Review and Ratings Plugin Installed

Last night was spent buying. uploading, and tinkering with two different responsive WordPress themes: Made and Magazinly. Both were deactivated and the taqyeem WordPress review plugin was installed and activated for this theme. This post is the first using the review plugin, rating the theme Made for test purposes.

Most of the time was spent tinkering and customizing the theme Made. Made includes numerous custom posts, such as a review system with Google Snippet support which is important for search engine optimization. The theme also includes over 80 shortcodes, 16 unique widgets and four custom menu areas.

Installation was straightforward – purchase, download, unzip, upload to the server, and activate. However, customization is a challenge and takes time. There are a few screencasts available for helping customize the theme, but many more are needed. For example, the options for slider areas, don’t miss, and in the spotlight need clarification in the documentation.

The support FAQs were too scattered to be helpful. For example, I simply wanted to change the logo and ended up giving up trying to find an answer in the FAQ. Luckily the replacement is easily found in the miscellaneous tab in the WordPress admin panel for the theme options. This tab also includes the options to remove the search bar as well as social icons.

After working with the themes, I concluded that both WordPress themes are beautiful but too heavy for this site. First, this site needs to remain light on images. This factor differentiates the site from others as well as helps decrease website load times. Second, the site requires three different menu lines, which is possible with Made but not “out of the box” with the theme Magazinly. Finally, the Made theme was never perfect for items located below the “in the spotlight” area. There was a large white line left after removing a few areas.