One of the most important things when first setting up your WordPress website is deciding which theme to use. It’s important to use one of the best SEO WordPress themes, but out of the thousands of options out there, which should you choose?
To clarify which are the best WordPress themes for SEO, we’ve compiled a list based on which ones are cleanly coded, lightweight, and provide the best user experience.
Best SEO WordPress Themes For Building Websites That Rank
The main thing to look for in the best WordPress themes in terms of SEO is how lightweight it is and how well-coded it is. If crawlers can’t easily move through your website, your pages won’t be indexed. If your pages aren’t indexed, you won’t be ranked for anything.
You want to work with reputable theme developers who regularly update their themes and don’t add too many extra features that can add code bloat.
Astra
Astra is one of the most popular themes for WordPress. Not only is it incredibly fast, but it is also feature-rich with options for a wide range of website owners. This includes eCommerce sites, niche and authority websites, brochures websites for local businesses, and others.
Some of the SEO features of Astra include their Schema Pro plugin, high-quality coding, lightweight design, and intuitive styling features. The theme easily integrates with plugin builders to make creating a user-friendly website much easier.
The theme comes as both a free and premium option. Out of all the plugins we’ve tested, Astra has one of the most robust free versions, good for basic websites.
Learn more about this theme in our full Astra review here.
GeneratePress
GeneratePress is another popular theme and a good option both for beginner WordPress users and experienced WordPress builders alike. The theme has been heavily used by niche and authority website builders because of the free basic version and because it is easy to work with.
In terms of SEO, GeneratePress is lightweight and responsive, helping to minimize code bloat and ensuring quick load times.
Some of the features that made GeneratePress popular include its lightweight and clean code, which helps with high page speed scores, compatibility with a full range of builders and other WordPress plugins, the new GeneratePress block-based builder, and more.
If you think this theme could be right for you, check out our full GeneratePress review as well as a side-by-side comparison of GeneratePress vs. Astra.
Divi
Divi is another go-to WordPress theme for many and one of the first that really caught on with niche and authority site creators due to the Divi page builder. The Divi builder, which was launched in 2015, really helped to propel the theme in popularity.
One of the great things about Divi is the massive number of starter templates that make it easy to start working. Each of these templates is well coded and designed to ensure it’s search engine friendly.
There are also plenty of other features that are extremely helpful, including tons of advanced customization features, responsive editing capabilities, and others.
Check out our full Divi review here.
OceanWP
OceanWP is a theme developed to be fast, versatile, and easy to use. The theme has been popular for a range of websites, including niche and authority websites, eCommerce sites, and plenty of others.
Some of the other features that make OceanWP incredibly popular are:
- Global fonts and typography
- Global site layouts
- Customizable headers and footers
- Tons of other design and customization features
Other SEO features of the theme include integrated schema markup and adjustable heading tags to make styling content easier. This is a premium theme with three different packages based on how much functionality you need.
Kadence Theme
Kadence is the new kid on the block, launched in 2020, but has since become one of the fastest growing in terms of use. The theme is incredibly powerful and easy to customize, making it a great option for both beginner and advanced WordPress users.
One of the other benefits is the Kadence Blocks editor. This block editor makes it easy to edit pages and other aspects of your website without needing to know code. Both the theme and the block editor come as a basic free version but also come with expanded capabilities through the paid version.
The theme is one of the fastest on the market and incredibly lightweight, ensuring your pages are both SEO and user-friendly.
Blocksy
Blocksy is a free theme that comes with a premium advanced version perfect for use with Gutenberg, the native WordPress block editor. The theme is lightweight and highly versatile, and because it is made to work with Gutenberg, you don’t need to worry about code bloat from a third-party theme and page builders.
The theme regularly performs well on page speed tests, better than many of the other top performers. It’s also incredibly easy to work with, ensuring both beginner and advanced users can get the website they want.
One of the things I really like about the theme is the pricing structure. It comes with both an annual but also a lifetime pricing option, ensuring you don’t need to be stuck with regular payments if you opt for the lifetime license.
Genesis
Genesis is an incredibly popular theme framework that makes it easy to create detailed websites. The theme is regularly ranked as one of the fastest on the market, with the ability to create highly detailed websites for various niches and purposes.
