo/Web/Video) Blog
  - focus is a chronological diary of posts
  - homepage showcases recent updates
  - has navigation elements, but often understated
• Magazine theme
  - think blog, on steroids
  - content freshness important, but quality has value too
  - home page usually showcases “best of” content
  - content often fits into clear categories (navigation)
• Content management system (business)
  - CMS
  - typically refers to complex, page centric sites
  - audience usually comes for static information, not “fresh” content
  - common for business & non-profits
• Portfolio
  - not an individual showcase
  - may or may not have “blog” component
  - typically a large focus on media
  - often a small, media-centric CMS

3 Types of Themes (from a Licensing perspective)

• Freely available, GPL (General Public License) compatible
• Commercially supported GPL
• Proprietary (non GPL) – doesn’t have to mean commercial
• Premium = NOT a type of theme

What comes in the box

• Default, pre-installed WordPress theme [Kubrick]
• Best place to find themes: Official WP Themes Directory
• Other resources: Smashing Magazine, ThemesPreview.com, WPHacks, Premium WP, StudioPress

Things to consider

• Price – think about time spent after purchase
• Support
• Quality of Design
• Features
• Ease of use

Tips for finding a consultant

• Show, don’t tell (see examples of themes)
• Ask for referrals
• Look behind the curtain (ask for examples for “out of the box” features)
• Be realistic about price expectations
• Have they given back to the community?

Customization

• Look for theme specific settings under “appearance” menu

Jake Gold, C. Murray Consulting
@jakemgold