best wordpress themes for seo

21 Best WordPress Themes for SEO in 2023 (Compared)

On the hunt for the best WordPress themes for SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) plays a massive role in the success of your website and business. That’s why every element of your website must contribute to your overall SEO strategy — including your WordPress theme. It’s for this reason that you must ensure you use the best WordPress themes for SEO for all your websites.  Doing so will give you a better chance of ranking and driving traffic to your site.

What is a WordPress Theme?

A WordPress theme is a pre-coded file that provides the front-end styling of your website. It determines how your website will ultimately look. Your theme of choice can control significant elements like the layout to seemingly minor features like the color of your hyperlinks.

A WordPress theme allows you to customize your website to suit the vision and purpose you have for your website.

But more than aesthetics, your theme can also add functionality to your WordPress website. 

Most users love WordPress because it comes ready to use straight out of the box. That includes a lot of free themes.

However, when choosing the right theme to use for your website, you need to look beyond looks. You must also consider the fact that your theme has an impact on your website’s SEO.

Your theme must both look good and play a role in boosting your SEO.

21 Best WordPress Themes for SEO 

Creating SEO-optimized content is not easy. That’s why, to better increase the chances of your content being seen by your target audience, you must ensure your website is primed for success. One way of doing that is by using an SEO-friendly theme. These are themes that are:

  • Lightweight
  • Load fast
  • Provide a positive user experience (UX)

To help you choose one that’s perfect for you, we’ve compiled this list of the 21 best WordPress themes for SEO you need to know in 2023.

1. Divi

Divi is one of the most popular SEO-friendly website themes on the market because of its versatility. You can use it to build virtually any kind of website.

Divi is one of the best WordPress themes for SEO.

Another reason for Divi’s popularity is its ease of use, thanks to the drag-and-drop builder. You can use it to build your website visually — no code required. Other features to expect from Divi include:

  • 40+ website modules
  • 800+ pre-built layouts
  • Easy customization
  • Shape dividers
  • Filters and effects

Above all, thanks to its minimalistic coding, Divi is a lightweight and super-fast theme designed with SEO in mind. As a result, you can use it to build websites that search engines and users love.  

2. OceanWP

Another WordPress theme built with SEO in mind is OceanWP

OceanWP is another fantastic WordPress theme for SEO to consider.

One advantage of OceanWP is that it comes with beautiful, super clean demo content. This will help you have a better picture of what your website will look like. It also helps build your website faster as you can choose the content that best suits your niche and tweak it to your liking.

OceanWP also has the advantage of being a fast theme, resulting in your website satisfying Google’s Web Vitals requirements. It also ensures a positive user experience (UX) for users. Both are essential to a robust SEO strategy. Notable features of the theme include:

  • Easy demo import
  • Top-notch speed
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Full-screen scrolling

For international SEO, OceanWP comes translation-ready, enabling you to create a multilingual website easily.

3. Astra

Astra is one name that will pop up when you’re looking for the best WordPress themes for SEO.

Astra is one of the best WordPress themes for SEO to consider.

Astra comes pre-loaded with several starter sites catering to different business niches. These make it easy to find the perfect template for your website easily.

You’ll find it easy to customize the theme as Astra comes with powerful design options. It also supports popular drag-and-drop page builders like SeedProd, WPBakery, etc. Page builders give you more freedom to be creative and realize the dreams you have for your website. Astra also comes with other impressive features that include:

  • Powerful design options
  • Sticky header
  • Various site layouts
  • Several typography option
  • Post pagination

What makes Astra one of the best WordPress themes for SEO is its lightweight build and super-fast performance. You can also extend your Astra-themed website’s performance by pairing it with powerful SEO plugins like All in One SEO.

4. SeedProd

SeedProd is a game-changer for anyone that wants to design a custom SEO-friendly WordPress theme.

seedprod is the best seo-optimized drag and drop wordpress theme builder

This powerful, no-code website builder is used by over 1,000,000+ professionals to build themes right inside of WordPress. It comes with 15+ pre-built themes that you can customize using the drag and drop visual builder. Simply point and click to create beautiful layouts that are tailor-made for your business. 

