I enjoy being a WordPress (WP) Website Consultant and helping all my clients establish their own online presence with a WP website. After all, one of the best benefits of having your own WP website is being able to make your own updates without dealing with lines of code.
In my other blog post about establishing your online presence, I went over the steps involved in the WP website creation process. Before you can start creating your individual web pages, you need to pick your theme.
What is a WP Theme?
This refers to the look and layout of your website. It’s the “skin” of your website so to speak.
You could go to wordpress.org/themes and browse all the different themes. Some are free while others you have to pay for. You’ll also come across some industry specific themes (e.g., some will be geared towards restaurants, some towards online stores, etc.). Then you have themes like Astra that take the form of a plugin and can work with any current theme in place and also offer a pro version for more premium options (here is how Divi compares with Astra).
Then you have page builder themes like Divi, Elementor, Beaver Builder, and several others. If you’ve used a platform like Wix or Weebly, then you’re familiar with drag and drop elements.
I have used many different themes for various personal and client projects. Out of all the themes I’ve used, I enjoy the Divi theme the most.
What is the Divi Theme?
It is both a premium theme and multipurpose page builder theme from Elegant Themes. It has drag and drop elements very similar to Wix and Weebly. Because of this, you can spend more time on design and making your website look beautiful.
Divi is available via an annual license or lifetime license. After purchasing your license, you can then use this theme on as many personal/client projects as you’d like.
When it comes to designing your web pages, you’ll see the ability to create sections, rows, and modules.
In the screenshot above:
- the blue area represents a section
- the green area respresents a row
- the dark gray circle with a white ‘+’ represents the ability to add a module
In a nutshell, a section is a collection of rows and a row is a collection of modules. You have many modules to choose from such as Text, Image, Button, and Blurb. In most cases, this helps eliminate the need for any extra plugins.
This is only a partial list of some of the modules you could insert:
What I Like About Divi
- With just one license I can use this theme on as many projects as I’d like
- I’m able to spend more time on design and making my projects look beautiful and professional
- The Elegant Themes support team is excellent; whenever I have a situation I can count on support for the guidance I need
- The Elegant Themes team is continually working on their product and making it better; they are very consistent with their theme updates
- On a similar note, when the WP Gutenberg update was released, Elegant Themes ensured that their Divi theme would be fully compatible and not cause any issues
- I enjoy visiting the Elegant Themes blog where they cover the latest theme updates and also provide posts on different tips and tricks on getting the most out of Divi
- It comes with many premade layouts to help provide a “starting point” for most projects (e.g., there is a plumber layout, a mechanic layout, a spa layout, and many other service based layouts); here is only a small glimpse:
What I Dislike About Divi
- It can be overwhelming trying to keep up with all the theme features and updates (since there is so much you can do with Divi)
- Some people might feel that it has a lot of bloated code on the backend which could slow down your website (having the right hosting and overall backend set up really helps)
- The split testing feature can be a bit confusing (e.g., when you want to test two different buttons to see which one gets the most clicks)
Conclusion
Out of every WP theme I have tried, I am happy to make Divi the default theme I use on all my personal and client projects. Since I focus on service based solopreneurs, it’s easy for me to look at the service based Divi premade layouts for inspiration.
Whether you ultimately choose Divi or another theme for your WP website, be sure to make a plan for your website.
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