Understanding What to Avoid with Free Themes

Although free themes are great, you want to avoid some things when finding and using free themes. As with everything on the Web, themes have the potential to be abused. Although free themes were conceived to allow people (namely designers and developers) to contribute work to the WordPress community, they've also been used to “game the system” and wreak havoc for users. As such, you need to understand what to watch out for and what to avoid.

Here are some things to avoid when searching for free themes:

• Spam links: Many free themes outside the WordPress Free Themes Directory include links in the footer or sidebars that can be good or bad. The good uses of these links are designed to credit the original designer and possibly link to her Web site or portfolio. This practice — a nice reward to the creators — should be observed because it increases the designer's traffic and clients. Spam links, however, aren't links to the designer's site; they're links to sites you may not ordinarily associate with or endorse on your site. The best example is a link in the footer that links to odd, off-topic, and uncharacteristic keywords or phrases, such as weight loss supplement or best flower deals. Mostly, this spam technique is used to increase the advertised site's search engine ranking for that particular keyword by adding another link from your site or, worse, to take your site visitor who clicks it to a site unrelated to the linked phrase.
• Hidden and malicious code: Unfortunately, one abuse reported in the WordPress community has been hidden and malicious code within a theme that can produce spam links, security exploits, and abuses on your WordPress site. Hackers install code in various places that run this type of malware. Unscrupulous theme designers can, and do, place code in theme files that inserts hidden malware, virus links, and spam. Sometimes, you see a line or two of encrypted code that looks like it's just part of the theme code. Unless you have a great deal of knowledge of PHP, you may not know that the theme is infected with dangerous code.
• Lack of continued development: WordPress software continues to improve with each new update. Two or three times a year, WordPress releases new software versions, adding new features and security patches and numerous other updates. Sometimes, a code function will be superseded or replaced, causing a theme to break because it hasn't been updated for the new WordPress version. Additionally, to use new features added to WordPress, because the software adds new features, the theme will need to be updated accordingly. Because free themes typically come without any warranty or support, one thing you should look for, especially if a theme has many advanced back-end options, is whether the developer is actively maintaining the theme for current versions of WordPress. This typically is more of an issue with plugins than themes, but it's worth noting.
• Endlessly searching for free themes: Avoid searching endlessly for the perfect theme — trust me, you won't find it. You may find a great theme and then see another with a feature or design style you wish the previous theme had, but the new theme lacks certain other features. Infinite options can hinder you making a final decision. Peruse the most popular themes on the WordPress Free Themes Directory, choose five that fit your criteria, and then move on. You always have the option to change a theme later.

The results of these unsafe theme elements can range from simply annoying to downright dangerous, affecting the integrity and security of your computer and/or hosting account. For this reason, the WordPress Themes Directory is considered a safe place from which to download free themes. WordPress designers develop these themes and upload them to the theme directory, and the folks behind the WordPress platform vet each theme. In the official directory, themes that contain unsafe elements simply aren't allowed.