When you want to create your website or blog, most of us dream of one thing. What is the best WordPress theme for SEO and speed? And which WordPress theme would I use for my website? Perhaps you have come to the right blog.
Let me clarify one thing: every template you look at claims to be SEO optimized, and the outlook is attractive and professional-looking, but not all themes are built with SEO or speed in mind.
For this reason, some WordPress themes may look stunning but are bloated with unnecessary code, which can slow down your site. Others might load quickly but lack the flexibility or SEO features that are essential for an effective online presence.
In this article, we will provide you with the top 5 WordPress themes for SEO and speed that you can use for your following blog website.
Basic Requirement: A Best WordPress theme for SEO and speed
If you’re asking me about the best WordPress theme for SEO, I recommend avoiding highly visual, dynamic, or multipurpose themes.
Many themes appear clean and have an outstanding structure, but most free themes have SEO issues due to the added features and visual effects intended to impress potential buyers.
What you need to look for is the best WordPress theme for your Website ?
Just simple design (without being tacky),
without unnecessary features,
lightweight and quick to load.
Please check the list below. I mention the five main points you should focus on when choosing your next WordPress theme for SEO and speed.
Fast Loading Website WordPress Theme
Loading speed is one of the key aspects of a good SEO template.
What most influences this aspect is the number of CSS and JS requests made to the server and their total weight.
That’s why themes loaded with features and styles often fail in this regard, as they require more CSS and JS files, which in turn are heavier due to having more lines of code.
Hence, the best SEO templates have a reasonably simple design.
Must Have Schema-Structured of the Theme
You could say that structured data (Schema) makes things easier for Google and other search engines.
It’s like the documentation or instructions for your website.
When Google’s crawler visits your website, if it contains structured data, Google can quickly identify the navigation menu, including whether it’s an article, recipe, course, review, product from an online store, and the author’s details, among other information.
Without structured data, Google can still infer your website’s content and structure, but it requires more effort and may not do so accurately.
Which can negatively affect the positioning of your website.
Correct HTML Markup
The template must adhere to good HTML markup practices.
I mean things like the page header being inside a <header> tag, the footer being inside the HTML <footer> tag, etc.
I’ll leave you an image of a basic HTML structure so you can see it more clearly.
Responsive
I don’t need to explain at this point that your website has to look good on mobile devices. All new WordPress themes are now responsive.
Some templates are better designed and offer a more seamless browsing experience on mobile devices than others; however, there are generally no significant problems in this area.
Flexible and easy to customize
SEO is all about experimentation and identifying what works and what doesn’t, ensuring that users find what they’re looking for on your website and have a positive experience.
So, while you may want to choose a lightweight and fast theme, it’s not about choosing a template that doesn’t even allow you to change the website’s colors or fonts.
It should give you some flexibility to customize the style to your liking, remove the sidebar and page titles, and be compatible with page builders.
Your site needs to look like a trustworthy website, not a hastily thrown-together job.
Here the Best 5 Free and Premium WordPress Themes for SEO
( 1) GeneratePress
This is the template I currently use on my blog. It has become quite popular among SEOs due to its loading speed and the ease with which it allows you to customize your website without requiring any code.
Generate Press meets the requirements I mentioned above and is also one of the most affordable SEO templates available for purchase.
Main features :
- Flexible and easy-to-customize theme
- Unlimited license
- Conditional hooks
- Quite popular among SEOs
Advantages:
- Functionalities that modules can activate
- Allows use on multiple websites
- Frequent support and updates
Disadvantages:
- Loading speed could be improved on mobile
GeneratePress Price: Free | Premium 49.95$
(2) Astra Pro
With Asap Theme, you can create a professional-looking website in just a few clicks without overloading it with cumbersome visual editors.
When you install this theme, you automatically optimize dozens of on-page SEO aspects.
It includes structured data, SEO-optimized categories, breadcrumbs, advanced navigation clusters, and controlled internal linking, among dozens of other features that will save you a lot of plugins and headaches.
Plus, it’s lightning-fast. Asap Theme loads in less than half a second, making it the fastest template on the market.
This template is ideal for SEO niches because it features an ad manager that enables you to place AdSense ads in strategic locations, thereby increasing your click-through rate (CTR) and income.
Main features :
- A single payment of 39 USD
- Its loading time is 397 ms
- It is perfect for Adsense and Amazon SEO niches
Advantages:
- Unbeatable value for money
- It is very easy to use and understand
- It is unsurpassable fast
- Includes dozens of features that will save you plugins
- Updated frequently
Disadvantages:
- It doesn’t have many features for Amazon niches
Astra Pro Price: $59
(3) Kadence WP
It’s not a well-known template, at least not yet, but it has considerable potential. Its free version has plenty of well-organized customization options and even some improvements over GeneratePress and Astra.
Additionally, its loading speed is highly optimized. It weighs little and makes few requests to the server.
Here are the results of a loading speed test for the free version.
The paid version might add a few more requests or increase the weight slightly, but the truth is that you can get by quite well with the free version.
Main features :
- Very flexible and easy-to-customize free SEO template.
- WooCommerce Ready
- It is a very lightweight theme with few database requests.
- It’s a neat default design.
- It has quite functional premium modules.
Kadence WP Price: Free | Premium starts at $99; however, modules can be purchased separately.
(4) OceanWP Premium
Provides shopping cart options or places them in a floating bar to facilitate the user’s navigation experience, increasing conversions.
Whether you’re a beginner or an expert at creating websites, OceanWP is a good choice because its setup is intuitive and straightforward, and it includes a wizard to guide you through the basics.
If you delve into all the settings this template has, you might get overwhelmed.
Although it doesn’t have a visual editor, it offers extensive customization thanks to its premium add-ons, along with visual layout builders such as Thrive Architect or Elementor.
What sets it apart from other templates is that it focuses on customization and design rather than optimizing loading speed. Therefore, if you need a fast and lightweight theme, OceanWP might not be the best option.
Main features :
- Annual payment of $54 for three websites
- Its loading time is
- It is perfect for customizing the design of WooCommerce sites
Advantages:
- It has integration with WooCommerce
- It has professional and attractive demos
Disadvantages:
- By requiring add-ons, they can slow down the website
(5) WP Page Builder Framework
It’s a WordPress theme that isn’t widely discussed in Spanish, but it’s a good option for creating your niche pages or your brand blog.
One of its key strengths is its optimization for loading speed, which, as you are already aware, is beneficial for search engine optimization (SEO). Google likes fast websites.
Here are the loading speed data for the free version.
Its developers have also taken care to optimize it for SEO by adding Schema that other themes do not usually have.
Like the rest of the themes mentioned, it is easy to customize through the WordPress customizer and is compatible with page builders such as Elementor or Beaver Builder, which is evident from the name.
In short, it’s a template worth trying. You can get it for free in the WordPress repository.
Page Builder Framework Price: Starting at $58
Go to the official website
Which SEO WordPress theme should I choose?
These are the five WordPress templates that are best optimized for SEO and that also allow you to create websites with different themes.
If you have the budget to buy a premium theme, you can play it safe by purchasing GeneratePress or Astra Pro, which are two of the most popular and well-known themes.
If you’re looking for a free template, I recommend trying one of the other three, as they have more customization options than the free versions of GeneratePress and Astra.
Of those 3, I like Kadence and Page Builder Framework the most.
If you know of any other themes that are a good option or have any questions about which one to choose, leave me a comment.