SeedProd is fully responsive and mobile-friendly so you can be sure your site looks great on all devices. You can use the desktop and mobile previews to see how your design is coming along in real-time. 

The builder also produces bloat-free and minimal code to ensure your pages load super fast. Other notable features of SeedProd include:

  • 80+ pro page blocks
  • Pre-built smart sections
  • Color schemes and font combinations
  • Built-in coming soon and maintenance mode
  • Custom 404 pages
  • WooCommerce integration

If you want complete control over how your website looks and functions, without hiring a developer, SeedProd is the best option for you. 

5. EcoCoded

As the name suggests, EcoCoded is a WordPress theme that prides itself in helping users build eco-friendly websites. 

EcoCoded is one of the best WordPress themes for SEO, especially for those who are environmentally conscious..

One factor that makes EcoCoded one of the best WordPress themes for SEO is clean, compressed code. Add to that the fact that the theme automatically optimizes your images, and you’ll have a lightweight website that loads super fast. Other notable features:

  • Google Fonts
  • Demo content importer
  • Sidebar layout

The only caveat to EcoCoded is that it’s a no-frills theme. This means you can only use it for basic sites that don’t feature a lot of fancy animation, frameworks, and fonts. 

Despite not having as many bells and whistles as other WordPress themes on this list, EcoCoded is a fantastic theme that packs a punch as far as SEO is concerned.

6. Ultra

Another theme that’s popular with SEO-savvy website builders is Ultra.

When looking for the best WordPress themes for SEO, Ultra should top your list.

Ultra is a multi-purpose theme you can use to build stunning websites. It comes with beautiful demo sites (with over 60 professional layouts) you can import with one click. Tweaking them to your fancy is also easy, and you can customize everything from the header right to the footer. You also get 12 builder add-ons for free when you buy Ultra, giving you more flexibility to create your website to your desired specifications.

For a lightweight and ultra-fast WordPress theme, Ultra comes with a lot of bells and whistles that include, among others:

  • Responsive layouts
  • Slider backgrounds
  • Video backgrounds
  • Parallax scrolling
  • Custom styling options
  • Animation

Ultra definitely ranks among the top for an easy-to-use theme that fits well into your SEO strategy. 

7. Indigo

If you’re looking to build a website that’s fun, fresh, and futuristic, Indigo is the theme for you.

Indigo is another amazing WordPress theme that's SEO-friendly.

Indigo takes a modular approach to web design as it allows you to drag and drop modules to easily and quickly create page layouts. Other notable features you’ll enjoy with Indigo include:

  • Custom widgets
  • Social media icons
  • Contact form
  • Google fonts

With easy-to-understand theme settings, a robust feature set, Indigo certainly qualifies to rank as one of the best WordPress themes for SEO. 

8. Neve

One element that makes Neve stand out as an SEO-friendly WordPress theme is designed to meet Google’s AMP standards. 

Neve is one of the best WordPress themes for SEO, especially for businesses.

Because of its focus on mobile-friendliness, Neve is an excellent WordPress theme for websites that drive a lot of traffic from mobile devices. Besides mobile responsiveness, some SEO-centric features you’ll find in Neve include super-fast performance and clean, optimized code that makes the theme ultralight. Other features you can expect include:

  • Works well with most of the popular page builders.
  • Starter site library with over 100 demo sites to choose from.
  • E-commerce ready with easy and enhanced WooCommerce integration.
  • Greater flexibility with custom layouts.

For sleek designs and superior website performance, Neve is definitely one theme you should consider for your next website build.

9. Dixie

Podcasting has been growing in popularity over the past few years. That’s why the team at Second Line Themes developed Dixie.

Dixie is another theme that qualifies to be one of the bewst WordPress themes for SEO.

