Travel blogs are insanely popular. These days, no one goes anywhere without searching the web first, and travel blogs are, alongside booking sites, reviews and forums, among the most widely consulted resources. For any globetrotter thinking about starting their own WordPress travel blog, one of the first questions that arise is – “How do I choose the perfect theme for my blog?”
There are so many gorgeous WordPress themes out there tailored specifically for travel blogs. They are not only beautifully designed but also fully equipped with all the functionalities such a site might require. There are many factors to consider, but still, some criteria are particularly important for a site dedicated to travel. In this article, we’re going to give you a few hints as to what to focus on when picking the ideal WordPress theme for your travel blog.
Responsiveness Is a Must
To some, this may seem like a given, considering that responsive websites are no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Still, we feel it’s important to reiterate that if you want to go anywhere – pun intended – with your website, it absolutely needs to be responsive. This means that you should only ever go for themes that are guaranteed to look good on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones alike. These days, most themes are responsive, and yet some do a better job in that department than the others.
Extensive Plugin Support
WordPress plugins are among the most important things that make WordPress so amazing as a blogging platform. There are hundreds of thousands of WordPress plugins for just about anything you might need. Depending on the size and the scope of your travel blog, you will probably need a couple of plugins – for SEO, to clear cache, optimize speed, add forms, ratings, forums and so on. Therefore, you want to pick a theme that supports a great number of plugins and guarantees flexibility in this area. Kinsta spent countless hours making this hand-picked list of the very best WordPress plugins. Make sure you take a look and install some of these on your travel blog.
Translation Ready and Multilingual
Whatever the primary language of your travel blog, it definitely makes sense for you to make it multilingual and/or to have the ability to translate your content into whatever language you deem necessary. However, you won’t get that unless you pick a WordPress theme that is translation-ready (containing .po and .mo files) and supports one of the several available multilingual plugins. Some themes even come with translation into several languages, which is definitely handy. To make sure you’re completely covered in the multilingual department, pick a theme that is both translation-ready and compatible with the WPML plugin.
Top-Notch Page Builders
In case you’re not familiar with the concept, page builders are plugins that help users build their own pages in WordPress and customize the content using simple drag&drop actions. Even though most WordPress themes come ready to be used out of the box, it’s still a good idea to have a user-friendly, intuitive page builder at hand. Many themes already come with a page builder you can use. The thing is, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good builder. It might be a builder that was only used for that one theme and that will mess up your code if you ever decide to switch to a different theme. Therefore, it is always a good idea to go for a widely used, high quality builder. These premium page builders are sometimes thrown in for free with themes, which is a welcome bonus and one of the things that make a good theme.
Proper SEO or Bust
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is that one thing that can make or break a website. You want your travel blog to rank as high up as possible on search engine result pages, right? In that case, you need to work on your SEO. This is a complex field that, normally, takes a lot of time and effort to master. Also, figuring out by yourself whether a theme is SEO friendly or not requires a degree of knowledge which you may not have. Because of this, developers always make sure to clearly state if their theme is SEO friendly. This should include clean code, responsive design, social media integration, proper website structure and some other factors. This is a huge deal, since an SEO-friendly theme basically does half the job for you.
Conclusion
Choosing the best theme for your WordPress travel blog should be an informed choice. We firmly believe that the above-listed factors are simply more important than the others. Without a responsive, SEO-friendly site that can be translated into other languages and that supports all the premium plugins and builders, your travel blog simply cannot thrive. Now that you know this, you can dive with confidence deep into the themes market and pick out a gem of a theme for your travel blog.