The coding is incredibly clean and built according to best practices, ensuring search engine crawlers can index pages more easily. Website owners can also benefit from Genesis Blocks, which makes it easier to create user-friendly web pages that both look good and load quickly.
This is another theme that allows you to get started with a free version before upgrading to the premium package.
Infinity Pro
Infinity Pro is one of the themes available under the Genesis Framework. The theme is sleek and lightweight, as is the case with most of the other Genesis Framework themes.
One of the primary benefits of the Infinity Pro theme is that it’s Gutenberg-optimized, which means you are minimizing code bloat that commonly comes with builders like Elementor.
Other benefits include many different theme options, widget areas, customizable headers, and theme customizer. The theme is mobile responsive and can be used for a variety of purposes, including for eCommerce websites.
Hestia Pro
Hestia Pro is a modern theme that provides numerous benefits to users ranging from a sleek design to a high level of customization options. The theme is available for purchase on Themislae, a development team known for high-quality WordPress themes and plugins.
Some of the features that make Hestia Pro a winning WordPress theme include full control using the theme customizer, compatibility with a range of page builders such as Elementor and Beaver Builder, enhanced WooCommerce compatibility, and more.
As with many of the other themes on this list, Hestia is well-coded and lightweight, leading to a faster theme that provides a better user experience and is overall better for SEO.
Corporate
Corporate Pro is a theme that can be found on PremiumWP from SEO Themes. It’s not as popular as many of the other options we’ve listed so far, but it doesn’t mean it’s any less of a quality WordPress theme.
Some of the features of Corporate Pro include:
- Accessibility-ready design
- Custom color and font options
- A robust theme optimizer
- Custom widgets for enhanced design
- Flexible headers
- Multiple layout options
- Responsive optimizations
The theme is compatible with Gutenberg as well as other page builders, making it even easier for you to design quality-looking pages. You can also benefit from the one-click demo import allowing you to get started with a pre-styled template from the start.
Authority Pro
The Authority Pro Theme is another from the minds over at Studio Press. The theme works with the Genesis Framework, providing you with a robust and intuitive system for customizing and designing quality-looking web pages with solid UX principles.
From an SEO perspective, the theme is lightweight and well-coded, as are all of the other Studio Press themes. This can help crawlers index pages more easily and ensure your pages aren’t difficult to crawl.
The theme is clean and easy to work with and can be used for a wide range of purposes, including WooCommerce, niche and authority websites, and others.
Ultra
Ultra is a powerful theme from Themfiy, a drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress that makes it easier to style web pages exactly how you want them. The theme is incredibly flexible and makes creating great-looking websites a much faster and more intuitive process.
Some of the benefits of the many design skins and demos make it easier to get started without needing to work from scratch. The theme is also lightweight and responsive, providing a better user experience.
Other benefits of the Ultra theme from Themify include one-click demo installation, twelve bonus builder add-ons that work with the theme, over sixty predesigned layouts, tons of design and styling customization options, and more.
Corner
The Corner theme for WordPress is one of the best SEO WordPress themes if you’re looking for a fast, highly customizable, and lightweight theme that will both look good and help with your search engine optimization efforts.
Some of the benefits of the theme include portfolio management, WooCommerce compatibility out of the box, easy compatibility with the Gutenberg block editor, including custom blocks for enhanced design capabilities, and more features.
The theme can be purchased through CSSIgnitor, a WordPress theme and plugin development team known for clean-coded and highly versatile themes and plugins like MaxSlider, GutenBee, AudioIgnitor, and others.
Presence
The Presence theme is a WordPress theme developed with businesses in mind. It was created by the team at WPZoom, the creators of WordPress themes and plugins such as Recipe Card Blocks, Social Icons Widget, Portfolio Grid, and others.
Some of the features that make the theme great to use include 1-click updates & demo importer, Gutenberg block editor ready, easy customization & site identity settings, WPML compatibility, and others.
The code is in line with best practices according to web standards to ensure clean and easy-to-modify code. It’s a mobile-responsive theme with user experience in mind to ensure you can easily create web pages your visitors will love.
Roxima
Roxima is another theme from CSSIgnitor that’s made with users in mind. The theme is cleanly coded and designed according to best practices. As with other CSSIgnitor themes, everything is intuitively laid out and easy to personalize and customize based on your needs.