Dixie is a WordPress theme built specifically for podcasters and bloggers. It comes packed with features designed to help you attract and retain your target audience. For example, the theme comes with:

  • Episode slider
  • Audio and video players
  • Infinite scrolling
  • Pagination 

On the SEO front, Dixie is built to be lightweight and fast — despite having a ton of features. 

So, if you’re a podcaster or blogger who loves using multimedia on your website, Dixie is undoubtedly one of the best WordPress themes for SEO to consider.

10. Brittany

If you’re in a visual niche like fashion or travel blogging, you need a theme that helps showcase your visuals perfectly. Brittany is one such theme.

Brittany is one of the best WordPress theme for SEO for fashion bloggers.

With top-notch performance, a responsive design, and an intuitive drag-and-drop builder, creating beautiful websites is a breeze with Britany. The theme also makes it easier to monetize your website through easy WooCommerce integration. Also, promoting your content on social media is easy as the theme comes with social media integration straight out of the box. Britany also comes with some fantastic features that include:

  • Infinite style variation
  • Custom widgets
  • WooCommerce support
  • Translation ready

Built with the latest technologies, Brittany is a powerful SEO WordPress theme for building beautiful lifestyle blogs or magazines. 

11. Schema

When shopping around for the best WordPress themes for SEO, you’ll come across Schema.

Schema is one of the best WordPress themes for SEO asn it makes schema markup super easy.

Schema is one of the few themes designed with SEO in mind, and this shows in every element of the theme. For example, the theme prioritizes speed and clean code. In addition, its page regions come coded with plenty of semantic descriptors. These result in better indexing and accessibility by search engines. You also get the advantage of built-in rich snippets, further boosting your chances of being highly visible.

Other  notable features of the Schema theme include:

  • A powerful options panel
  • Fully responsive
  • Easy to install and edit
  • HTML and CSS ready

Schema is one theme that undoubtedly lives up to its reputation of being one of the best WordPress themes for SEO. That’s why it must also be on your list as you consider your next WordPress theme.

12. Authority Pro

Authority Pro is another powerful WordPress theme that you can use to build virtually any type of website.

Authority Pro is an SEO-friendly WordPress theme you should consider.

Authority Pro is so popular because it was built on the much-loved Genesis framework. The Genesis framework is easy to use for both developers and novice website builders. It’s also known for security, speed, and superb SEO optimization.

If you need to build a website that helps showcase your authority, knowledge, and expertise, Authority Pro is the theme to use. Authority Pro features a large customizable header image to help your brand-building efforts. Other features include:

  • Built-in newsletter subscription form
  • 4 widget-ready areas
  • 2 navigation menus
  • Unique vertical navigation menu

Authority Pro also comes with a theme options panel and a live customizer for visual editing to help you further customize your website.

13. Inspiro

If you’re a creative looking to showcase your artistic prowess visually, Inspiro is one of the best WordPress themes for SEO to use.

Consider Inspiro if you're looking for the best WordPress themes for SEO.

Inspiro supports a fullscreen slideshow that supports YouTube, Vimeo and even self-hosted videos in the background. Other features you’ll appreciate from Inspiro include:

  • Page builder integration 
  • Gallery module 
  • 1-click demo importer
  • Gutenberg ready 

Inspiro is definitely one of the best themes to showcase your visual portfolio. 

14. Foodica

Have a passion for food and want to share it with a like-minded audience?

Foodica is an excellent option for food bloggers looking for the best WordPress themes for SEO.

Then you should consider the Foodica theme as you build your foodie blog.

Foodica is a WordPress theme designed specifically for food blogs or recipe websites. The theme is optimized for SEO and is also designed to showcase your images appealingly. Thanks to the customizer that allows for visual editing, designing your website is made easy. Other standout features include:

  • Theme options panel
  • One-click demo import
  • Retina ready
  • “Featured” slider
  • Multiple ad zones
  • WooCommerce ready

Creating stunning websites with Foodica is easy. Add to that the various monetization features the theme comes with (or integrates with), and you’ll be ready to turn your passion into revenue in no time.

