How wordpress theme affects SEO

[Przemek Bloniarz]

Hello,

Do you think that a theme can have a big impact on SEO? I use default wordpress theme, but I have noticed that most of sites which rank well use fexibility theme...

[Abledragon]

A theme will definitely affect your SEO. In the worst case a free theme you pick up from the Internet may have spammy links hidden in the footer, which would cause your site to be blacklisted.

Some themes have SEO controls built in, which saves having to use plugins, and premium themes are generally better coded than free themes, which helps to speed up page-load times.

All that said, if you're using TwentyEleven then you'll be fine. It may be that the sites you noticed that are ranking well are older, have more content, use SEO plugins, have more links, etc, etc. There are any number of reasons why they would be.

Cheers,

Martin.

[yukon]

Yes a theme can have a major impact on seo.

The default 2011 theme is ok, but those guys aren't focused on seo.

Like Martin said a lot of things can change your on-page seo (plugins, themes, etc...).

Also, just because you pay for a premium WP theme doesn't mean they are good for seo. I've seen hundreds of premium themes bloated with javascript & other things that try to make the theme appealing while killing page loading times, which is just a small part of seo.

[we_got_tops]

It can definitely have a big effect, and as Abledragon said, and a lot of times a very sharp looking free theme will have a lot of low-quality links in the footer. Even when you don't see any there, the theme might have encrypted code (base64) which they use to hide spammy or even malicious code. If you are going to go for a free theme, I'd stick to the ones in Wordpress; a Google search often turns up trouble. I personally use the Genesis framework for most of my sites and it has gone great.

[down]

Originally Posted by yukon

Also, just because you pay for a premium WP theme doesn't mean they are good for seo. I've seen hundreds of premium themes bloated with javascript & other things that try to make the theme appealing while killing page loading times, which is just a small part of seo.

Agree, I have a lot website that using FREE themes from WP ORG, and they rank well. Sometimes people go to premium theme because they just want customized theme delivered as is.

Whatever theme you use, always adjust to your needs. If the developers say in a sales letter will increase your ranking bla..bla.bla, it's not entirely true. However they just want their stuff sold well.

Just my $.02

[yukon]

Originally Posted by we_got_tops

It can definitely have a big effect, and as Abledragon said, and a lot of times a very sharp looking free theme will have a lot of low-quality links in the footer. Even when you don't see any there, the theme might have encrypted code (base64) which they use to hide spammy or even malicious code. If you are going to go for a free theme, I'd stick to the ones in Wordpress; a Google search often turns up trouble. I personally use the Genesis framework for most of my sites and it has gone great.

Good point!

I've seen themes that encode base64 hyperlinks that would only show on the Google Cache (text version).

Always check the php files with a page search for the keyword base64, before you build a site on a new theme.

Those hyperlinks will not show up on the actual web page, still they exist & Google will find them. Nobody wants a viagra spammers link on their web page (it could raise some issues ).

Seriously though, do the php page search it doesn't take that long to do.

[MikeTheBuilder]

I agree with what has been said here and I second the genesis framework for doing a beautiful job with code and seo in mind..

I use genesis for all of my Wordpress sites and wouldn't change a thing..

[ralchevd]

Definitely a big affect! The page speed is really important, and what I hate in my wordpress theme is that its great, but its loading slowly

[jacksite]

Originally Posted by ralchevd

Definitely a big affect! The page speed is really important, and what I hate in my wordpress theme is that its great, but its loading slowly

Yes, the speed is very important, I have a site loading slowly too.

[Przemek Bloniarz]

Thank you for all your answers!

I use the most common plugins for SEO and build my links with blog networks and SeNukeX, I'm just asking about a theme, because I want every aspect of my SEO efforts well done, my niche is quite competitive yet profitable.

Regarding website load speed I use W3 total cache plugin and I think it does the job well.

I don't need a fancy or very customizable theme, I just need it to be well SEO optimized, which one would you suggest? Genesis, thesis..?

[Fernando Veloso]

Free ones that actually deliver SEO wise: K2 and Atahualpa. Trust me