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Best Free WordPress Themes (Fast Blazing)
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Every blogger is searching for the best free wordpress themes to boost SEO and get lots of traffic.
If your current theme is giving you lots of problems, then I strongly suggest that you do some little tweeks to speed up your site’s performance at this very critical moment.
Here are a few things you need to look at before installing any wordpress themes.
- Perform DNS Lookups
- Website performance monitoring
DNS lookup
First, you need to perform a quick DNS lookup for your wordpress site, we want to know the time it takes for the server to connect your domain name’s IP address to your server provided by your registrar, this is to check the server loading time.
In most cases, some DNS servers takes quiet long to load whereas others use milliseconds to complete the task. If your site is using a free DNS, I strongly advice that you upgrade to a premium DNS soon as possible.
Website Performance Monitoring
The second thing to do is website performance monitoring, this is very important because, we need to look out for what is causing the site to load slowly. To do that, here are a few tools you can use to solve the problems.
We use tools like:
- Pingdom
- Google pagespeed insights
- Google analytics site speed
When it comes to analyzing page performance, these three are the best, they give you an overview of your sites data based on certain parameters. For instance, page speed, image size, DNS speeds and so on.
I run a couple of speed tests for thesmartmonk using page speed insights, below is a screenshot
Initially, the speed was way too low and very poor, the score ranged between 25-33, this doesn’t look good. I searched for possible recommendations to help boost the speed and finally I managed to hit 83-90, I was using wpxon theme at first.
Why is it necessary to check out the speed of your website or blog?.
According to kissmetrics, if your page goes beyond 3secs to load, your target audience will lose interest in reading your blog posts, and you know what that means, higher bounce rates and not subscribing to your offers.
To find a solution to this problem, we need lightweight wordpress themes.
Tip: Get your best premium wordpress themes here, fast blazing and lightweight themes available for all wordpress users.
Here’s the list I’ve gathered so far:
- Divi
- Astra
- Generate press
- Schema
- Oceanwp
- Studiopress
Now, we are going to outline the features, benefits and performance stats for just a few before you decide.
1. GeneratePress
I did a fresh install of generatepress and performed about 5-6 speed tests using Pingdom tool before I calculated the average time.
The total load time was 305ms with an overall page size of only 16.8KB. It’s always good to have a baseline test to see what the theme is capable of in terms of raw performance.
Speed Test
- Performance Grade: A(97)
- Page Size: 16.8kb
- Load time: 305ms
- Requests: 7
I tried to ran another set of tests but this time, I added some posts, images, social sharing icons, optin forms and so on. The loading time still clocked under 400ms, That’s incredible!.
Check the speed test results below;
- Performance Grade: 88(B)
- Page Size: 837.8kb
- Load time: 386ms
- Requests: 36
Let’s say there are other things running such as google analytics, facebook remarketing pixel, etc. Your target should aim at the 1-second mark easily.
One advantage about this theme is that, it has lots of pre-built themes that doesn’t need a “page builder”.
Features and Benefits:
- Fast
- Lightweight (less than 1MB)
- Mobile Responsive
- SEO friendly
- Updates automatically
- Well supported
- Customizable
Get the GeneratePress sample here, and read the installation guide. It also has a premium version available with extraordinary features and benefits.
Reviews: The free version has over 100k active installs, 1.6+ million downloads currently, and an impressive 5 out of 5-star rating.
2. OceanWp
After installing oceanwp, I run five speed tests, and striked the average, total load time was 389ms with a total page size of only 230.8 KB. The scripts are slightly bigger, but nothing to write home about.
The second tests with the demo version of oceanwp site clocked at 600ms. I inserted images, backgrounds, new sections and posts, together with elementor page builder.
Speed Test
- Performance Grade: A(92)
- Page Size: 230.5kb
- Load Time: 389ms
- Requests: 16
Features and Benefits;
- Lightweight
- Highly extendable
- Enables you to create any type of website such a blog, portfolio, business website and a wooCommerce storefront with a beautiful & professional design.
- Updates automatically
- Well supported
The premium version has more extra features and benefits, get yours now!.
Reviews: The free version currently has over 300,000 active installs, and another impressive 5 out of 5-star rating (over 1,200 people have given it 5 stars).
3. Astra
With astra, I did five speed tests and calculated for the average. Total load time was 243 ms with a total page size of only 26.6 KB.