Some of the features of the one-page business template include:
- A highly customizable blog section
- Easy integration with WooCommerce
- Works with all major builders such as Elementor and Divi
- A smooth scroll experience
The theme comes with the GutenBee blocks add-on, so you can further customize your website using Gutenberg. Everything is easy to customize with an intuitive theme customization interface.
Nayma
Nayma is one of the best SEO WordPress themes created by the team at Artisan Themes. The developers are a boutique WordPress theme development company known for high-quality and unique themes that are highly customizable and created with the end user in mind.
Some of the features of Nayma are the unique front-end editor, multilingual ready, Gutenberg ready, easy to integrate with WooCommerce, compatible with all contact form plugins, unlimited custom sidebars (and don't miss our guide on how to remove sidebars in WordPress), Google fonts enabled, and many more options.
Other benefits include the full suite of Artisan plugins and complete access to the Artisan knowledge suite and video tutorials. Nayma is a solid choice with clean code, robust functionality, and customization options.
Integral
Integral is a clean-looking WordPress theme from the developers at Themely. It’s coded according to best practices and consistently updated to ensure security and compatibility with the ever-changing online world.
Some of the features of the Integral theme include:
- Multi-browser compatibility
- Multilingual ready
- Fully mobile responsive
- WooCommerce compatibility
- Easy installation and configuration
The theme comes as a free starter theme or a premium theme if you want to unlock the full features. As a part of the premium theme, users get 24/7 priority support along with access to custom widgets and advanced design and customization options.
Schema
Schema is an ultralightweight theme that is fast loading and coded in line with SEO and development best practices. The makers of the theme, the development team at MyTheme Shop, have gone so far as to say the theme is ultra-SEO friendly.
Some of the benefits of the Schema WordPress theme include:
- A super lightweight design
- High speeds out of the box
- Easy one-click installation
- 24/7 premium support
- Compatibility with all major page builders
The theme comes as a very simple free version. For more detailed websites, a premium version can be purchased with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Brando
Brando is a multipurpose mobile responsive theme from the development team themezaa. The theme is highly versatile and feature-rich, allowing you to design the exact website that you are looking for.
Along with being highly versatile, some of the other benefits of the Brando theme include tons of demo sites that can be easily installed to shorten your design work, WP Bakery page builder ready, an intuitive theme settings panel, highly customizable theme settings including header and footers, and more
The theme is available for purchase through the Envato Marketplace. It comes with six months of support which can be extended to twelve months of premium support.
Litho
Litho is another multipurpose theme with a large selection of demo sites created by the developers at themezaa. The theme is mobile responsive and works well with Elementor page builder giving you near limitless design opportunities.
Along with the high degree of customization that Lith provides, other benefits of the WordPress theme include:
- Over 37 unique demo sites to get started with
- Customizable mobile menus
- WooCommerce compatibility
- One-click demo importer
- A whole host of compatible plugins
The theme can be purchased through the Envato Marketplace and, as with others on the site, comes with a standard six months of premium support with the option to extend to an extra six months.
Potenza
Potenza is a sleek and clean-looking theme from the team behind CSSIgnitor. The theme is incredibly lightweight and perfect for a wide range of purposes. In terms of search engine optimization, the developers have gone out of their way to minimize code bloat and to ensure pages are easy to crawl.
Along with the lightweight design, some of the other features of Potenza include:
- Mobile optimization
- Custom typography
- Custom color schemes
- WooCommerce compatibility
- Compatibility with Elementor and other page builders
The theme can be purchased through the CSSIgnitor marketplace and comes with multiple options allowing you to select the package and the features that you need.
Pofo
Pofo is a professional-looking theme with a clean interface and a high level of customizability that can be found on the Envato Marketplace. The theme is from the development team at themezaa and comes with a host of features that can help with your SEO efforts.
Some of these features include:
- Mobile responsive design
- WooCommerce compatibility
- WP Bakery compatibility
- WPML multi-language compatibility
- The ability to select from over two hundred pre-built templates to speed up your design process
With the purchase of the theme, you get six months of support with the option to upgrade to twelve months of premium support. You also get lifetime updates ensuring your theme stays secure and responsive.
