If you want your blog to become as popular as College Info Geek or DormDelicious, you can’t overlook its appearance. While it doesn’t have to be innovative, it still has to make your blog recognizable. At the same time, your website also needs to come with all the features your users and you may need – and be optimized for performance and SEO.
That’s a tough bill to fit, isn’t it? Well, luckily, you don’t have to start designing (or redesigning) your blog from scratch.
After all, who has time for it? While you can hire essay writers from https://writer24.com/ to free up some time, you don’t have to waste it on painstakingly doing all that work from the ground up. You can instead use as-is or tweak one of these ten WordPress themes!
Garfunkel
- Rating: 4.9/5
- Created by: Anders Norén
- Pricing: free
If visuals are the centerpiece of your website, this Pinterest-style theme is for you. Thanks to the Masonry grid layout, your visuals will immediately catch your visitors’ eye – and make them want to scroll further. Garfunkel also comes with extensive customization options, so you can make your website’s design truly your own.
Key features:
- Pinterest-style grid
- Supports six post formats, each styled differently
- Logo, background image, and accent color customization
- Designed for Jetpack Infinite Scroll
Didi Lite
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Created by: Anariel Design
- Pricing: free
Looking for a minimalist design made with elegance and responsiveness in mind? Don’t overlook Didi Lite! It has this fashion magazine feel to it – but that doesn’t mean you can use it only for fashion blogs, of course! Didi Lite’s typography is its key strength by far. So, if your blog is text-centric, this is the right choice for putting it front and center.
Key features:
- Responsive design
- RTL language support
- Clean layout and sleek typography
- Comments and forms support
Ona
- Created by: DeoThemes
- Pricing: $49 (personal use)
Unlike previous entries, this is a paid theme – but it’s a worthy investment. You can use Ona to create virtually any kind of blog – and integrate it with WooCommerce if you want to turn your website into a revenue stream.
Key features:
- 134+ patterns for customization
- Compatible with WooCommerce
- Designed by UX professionals
- Optimized for fast performance
Abisko
- Rating: 5.0/5
- Created by: Anders Norén
- Pricing: free
If you love the look of your Instagram profile, Abisko can help you recreate it on your blog. Your posts’ featured images will take the center of the stage on the main page. Typography, however, doesn’t lag behind: it’s bold and makes good use of whitespaces, varying font size and weight, and overlapping with images.
Key features:
- Global Styles support
- 30+ block patterns included
- Built for Full Site Editing and fast performance
- 5 different styles to choose from
Color Blog
- Rating: 4.9/5
- Created by: Mystery Themes
- Pricing: free; paid variants are available
If you’re looking for a news website-style layout that pops with colors, Color Blog may be exactly what you need. It comes with an eye-catching slider hero section and a grid layout for all of your blog posts. What’s more, you can customize it to perfection with unlimited editing options.
Key features:
- Fully responsive design
- Dozens of theme variants
- Optimized for search engines
- Compatible with WordPress Page Builder
Blogus Lite
- Rating: 5.0/5
- Created by: themeansar
- Pricing: free; paid variants are available
If you’re after that old-fashioned layout, Blogus deserves your consideration. It works great for complex blogs with multiple categories where the text content is the key selling point. What’s more, the free Blogus theme comes in three variants: the default one, one with a slider, and a dark one.
Key features:
- One-click install
- Extensive customization options
- Multiple post styles
- Fully responsive design
BlockMag
- Rating: 4.5/5
- Created by: Catch Themes
- Pricing: free
Another minimalist design on the list, BlockMag is perfect for turning your website into a full-fledged online magazine. It uses a black-and-white color scheme, so your visuals will naturally catch your readers’ eye. The typography is also minimalist, contributing to this theme’s modern look. Plus, BlockMag comes with a wide range of powerful customization options!
Key features:
- 19+ block patterns
- 11 templates and 8 template parts
- Fast loading speed
- Looks great regardless of the screen size
Extendable
- Rating: 5.0/5
- Created by: Extendify
- Pricing: free
How about a theme from the creators of Extendify, the page builder plugin? Yes, this is exactly what Extendable is! Designed by professionals, Extendable comes with a dozen color palettes and fonts you can choose from. One thing remains unchanged, though: Extendable stands for a minimalist design that makes good use of whitespace.
Key features:
- Compatible with e-commerce features
- Full Site Editing support
- RTL language support
- Dynamic block theme with a fully responsive design
Björk
- Rating: 5.0/5
- Created by: Anders Norén
- Pricing: free
Yes, you’ve read that right – this theme is named after the famous Icelandic singer! Designed for blogs and personal websites, it proves that minimalism doesn’t have to be boring. Björk is simple, clean, and sleek – and it’ll make your website look like it was custom-designed by a not-so-cheap agency!
Key features:
- Compatible with Full Site Editing
- 7 style variations and 15+ block patterns out-of-the-box
- Optimized for fast loading speed
- Clean, fully responsive design
Spenser Blog
- Created by: Graph Themes
- Pricing: free; paid options are available
Designed with travel bloggers’ needs in mind, Spenser Blog is a must-consider if you want your visuals to speak for your blog. This modern-looking theme can help you get that professionally-made website look in a matter of clicks. It’s also a rare beautifully executed dark color palette!
Key features:
- Fully responsive design
- A wide range of customization options
- Optimized for search engines, all popular browsers, and loading speed
- Extensive documentation and tutorials
In Conclusion: How to Choose a WordPress Theme
Here they are – the ten unparalleled WordPress themes you should consider if you run a college blog. But how do you pick just one among them?
Before answering this question, let’s be clear: you’ll need to customize any theme you choose. So, make sure to look into the best essay writing services if you don’t have the time to tweak the look of your website! And then, to make sure your editing journey will be smooth and fast, do this to pick the best theme for your blog:
- Consider your budget. Are you ready to pay for a premium theme, and if so, how much? Or are you looking for a free theme exclusively?
- Know what you want. Do you want a minimalist-looking blog? What kind of layout are you looking for? Will you need additional features like comments, contact forms, and CTA buttons?
- Check out the previews. Every theme comes with a preview. Browse it, click around, and see if the preview is responsive. You can do the latter right in your browser!
- Compare every theme against this checklist. Your theme should load fast, come with thorough documentation, be compatible with your WordPress version and Gutenberg or Elementor, and be SEO-friendly.
- Take it for a test drive. Once you narrow down your choices to a few themes, try each of them on your blog. You can do it by using the WP Theme Test plugin or running a local installation of WordPress.