I’ve mentioned blog themes a few times already and I can’t really overemphasize the importance of using the right theme for your blog.  How you present your blog to others is much the same as how you would present a brick and mortar store to your public; appearances mean a lot.

Many businesses invest in a quality layout and design for their commerce websites but leave little consideration for their blogs.  They may just grab any free theme available that catches their eye.  Sometimes the color schemes match up with their business site, but most often they don’t.

What these business bloggers may not realize is that almost every website design can be converted into a blog theme for use by Wordpress.  For someone who knows a little web coding, it’s not too difficult to create a Wordpress theme that mirrors the look of your business site.  Some designers charge more than others, so it pays to shop around for this kind of service.  (Feel free to contact me for a quote if you’re in the market for a custom blog theme.)

I don’t know about you, but every time I’m on a nice looking website and click to their onsite blog and see the “Kubrick” theme I die a little on the inside.  When they mix up the site and blog themes like that they lose the overall seamless nature their website once had.

Even if your blog is hosted on a separate domain I would push for it to be branded with the same theme as the main site.  This creates continuity between related business sites and lessens the chance of any visitor not knowing who you are.

When it comes to your business blog, don’t settle for a theme that doesn’t match your company; get a theme that brands your blog to your business.

When you are choosing the layout and look of your Wordpress blog, you will most undoubtedly come across hundreds of themes to choose from.  Nearly all of them can be downloaded free of charge, but you will probably find a few that come with a price tag.  When you see something that normally is free, you may wonder if the “premium” themes are actually worth the money.

There are many different themes you can pay for, but one theme I see mentioned quite often is Semiologic Pro.  I have a good amount of experience with this theme and will tell you what I think about this theme and premium themes in general.

I have used Semiologic for a long time.  It is what I originally used to start this site and many of the sites I’ve started for others.  It is simplistic, SEO optimized, and built for marketing and Adsense sites.  The strength behind Semiologic Pro is split between the theme and the selection of plugins that come with the package.  My experience with using this theme for a blog has been positive.  After installing, it is very easy to customize your site to add features you want, and delete the ones you don’t.

Using Semiologic Pro as your theme will give you the ability to simplify your blogging.  With less to fiddle with, you can post your articles knowing that your site will be presented to the search engines in the most flattering way possible.  My past experience has shown that any articles I published using this software has ranked higher than it would have if I had used a different theme setup.

Semiologic Pro has a price tag of about $300 and this allows for a year of updates.  As Wordpress updates their software and Semiologic updates their theme, you can keep an up to date version as long as your subscription is current.  Is paying $300 a year for your blog theme worth it to have an optimized blog that attacks the search engines with fierceness?

It was for me, and a lot of other people as well.  But I have also come to the conclusion that you can get the same benefits by using the free Semiologic theme and a good selection of plugins.  There are a few plugins that come with the Pro version that you can’t get unless you’re a subscriber, but the lack of those plugins will not hinder your progress in a major way.

If you want to experience what Semiologic can do for you and your blog, I would first try out the free version of the theme before committing to purchasing the Pro package.  If you like what you see with it, then you can take it a small step further by becomming a paid subscriber at their site.

One of the first things you will have to decide on after starting a business blog is how you want it to look like. The layout and design of your blog can have just as much of an impact as the content you provide, so it is very important to take your time with this step.

If you have done even a little research on Wordpress themes you have undoubtedly come to know that there are a dizzying amount of themes available.  There are hundreds of free themes available in many different styles and color themes, and there are also “premium” themes which you can obtain for a price.  What theme should you use?

Unfortunately, this is not a question that has an easy answer.  Blogs are as varied as the people who operate them and this isn’t an area where a “one size fits all” kind of mentality will succeed.  You have to take into consideration your blogging goals and your blogging audience when you decide on your theme and layout.

A point to note is that some blog themes perform better than others for SEO purposes.  Some blog themes are much better in how they format your site and thus are better indexed in the search engines.  Two of the best blog themes for SEO are Semiologic Pro and Thesis.  Both of these themes offer exceptional SEO benefits and are highly customizable.

Another important SEO consideration is how your blog is laid out.  Almost all blogs you see will contain a “header” area, a “footer” area, “main content” area and one or more “sidebars”.  Many SEO experts agree that having your main content area (the area that contains all your articles) to the left of any sidebars will produce better search engine results.  A reason for this is because the search engine bots will find your topical blog content first before seeing the often repetitive sidebar content.

If you are unable to decide on a theme to use for your blog because nothing you’ve found is exactly what you want you can alter themes to suit your purposes.  If you are comfortable in your knowledge of PHP, HTML and CSS it is more than possible to create the perfect theme and layout for your blog.  Alternatively, you could hire someone to create a custom blog theme to your specifications.

In this often overlooked topic, I would offer the following suggestions:

• Simplify – The less amount of clutter on your blog, the better your blog will be for your readers.  I like to stick with blogs that have just one sidebar to list information like “Recent Posts” and “Categories”.  Businesses that use blogging to boost their rankings and traffic should focus more on their main content.
• SEO Optimized Themes – Businesses that are serious about utilizing blogging should use serious themes and bypass most of the free ones.  Free blog themes may get the job done, but they may also require much more work to accomplish what a premium SEO theme can.
• Easy On The Eyes – Keep your color palette simple and standard and avoid any design scheme that is painful or distracting.
• Center Of Attention – When you visit a blog or website, what are your eyes instantly drawn to?  When your readers visit your blog what do you want them to be drawn to?  Your blog layout and presentation should act as a guide to what you want your visitors to be drawn to.  Flashy sidebar or header graphics will garner more attention than your content, so if your content is what you want people to focus on you need to make the main area the center of attention.

All blog themes are not created equal, and if you spend a little extra time earlier planning the layout and theme of your blog you will reap more benefits later.