Last month I was having discussion with my friend who runs a popular WordPress theme store (Mr. Ninja) and a very popular blog on gadgets on what could be an ideal WordPress theme for bloggers. One thing which we both agreed was that “fastest loading WordPress theme” was the single most criteria which was necessary for every blogger while selecting the theme. All other aspects including the SEO and Advertisements could be later on enhanced by using plugins.
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vCandy Showcase Page
vCandy Features, description and much more
We started the discussion by pointing out what are the factors bloggers should look at while selecting a WordPress theme. We categorized these factors into essential and good to have features.
Essential Features
1. Fast and optimized (minimal number of HTTP requests to the server).
2. Elegant with good readability.
3. Lots of images which are optimized.
4. W3C validated
Good to have Features
5. Custom page and post template to create some promotional or special posts.
6. Custom Contact form
7. Multiple Sidebars including widgetized footer
8. Inbuilt SEO Widget ( Not my suggestion, I would still recommend using Vibe SEO Pack.)
9. Inbuilt Advertisement Widget.
10. Ability to change the Theme of the Blog with changing Campaign or seasons. ( if you have more suggestions, do post them in comments)
vCandy: Fastest WordPress Theme
This motivated me to create an ideal theme for bloggers, vCandy which as all the features mentioned above . AFAIK, it is the fastest WordPress theme till date. It scores 94 to 96 on Google Page speed and 92 on Yahoo yslow, Click here to know more, ( you can even compare your favorite theme with vCandy via this link as well). Apart form this the theme is 100% W3C validated Click here to know more. Page load time varies from 0.6s to 1.1 s.
Now, many may argue that the page load time of a site depends upon many factors, including the server configuration ( Apache or Nginix + hardware), therefore it was necessary to test this theme on the Worst case and Best case scenario. I have included lots of images in the blog posts of this theme (some are 1024x800px) but the theme automatically takes care of optimizing the images as well. In any scenario, the scores remained above 85 (Page speed) and 80(Yslow).
However, just by following few simple steps such as defining expiry of js,css and images in the .htaccess file, installing and configuring few popular plugins such as:
1. W3 Total Cache
2. WP Minify
3. WP HTAccess editor
4. WP Sanitize
I was able to improve my scores to close to 90.
All this I tried on a shared server, on a VPS you can see the current theme it scores 96 and 92. In any case I did not achieve these score even after switching to minimalist themes on the same WordPress installation.
We are providing free support to fist 25 buyers of vCandy ( Minor customizations and achieving top Page speed scores). Hurry before the count down (sum of the numbers Single Site License + Multi Site license) reaches 25!
Total vCandy sold= [wp_eStore_sale_counter id=1]+[wp_eStore_sale_counter id=2]
vCandy Showcase Page
vCandy Features and Description
vCandy Theme Demo
Fastest WordPress Theme | Size: 250 Kb
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