WordPress Free vs Premium Themes (Pros and Cons)

Hi, I'm Takeo Fujii. In this article, I will explain the difference between free and paid WordPress themes.

I will explain in detail the differences in SEO, design, features, etc., which should help you choose a WordPress theme.

"You should buy a paid WordPress theme even if you have to pay for it." "Paid WordPress themes are better for SEO."

I see such tweets.

The conclusion is false: there is no difference in SEO. There is no difference in SEO, no weakness because it is free. Paid themes are not superior.

In WordPress themes, there is no difference between free and paid themes.

So why is a paid WordPress theme recommended?

Why paid WordPress themes are recommended

I'll be brief.

• For affiliate commissions
• Future development can be assured.

These are the two points. First, there are affiliates who want to earn referral fees by recommending paid WordPress themes to others.

Some people recommend WordPress themes in the hope that if someone buys a WordPress theme that they have introduced, they will receive a referral fee.

And the second reason why paid WordPress themes are recommended is "peace of mind for future development". By buying a paid WordPress theme, you can be assured that it will be updated in the future.

The WordPress theme I use in Japan, AFFINGER(ACTION), has been updated frequently since it was first sold until now.

One of the reasons why AFFINGER(ACTION) continues to be developed so enthusiastically is because it is a paid theme.

It costs money to maintain a development team. You have to pay salaries to hire employees. In other countries, there are often WordPress themes whose development has been abandoned due to lack of funds.

In other words, the fact that WordPress themes are paid for increases the number of buyers and brings in development funds. As a result, you can develop WordPress as a business. The more users a theme has, the more money it receives, and the more it can be developed.

Here's why many people recommend paid WordPress themes.

However, I believe that either free or paid WordPress themes are fine. I don't believe that a paid theme is superior.

There are three main reasons for this.

The first is.Because SEO is an illusion.It is.

1) SEO is an illusion.

First, is there a difference between paid and free WordPress themes for SEO?

Some people pay 25,000 yen for a paid WordPress theme because they see the sales phrase "SEO optimized WordPress theme.

I don't want you to lose money on my blog, so I'm going to expose you.

SEO with WordPress themes is an illusion

SEO can be divided into internal SEO and external SEO, and SEO with WordPress themes is internal SEO.

The content of the theme will enhance your SEO. However, in recent years, both free and paid WordPress themes have been designed with internal SEO measures in place. In other words.There is no difference between paid and free WordPress themes.

They all have above-average SEO.

To begin with, SEO is almost complete when you start using WordPress.

>>Why SEO is pointless and why you shouldn't hire an SEO company.

If you know anything about SEO, you know that Matt Cutts is the former head of search engine development at Google, and he's an expert in the SEO industry.

WordPress is a great choice
WordPress takes care of 80-90% of (the mechanics of) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2009-event

In other words, WordPress says it will solve 80% to 90% of SEO related methods.

When you use WordPress, rather than using a free theme or a paid theme, you are already enhancing your SEO.

This is how it is written in the WordPress official website.

WordPress is optimized for search engines from the start. If you want more granular control over SEO, there are many SEO plugins available.

The function (https://ja.wordpress.org/about/features/)

You could lose money on paid WordPress themes.

In other words, SEO is almost complete when you are using WordPress, even if it is a free theme.

There is no fact that a paid theme is more SEO friendly, on the contrary.There is no fact that free themes are weak in SEO.

In fact, there are some paid themes that have too many features. In such a case, there is even a possibility that the display speed of your site will slow down due to the use of a paid theme. I have experienced this myself.

I buy WordPress themes from an international site called Themeforest, but some of them are no longer being developed and are still being sold, even paid themes that have not been updated since 2014.

In other words, you could lose money on a paid WordPress theme.

I'd rather be safe with a free WordPress theme.

Free WordPress themes are frequently updated due to the large number of users that use them.

Since it is easy to gather feedback and collaborators from users, it is rather safe to use a free WordPress theme.

Coccon, a free WordPress theme, provides the following page.

They accept requests and feedback from users. Since there are so many users, it is easy to gather feedback, and even though it is free, improvements are constantly being made.

Let me repeat that.Whether a WordPress theme is paid or free does not change the strength of the SEO strategy.

WordPress themes that are SEO friendly are

• It has a very unusual feature.
• It contains features that were rare when it was first sold.
• SEOThe only other thing we can do is to put our measures out there.

There is only one of these, and most of the time it is"The only other thing I can do is show my SEO strategy.This is the case.

If you think about it, if the SEO feature is that strong, other WordPress theme developers will copy it, right?

There are stylish WordPress themes for free.

There are WordPress themes with excellent design, even free themes. Even paid themes are tacky.

I've seen people say that WordPress themes are good because they are paid or because they are well designed. I've seen people say that free themes have bad design.

At first glance, you would probably think, "Sure. In fact, there are some paid WordPress themes that you will want just for their looks.

On the other hand, some people may think that free WordPress themes are plain looking. I used to think that way until a few years ago.

Design can be easily changed with plug-ins.

However, this is not the case today.

There are plugins that allow you to create pages of any design, regardless of the WordPress theme.

See below.

You can easily create beautifully designed pages with just a plugin, regardless of the theme.

You don't have to rely on the predetermined design of a WordPress theme. You are free to create your own design.

The "next generation" page builder that I am using is described in the article below.

>>How to use WordPress Page Builder Brizy, the complete guide

It is no longer the case that you can freely design your pages regardless of the WordPress theme.

A lot of customization information exists.

Still, some people may not want to use free WordPress. However, there are many WordPress themes that are highly customizable.

If you search for free WordPress themes, you will find a devil of a lot of customization information.

The WordPress theme I use for this site, Neve, is also free.

But it's a pretty cool design.

In WordPress themes, the difference in design between paid and free is no longer relevant.

Most people are not interested in site design.

Also, it doesn't matter how stylish the design of the website is, it doesn't matter to the users. They are not even interested.

When site design exceeds a certain level, it becomes complacent.It is.

It's just someone else's website. They are not even interested in what WordPress theme you are using. The majority of visitors will intuitively judge the design in a nutshell.

It's more of a design feature, rather than a

• Is it easy to read?
• Does it contain the necessary information?

The above two factors are much more important.

I myself have been working on a project to set up a "line of sight" to attract customers to the web, but I think it is more important than design.The priority is to ensure that the information on the site is rich and organized.

• Cool Logo Design
• Pop-up pop-up
• Flashy animation
• Tracked sidebar

I don't care about any of it and I'm not interested. It's true that some people judge a design as "cool" or "stylish. But only professionals look at the details (the small parts). Ordinary people don't look.

Whether a WordPress theme is paid or free, there is no difference in increasing sales for your business. A paid theme does not mean it has a better design or better SEO.

Rather, the content of the website is important.Content is more important than WordPress themes.

Conclusion: WordPress is free or paid, either is fine.

Here is a summary of the contents of this article.

WordPrWhether the ess theme is paid or free, there is no difference.It is whether it has a price tag or not.

There is no difference in SEO and attracting customers. It doesn't matter which WordPress theme you use. The higher the price, the better.

If I may say so.

• Easy to use
• Fast display speed
• Development is continuing.

Choose a WordPress theme that meets these requirements. Free or paid, it doesn't matter. I don't care about anything else.

I wrote the article below with the purpose of explaining how to choose a WordPress theme in more detail.

>>How to choose a WordPress theme! How to decide without fail!

I hope this article will be helpful. See you soon.