15. Corner

Corner is an excellent theme for building aesthetically pleasing portfolio sites.

Corner is another excellent SEO-friendly WordPress theme to check out.

Featuring a minimalistic design and simple two-column layout, Corner is undoubtedly a top-ranking theme as far as SEO goes. Notable features you’ll find with corner include:

  • WooCommerce ready
  • Flexible layouts
  • Google fonts compatible
  • Block editor support
  • Sticky headers

If you love the simplicity of the theme and yet need to add more functionality, you can easily do so with any plugin of your choice.

16. Roxima

If you’re looking for a one-page WordPress theme that will help you get your business noticed, Roxima fits the bill.

Consider Roxima as you search for the best WordPress themes for SEO.

Roxima was designed for small businesses and startups that are active in the financial and professional services sectors. The single-page layout makes for a lightweight and ultra-fast loading website. Add to that mobile responsiveness and clean code, and you’ve got yourself one of the best WordPress SEO themes for your next project. Other features include, among others:

  • Multiple layouts
  • Page builder integration
  • Parallax background effects
  • Unlimited color options
  • Translation ready

For a one-page site designed to boost your online presence, Roxima is an excellent them,e choice to help you do that.

17. Color Blog Pro

Looking for a WordPress theme to help you build a blog that’s vibrant and unique?

If you're a creative looking for the best WordPress themes for SEO, Color Blog Pro will definitely catch your attention.

Then Color Blog Pro could be what you’re looking for.

Color Blog Pro was designed to help you create blogs with an aesthetic appeal, thereby driving greater engagement. Featuring multiple header layouts, typography settings, and an (almost) infinite color palette, you can easily create any type of blog or magazine you want. Color Blog Pro also comes packed with many other features such as:

  • Responsive design
  • GDPR compliant
  • Page builder and plugin compatible

You can also easily sell products on your blog as Color Blog Pro is e-commerce-friendly, thanks to its WooCommerce compatibility.

18. Satchmo

If you’re a podcaster looking for the best WordPress theme to help boost your rankings, Satchmo is an excellent option.

Satchmo is one of the best WordPress themes for SEO for podcasters.

Featuring a minimalist design and ultra-lightweight code, it’s a fast-loading theme that will keep both search engines and your audience happy. Satchmo also comes with video support, allowing you to diversify your content. You’ll also enjoy features like:

  • Episode sliders
  • Easy to customize using WordPress Customizer
  • RTL support
  • One-click demo import
  • Supports over 900 Google fonts

Satchmo makes it so easy for you to build a professional website, whether you’re tech-savvy or not. As a result, you can focus on more pressing issues – creating content.

19. SociallyViral

Another SEO-friendly WordPress theme to have on your radar is SociallyViral.

SociallyViral is an excellent SEO-friendly WordPress theme that can help grow your audience.

SociallyViral was designed for businesses that rely on audience building, as the name suggests. Socially Viral comes packed with features designed to boost social shares, traffic, and ultimately, revenue. Core features to expect include:

  • Options panel
  • Display trending posts
  • Adsense optimized
  • 4 different loading effects
  • Subscription box

Every element of the SociallyViral theme was designed to encourage engagement. As a result, your posts stand a better chance of reaching a wider audience.

20. Koehn

Showcasing your business products, achievements, and capabilities is the best way to generate new leads and get more customers. That’s why you must leverage themes like Koehn to build your website.

Koehn is a WordPress them designed for local businesses in the manufacturing, construction, fabrication, and related industries.

Koehn is a WordPress them designed for local businesses in the manufacturing, construction, fabrication, and related industries. That’s because it was designed to make your products the heroes of your brand story. This is thanks to its clean and minimalist design. Other features that make Koehn shine include:

  • Drag-and-drop design
  • Custom widgets
  • Flexible layout options
  • Page builder integration
  • Powerful theme customizer
  • Full-screen slider 

Impressing potential clients becomes easier when you have a website that allows your products to shine. An SEO-ready WordPress theme like Koehn helps you do just that.

