This past Saturday we switched to the Lifestyle Pro WordPress theme and went live. It was a site makeover we have been thinking about for several months.
Last year we made the move to WordPress. Our site had been on the .NET platform from the very beginning — back in 2007. At the time we made the move our focus was on making a smooth transition to WordPress. Thoughts about a new design for our site were for a later day.
What WordPress framework to use?
After doing a lot of research on the various frameworks and themes available, we decided to go with the Genesis Framework. This has proven to be a great decision. Genesis has made the administration of our blog so much easier, and it appears to be the rock solid foundation we had expected it to be! By the way, the Genesis Framework was created by the folks over at StudioPress.
Why StudioPress?
There are thousands of themes available today which run on Genesis. Selecting the right theme could consume a lot of time — which we did not have. We liked what StudioPress did with Genesis, so we decided to check out some of their themes.
StudioPress themes enjoy a reputation for being:
- beautiful
- very reasonably priced
- easy to implement and customize
- backed by wonderful customer support
For the initial migration, we chose the News Pro theme. Given how our site looked on .NET, is seemed like it would be relatively easy to keep our site’s original look and feel. News Pro delivered and we were happy with the migration to WordPress!
However we recently decided to create a whole new look for SeniorDayServices. We wanted a theme which would be a better fit for the needs of our readers — with a softer, more relaxed feel. And we wanted to make it even easier to use. So we began thinking about the features we wanted.
Our theme checklist
We made a list of the most important things we wanted in our new theme. Here is the list we came up with:
- Uses the Genesis Framework
- Made by StudioPress (our preference)
- Responsive design
- HTML 5 compliant
- Backed by a trusted support team
- Clean, uncluttered layout
- Easy to customize
- Intuitive navigation
- Pleasing to the eye
After exploring many of the StudioPress themes, we decided Lifestyle Pro would work best for us and our audience.
By the way, we have an affiliate relationship with StudioPress. We love their themes. If you click on an affiliate link, and subsequently make a purchase, we may receive compensation. But you will not pay more than you would otherwise. For more information please visit our Disclosure Policy page.
What do you think?
Let us know your thoughts regarding the Lifestyle Pro WordPress theme we chose for our SeniorDayServices makeover.