There are so many free and premium WordPress themes on the market, and some of them are specially designed for different niches. Niche themes are very popular because they are tailored to specific needs, so it’s always best to search for a niche-specific theme for your website.
Unfortunately, there are not so many niche themes, because developers still focus on general WordPress themes (general blog or business). Some exceptions seem to be portfolio, e-Commerce and magazine themes. Most of the premium WP themes of today offer at least a portfolio feature. It’s more difficult to find good themes for other niches, especially the more “obscure” ones, but the good news is that things are slowly changing.
Luckily, more and more designers and developers understand the need for quality niche themes. If you wish to find an appropriate theme for your niche, you should visit all the professional websites offering premium themes or you can search through a theme directory listing for themes in your desired category/niche. But why should you use nice specific WordPress themes?
Advantages of Niche Themes
- Themes specially designed for a niche. These themes are tailored to a specific niche, and they come with all features and tools a niche needs. With these themes, it will be much easier for you to improve functionality of your website and to add just the type of content your visitors need.
- No unnecessary features. With niche themes, chances are that you’ll use all of the offered features. Everything that’s included is relevant for your niche and all unnecessary thing are removed.
- Appropriate design. Niche themes have a less generic design because designers know how you’ll use the theme. They can choose colors, elements and layouts that reflect your niche perfectly. For example, travel themes may use blue color scheme and images of exotic locations. Restaurant themes can have warm colors and places to post your daily menus. Fashion store themes will have trendy, organized design, and so on.
On the other hand, there are certain disadvantages to using niche themes:
- Niche themes are tailored to a specific niche and often can’t be used for different types of websites. It means that some of these themes are not particularly flexible. However, theme creators often do their best to make a theme as flexible as possible, packed with features not necessarily directed to a niche, so you can use them for websites outside the niche.
- Unique needs. Even with special, niche themes, each website has its own needs. A niche theme is not always the best solution so some people opt for general themes instead.
- Theme creators do their best to make a theme suitable for a specific niche. But what if niche requirements change? Because of this, a more generic theme might be a better option in some cases.
Popular Niches
There are many different niches and all of them require specific types of content. The earlier divide into personal and business sites is simply not specific enough to create a niche WordPress theme. Different types of businesses require different theme features and designs.
Here are some of the most popular niches and website categories requiring more of the attention from the developers:
- Portfolios – These websites are very popular, and they allow you to showcase your work (such as photographs, designs, etc.) and other relevant content, such as products and services, in case you want to build a business portfolio. Good portfolio themes enable you to include both images and videos in your portfolio projects.
- News & Magazine – These websites focus on publishing news and other informative content in a form of an online magazine. Posts are usually accompanied by pictures and/or videos.
- E-Commerce – These themes are specially designed for building an online store. They can cover many different niches or focus on a specific niche (such as fashion or electronic), and they always come with a way to include a shopping cart. There are also product pages and sliders for showcasing featured products.
- Food & Restaurants – These themes are specually designed for bars, restaurants, takeaways, cafes and other food-related websites. They allow you to post your menus and daily specials and many of them have a built-in reservation system.
- Music & Bands – This is a popular niche with special requirements. A good band theme should enable you to post discography, album and song information. Additionally, a theme should allow you to publish an events calendar with upcoming gigs. Also, many band themes offer a handy audio player for your songs.
- Education – These themes are best suited for schools, universities and other educational websites. They allow you to post courses, information about professors and the school, etc. Some themes enable you to handle admissions.
- Health & Beauty – These themes are specially designed for doctors, hospitals, spa centers, gyms, fitness centers and other similar websites. They will offer a list of available personnel, working hours and services.
- Real Estate – Themes in this category come with all features needed for running a successful real estate website: they list agents and properties with maps and they have advanced search functions for finding just the right property for yourself.
- Nonprofit – These themes are ideal for charity and nonprofit organizations. They often come with a donations page to handle money donations.
- Microblogging – These themes allow you to have a Tumblr-like blog on your website. You can post images, galleries, videos, chat transcipts, status updates, and more.
- Other theme categories/niches:software & apps, community, web hosting, wedding, job market, directory listings, coming soon, etc.
Niche themes offer numerous advantages. They allow you to setup and run a well-organized website full of relevant content and features. You don’t need to build anything by yourself because all important features are already built in the theme. For example, restaurant owners will appreciate a theme with predefined menus and reservations, while music bands would want to use a theme that allows them to display their discography and upcoming gigs. In short, all niche themes are well-tailored to your specific niche.
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