SEO Crawler
Another of the best SEO WordPress themes from the Envato Marketplace, the SEO Crawler theme is fast, lightweight, and responsive, giving you a solid template to work from when trying to create the perfect design for your needs.
The theme is primarily directed toward agencies but can be used for almost any service-based business. Some of the features of the SEO Crawler theme include:
- An in-house page builder designed by the team at GoodLayers
- Almost unlimited design options
- Lifetime updates
- And so much more
As with other themes purchased through the Envato Marketplace, you get six months of premium support with the option to upgrade to twelve months.
Float
Float is an incredibly versatile blog theme from the development team at myTheme. The theme is highly customizable and perfect for content-heavy websites that need a lightweight and responsive theme. Not to mention, it looks good without all the bloat.
Some of the benefits of the Float theme for WordPress include a fully responsive design, a customizer with a live preview option, custom widgets from the development team, an easy shortcode manager, Gutenberg block editor compatibility, a custom archive page template, and many other features.
The theme can be purchased through the Envato Marketplace and comes with six months of premium support with the option to upgrade to twelve months, along with lifetime updates to the theme.
Sydney
Sydney is a powerful theme from the highly respected development team at aThemes. The developers are known for their high-quality themes used by millions of users worldwide.
Some of the benefits and features you get when working with the Sydney WordPress theme include multiple header types, highly customizable menu layouts, flexible blog post styling, tons of starter sites to work with, WooCommerce compatibility, extra Elementor widgets, and more.
The theme is well-coded, lightweight, and optimized for SEO. Use this theme as a free basic version. However, you have the option to upgrade to the premium version for some of the more advanced features.
Olsen Pro
Olsen Pro is another high-quality theme produced by the design and development team at CSSIgnitor. The theme is made with bloggers in mind. This makes it a perfect choice for fashion and lifestyle bloggers or anyone else looking for a clean and modern theme.
As with the other best SEO WordPress themes mentioned, Olsen Pro is lightweight and well-coded to minimize code bloat that can slow down the site and lead to poor user experience.
Some of the features of the Olsen Pro theme include multiple layout options, over twenty different typography and color variations for styling, different post formats, live editing capabilities, SEO optimization, and more.
Marketing Pro
For service-based companies and agencies that want a fast, clean, and lightweight theme, Marketing Pro is one of the best SEO WordPress themes that you can choose.
The theme is available through the Envato Marketplace. It comes with lifetime updates as well as six months of premium support. Plus, you get the opportunity to upgrade for a further six months of premium theme support.
Features and benefits of the Marketing Pro theme include a one-click demo importer, visual composer, fully-responsive advanced theme customization options, easy Google font importer, translation ready, customizable header and footer, pricing tables, and many more features.
Neve
Neve is an incredibly popular theme. It's also one of the best SEO WordPress themes if you're looking for something highly customizable. The theme is lightweight and coded according to modern best practices to ensure it’s easily crawlable with clean code that’s SEO friendly.
Some of the benefits of using the Neve theme include:
- Global color palletes and styling features
- Compatibility with major block and page builders
- Over one hundred starter templates
- Custom header and footer design
The theme receives constant updates and remains optimized to ensure quick load times and optimal performance. Overall, Neve is one of the top themes if you're looking for an SEO-optimized theme out of the box.
Dixie
Dixie is one of the best SEO WordPress themes from the designers and developers at Second Line Themes. The theme is fast, cleanly coded, responsive, and created with both users and search engines in mind.
Some of the other benefits of the Dixie theme include easy-to-access documentation, one-click demo installation, translation ready, support for over nine hundred Google fonts, dedicated support, optimized for page speed and SEO, and many other advanced features and benefits.
Purchase this theme through the Second Line Themes website as either a standalone theme with annual fees or a lifetime bundle with access to all of the podcasting themes from the developers.
Brixton
Brixton is another of the best SEO WordPress themes available on the Envato Marketplace from the developers and designers at gljvec. The theme is well coded and made especially with bloggers and other content-focused website owners in mind.
Some of the core benefits of using the Brixton theme include a wide selection of custom widgets, tons of sidebar customization options, easy one-click demo installation, unlimited color variations, fast load times, seven different professionally designed post templates, and many more.
