In this guide, I chose to use screenshots from the excellent ThemeForest website which offers premium templates from a large variety of designers all around the world.

More beautiful templates can be found on the StudioPress website, feminine templates can be found on the Restored316 website, and if you decide to build your site using the Elementor Pro plugin, you will get access to over 300 templates {Have no idea what an Elementor is? Click here for the full guide}.

Elementor Compatibility –

If you decide you want to build your site using the Elementor plugin, and you want to shorten the workflows of building your site you can go for the option of working on an existing template. When you purchase a subscription to Elementor Pro, you get access to hundreds of templates on which you can build your new site. If you still can't find a design that you like in Elementor Pro, you can search for a premium template that works with Elementor on the different template sites I suggested above {at extra cost, of course}.

Template Style –

Before you look for a template, make a list of all of the important things to have on your website, here are some examples :

• How would you like different pages to look? For example, a magazine-style spread across the entire width of the screen or this kind of style of a classic blog with a side column.
• Do you want a slider {slideshow} that will display recent or specific posts? Just like in my website’s homepage.
• How do you want the posts to be displayed? In the form of a list or in the form of squares {You can see an example of both options on my website – just click on the grid and list icon under the category’s title}
• Do you want to combine a store on the site? Many businesses open up a blog in order to integrate a store selling the business’s products, and sometimes the growing need for a store starts from the success of the blog.
• Is it possible to integrate banners in case you want to advertise on the site? For example, if in the future the site will be very successful and you can make money by advertising banners.

All premium templates have a preview {live view / live demo} showing you all of the design options you get when you purchase the template.

It’s important to pay attention to the different design options of the page layout of the template and to ignore colors, images and fonts that appear in the template – because you can change all of these later {and they aren’t relevant to your content anyway}. The more page layout options you’ll have, the more you’ll be able to play with the template and adapt it the best way to the style you want your website to have.

The template’s control panel will allow you to make changes in the template itself by easily pushing a button, without dealing with the code {unlike the free templates}.

Responsivity –

A responsive website is a website that’s adapted for mobile phones, tablets and different screen sizes. Most people today browse on their mobiles, so it’s important to make sure that the website looks great not only on the computer screen. Besides that, Google search engine penalizes websites that aren’t responsive by ranking them low in search results.

Most premium templates are responsive, but in any case, it’s important to check that they are defined as responsive by the seller, and to check them out on your own by browsing the template from your cell phone, or with the help of a plugin that can be downloaded to Google Chrome.

Template Popularity –

Choose a template with 4-star rank or higher, based on at least 25 opinions. Templates like these are considered high-quality, comfortable to use and chances of problems and bugs in templates like this are lower.

Accommodating Different Browsers –

Make sure that the template works well in all popular browsers {Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer and Firefox}.

Technical Support –

Before purchasing, make sure the template has technical support, and check for what period of time. Besides one-on-one support, in most premium templates you can find articles and guides where you can find answers to frequently asked questions about the template, or forums where questions were asked in the past by other users. All these will help you if problems or questions arise regarding the template.

After successfully choosing the best template for your website, and buying it {if you chose the premium option}, it's time to install it on your WordPress site!