Speed Test
- Performance Grade: A(98)
- Page Size: 26.6kb
- Load Time: 243ms
- Requests: 5
After including images, post, embedding videos, google analytics tracking code and adding elementor page builder, loading time clocked under 700 ms.
Note: The images in this post were fully compressed, but they choose very high-resolution ones from the start.
Features and Benefits:
- Fast
- Fully customizable
- Suitable for blogs, personal portfolios, business websites, and WooCommerce storefronts
- Lightweight (less than 50 KB on frontend)
- Offers unparalleled speed
- Updates automatically
- Well supported.
Just like with generatepress and oceanwp, there is both a free and premium version available.
Reviews: 200,000 active installs, 1.6+ million downloads, and another impressive 5 out of 5-star rating (over 850 people have given it 5 stars).
Tip: Some page builders might increase load time on your site. This is simply because, they load additional CSS and JS to make things work for you without code. Try using google page speed insights to do speed testing before installing.
4. Divi
It is a completely new website building platform that changes the standard wordpress post editor with an exceedingly good visual editor.
It can be relished by design experts and newbies alike, giving you the power to create beautiful designs with astonishing ease and efficiency.
Advantages of DIVI theme
- Customizable
- Import & Export Layouts
- Little To No Loading page
- Builder is wildly fast
- Organize with comfortability
- Content Elements
- Premade Layouts
- Real-Time Design
- Responsive Editing
- All Purpose Theme
- Drag and Drop Builder
- Modules
- Split testing
- Role system
- Multilingual
- Child themes and layouts
Lots of Help From the Community
There are lots of websites with accurate tutorials and articles about Divi, and facebook groups devoted to Divi with plenty of users willing to help. Divi has one of the most dedicated communities in WordPress.
Why Should I Use Divi?
There aren’t a lot of themes that offer as many features as Divi. Through the wide range of customizations Divi can build practically any type of website. Any features you want that are not included can be added. The intuitive builder is ideal for both beginners and professionals. Divi is a great choice whether you’re building a blog, an eCommerce platform, or anything else you need.
Divi Themes:
Tip: Free best wordpress themes with fast blazing speed are now available, get yours today!.
5. Studiopress
Features:
- Fast website loading times
- Extra emphasis on security
- Fully responsive HTML5 design for mobile users
- No bloat from excessive built-in features
- Minimal customization options for a more streamlined user experience
- Clean code that will appeal to developers
- Access to the search engine optimized genesis framework codebase
6. Schema
Is a fast loading, ultra-SEO friendly wordpress theme that features rich snippets in order to assist search engines identify all parts of your site and rank you higher.
Features:
- 100% Responsive
- Speed Optimized
- SEO Ready
- Compatible with elementor builder
- Unlimited license for sites
- Ad management
- Built-in review system
- Easy import
- Powerful options panel
- Rich snippet support
- Unlimited backgrounds
- Secure lightweight code
- Translation ready
- Useful short code
- Optimized for speed
- All google fonts
- Custom widget included
- Integrated social media
The schema lite version has limited features, but the premium package gives a better user experience. This means lower bounce rates, high conversions and more revenue.
I personally use schema theme, and you can have a look at the speed performance tests below upon various tests I conducted for the theme, here are the results;
TEST A for mobile view
Test B for Desktop view
Pingdom Speed Tests – Before
- Performance grade: 99(A)
- Page size: 574.5kb
- Requests: 41
- Load time: 659ms
After:
Looking through all these speed tests with correct data and sampling, we can finally conclude that these themes are lightweight, fast and easy to use.
7. Wpzoom
Each of the themes comes with an intuitive and easy-to-use theme options panel that permits you to configure and customize your site without coding.
Features:
- You can duplicate the structure and look of your themes demos with one click by importing content, widgets and much more.
- Truely Responsive
- Theme updates automatically with one click
- SEO friendly
- Translation-Ready: Themes can easily translate into any language.
Reasons you’ll love Wpzoom themes:
- World class and personal support
- Regular updates to bring you new features
- Responsive designs
- Simple and fast installation and set-up
- Themes are SEO-friendly, fast, and secure
Free Wpzoom Themes:
Premium Themes:
- Inspiro
- Academically Pro 3.0
- Academica Pro 2.0
- Balance
- Expedition
- Modena
- Presence
- Tribune
- Foodica
- Alpha
- Startingup
Ready to find the Perfect Theme? – Find a theme today at no risk – 14 day money back guarantee.
Related: What’s the best page builder for wordpress?
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