The theme comes with six months of premium support with the option to upgrade for a full twelve months of professional theme support.
Nico
Nico is one of the more unique themes out of the best SEO WordPress themes on this list. Instead of the traditional themes made for corporate use or for eCommerce or niche and authority websites, Nico is instead geared towards digital asset creators such as NFT and crypto.
The theme has a few key benefits for these types of users, such as unlimited color variations, fast loading times, Google web fonts ready, SEO optimized, seven highly customizable post template types, and many other helpful features.
As with all of the other Envato Marketplace themes, you get a standard six months of premium support that can extend to twelve months total for an extra fee. The theme comes with lifetime updates to make sure everything stays secure.
Plugins That Work With The Best SEO WordPress Themes
Link Whisper
Link Whisper is the gold standard when it comes to building internal links that can help with both search engine optimization and user experience. The plugin can help automate the link-building process, which can traditionally take a good chunk of time.
The plugin is very easy to use and works on the backend of WordPress, allowing you to automatically set internal links based on keywords. This is a premium plugin, allowing you to purchase a license as either a one, three, or ten-site bundle or a custom package for more than ten websites.
For detailed information on how some niche website owners are using Linkwhisper to build their platform, check out our article here.
Rank Math
Rank Math is one of the most popular and well regarded SEO plugins for WordPress. The plugin works well with all of the best SEO WordPress themes and can help to automate many common tasks regularly performed for search engine optimization.
One of the things that many users regularly mention as a benefit is the backend visual SEO checklist. This backend interface lets you know just how optimized each article is and makes it easy to understand what tasks still need to be completed.
Some of the other benefits of using the plugin include redirections, internal linking, schema, image alt tags, orphaned content finder, readability analysis, social previews, title optimization suggestions, and many other helpful features.
W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache is one of the most powerful caching plugins available for WordPress. The plugin can be more on the complex side, but there are plenty of tutorials available to help you understand all of the different features and how to set up the plugin.
Caching is critical for providing a better user experience which can ultimately improve your search engine rankings through repeat visitors. It can also contribute to improving Google Core Web Vital score, which very likely has a significant impact on your search engine rankings.
The plugin is available for free but does come with a premium version. Most users, however, likely will not need the premium version as the free plugin version provides virtually everything you need for basic website caching.
Site Kit By Google
Site Kit is a newer plugin from WordPress released from Google to help website owners more easily set up different tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Ad Sense, etc.
While you can add all of these things manually to your website, Site Kit makes the process of setting up each tool much easier and can be worth it for newer website owners who don’t want to take the time to add code snippets manually.
The Google Site Kit plugin for WordPress is completely free and can be downloaded through the WordPress plugin repository. Set-up is incredibly easy using the set-up wizard, and everything can be done through the WordPress backend.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is the gold standard when it comes to WordPress caching plugins and improving website performance. The plugin makes it easy to manage tasks such as page caching, GZIP compression, cache preloading, browser caching, and more.
This is a premium plugin, as compared to many of the free and freemium WordPress caching options, such as W3 Total Cache mentioned above or plugins like Hummingbird. The benefit of paying for WP Rocket, though, is that it is consistently being updated and maintained and is lightweight without code bloat.
You can easily integrate the plugin with your current CDN for even better optimization or use the plugin's native CDN, RocketCDN. Other features include varnish cache, Sucuri integration, Cloudflare integration, and many more powerful features.
Final Thoughts On The Best SEO WordPress Themes
If you have any aspirations of ranking your content and getting traffic from search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Duck Duck Go, etc., search engine optimization is crucial. More important, you should understand that SEO is so much more than the 2000s tactics of keyword stuffing and tricks like using PBNs.
Search engine optimization has evolved with the most important aspects revolving around answering users' questions and providing a high-quality user experience that keeps users coming back and search engines wanting to send you traffic. For this, using one of the best SEO WordPress themes can help by ensuring your website is clean, fast, and with minimal code bloat.
The above list represents the best in terms of WordPress plugins optimized for performance. Each one is created by quality developers and will ensure your website provides a quality user experience for many years to come.
The post 31 Of The Best SEO Friendly WordPress Themes Around appeared first on Niche Pursuits.