21. Sydney

Sydney is another fantastic WordPress SEO theme to put on your radar if you’re looking for the best WordPress themes for SEO.

Sydney is a versatile theme that also ranks as one of the best WordPress themes for SEO.

Due to its versatility, you can use the theme to create any kind of website ranging from corporate businesses to creative agencies to small-scale industries and everything in-between. Whether you’re a pro or novice, you’ll love Sydney’s flexibility as it allows you to customize your website to suit your vision. Besides versatility and flexibility, you can also expect the below features from Sydney:

  • Multiple layout options
  • Slider, static, and video headers
  • Different menu layouts
  • WPML ready
  • Button styling

For an SEO-friendly multi-purpose WordPress theme, look no further than Ombrello.

The Best WordPress Themes for SEO — Take Your Pick

Choosing the right theme for a website build can be quite a daunting task. This is true for both novices and professionals. Armed with this selection of the best WordPress themes for SEO, picking the perfect theme for your next build should be easier.

Once you’ve built your website using the best WordPress theme for SEO, don’t forget to install the best WordPress SEO plugin — AIOSEO. With AIOSEO, optimizing your website for people and search engines is a cinch, and you don’t even have to touch a single line of code.

So, go ahead and download AIOSEO today

Want to Try AIOSEO for Free?

Enter the URL of your WordPress website to install AIOSEO Lite.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. We only recommend products that we believe will add value to our readers.

author avatar
Kato Nkhoma Content Writer
Kato is one of those rare unicorns born with a pen in his hand—so the legend says. He’s authored 2 books and produced content for hundreds of brands. When he’s not creating content for AIOSEO, you’ll find him either watching tech videos on YouTube or playing with his kids. And if you can’t find him, he’s probably gone camping.

Reply Cancel Reply

We're glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our privacy policy, and all links are nofollow. Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

18 comments on “21 Best WordPress Themes for SEO in 2023 (Compared)

  1. Is there any similarity between WorldPress themes and others like Elementor, WPbakery etc? Are they from different brands?
    What are the implications for someone that wants to change its website theme to any of the WorldPress theme?

    1. Hi Solomon, WordPress themes are what control the design and appearance of your website, whereas WPBakery and Elementor are drag and drop page builders that enable you to add complex layouts content. WPBakery and Elementor are plugins that work independently of your theme.

  2. Super disappointing – I see two out of three things at the top – light weight and load fast you say.
    then you do not mention the load weight or the load time/speed for any of these.
    Sorry but this just looks like desperate to get affiliate commission spam – maybe I’m wrong, but the way it looks without these metrics – seems it has more to do with you sending affiliate clicks than it dies actual SEO.
    My personal experience with astra this past year or so shows that they no longer deserve a place on these lists – their pro site lists all sorts of things like premium support and seo – but it appears that’s all a fraud.

    I’m now looking at another fast loading theme, but it’s not even on this list!

    1. Hi Steve, thank you for your feedback. We’ll certainly look into including performance information in future.

  3. Avada also is no there its fast speed wise. mobile and desktop friendly and good for finiancial and very easy to make changes to yr website.

    1. Hi Milad,

      We’d recommend AIOSEO, of course :). Especially since we’re continuosly adding powerful new features. Also, our plugin is super easy to use, even if you have no technical knowledge. Plus, our customer support is unrivaled. However, do check both out closely.

  4. Sorry, but there is something fundamentally wrong with an article introducing 21 lightweight and fast themes that does not even mention GeneratePress…

  5. Ba Nkhoma mwapapusha! So tamwaishiba “Bam”? ‘Bam Theme’ isuma Sana mbuya (Hope you will read and understand because you from Zambia too)

    1. Thank you for your input, ba Mwansa. I wish we could include all the great themes out there but time can’t allow. I did have a look at Bam though, looks like an excellent theme. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.