How to use a child theme in WordPress?

Introduction

Using a child theme in WordPress is essential for anyone looking to customize their website while preserving the core functionality of their chosen theme. By using a child theme, you can make design tweaks and functional changes without affecting the original theme files, which ensures that any updates to the parent theme won’t overwrite your customizations.

What is a Child Theme?

A child theme is a sub-theme that inherits all the features, styles, and templates of a parent theme but allows you to make changes independently. This setup enables you to customize your site’s appearance and functionality without losing your changes during theme updates.

Why Use a Child Theme?

  1. Preserve Customizations: Updates to the parent theme will not affect your customizations in the child theme.
  2. Easy Maintenance: You can keep the parent theme updated for security and feature improvements.
  3. Experiment Safely: Test new styles, functions, or layouts without altering the main theme.

How to Create and Use a Child Theme

  1. Create a Folder for the Child Theme: Go to wp-content/themes/ and create a new folder named after your parent theme with -child at the end, e.g., twentytwentythree-child.
  2. Add a style.css File: In your child theme folder, create a file called style.css and add the following header:
    css
    /*
    Theme Name: Twenty Twenty-Three Child
    Template: twentytwentythree
    */

    This links your child theme to the parent theme.

  3. Add a functions.php File: To load the parent theme’s styles, create a functions.php file in your child theme folder and add:
    php
    <?php
    function my_child_theme_enqueue_styles() {
    wp_enqueue_style('parent-style', get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css');
    }
    add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', 'my_child_theme_enqueue_styles');
    ?>
  4. Activate the Child Theme: Go to your WordPress Dashboard > Appearance > Themes, find your child theme, and click “Activate.”

Making Changes in the Child Theme

Now you can add your custom CSS or edit template files within the child theme without impacting the original theme. Customize headers, footers, or layouts safely.

Conclusion

Using a child theme in WordPress is an ideal solution for making your site unique while keeping it up-to-date. With this setup, you can dive into theme customization with confidence.

Best E-Commerce Themes

Choosing the best WordPress themes for e-commerce can significantly enhance your online store’s functionality, user experience, and aesthetic appeal. Here are some of the best WordPress themes for e-commerce, along with a brief overview of each:

1. Astra

Astra is a lightweight and highly customizable theme that is perfect for e-commerce. It is fully compatible with popular e-commerce plugins like WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.

Features:

  • Pre-built e-commerce templates
  • Fast performance
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Multiple header designs
  • Easy customization without coding

2. Flatsome

Flatsome is one of the most popular WordPress themes for e-commerce. It is designed specifically for WooCommerce and offers a responsive design, making it perfect for mobile users.

Features:

  • Drag-and-drop page builder
  • Live theme options
  • Customizable product pages
  • Unlimited options
  • Regular updates

3. Shopkeeper

Shopkeeper is a versatile theme designed for creating online stores. It is fully responsive and offers a modern, clean design.

Features:

  • Pre-built page layouts
  • Visual Composer integration
  • Advanced theme options
  • Easy setup and customization
  • WooCommerce support

4. OceanWP

OceanWP is a highly flexible theme that works well for e-commerce websites. It offers deep integration with WooCommerce and numerous customization options.

Features:

  • Fast loading times
  • Multiple demo options
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Responsive design
  • SEO-friendly

5. Divi

Divi by Elegant Themes is a powerful and versatile theme that can be used for any type of website, including e-commerce. It features the Divi Builder, a drag-and-drop page builder.

Features:

  • Real-time design
  • Customizable design options
  • WooCommerce modules
  • Global elements and styles
  • Advanced design settings

6. Porto

Porto is a responsive WordPress and WooCommerce theme that is highly customizable and suitable for various e-commerce websites.

Features:

  • Multiple demo options
  • Speed and performance optimization
  • Visual Composer and WPBakery Page Builder integration
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Multiple header and footer layouts

7. TheGem

TheGem is a versatile theme with a large number of pre-built demo sites, including options for e-commerce. It is highly customizable and comes with premium plugins.

Features:

  • Visual Composer integration
  • Revolution Slider included
  • WooCommerce compatibility
  • High performance
  • Customizable design elements

8. Neve

Neve is a super-fast, easily customizable, and multi-purpose theme perfect for e-commerce websites. It integrates seamlessly with WooCommerce and other popular plugins.

Features:

  • Lightweight and fast
  • Customizable header and footer
  • WooCommerce integration
  • Mobile-first design
  • SEO-friendly

9. WoodMart

WoodMart is a premium WordPress theme designed from the ground up for building supreme WooCommerce online stores of any kind.

Features:

  • Advanced variable products
  • Visual drag-and-drop header builder
  • Product page builder
  • Fast performance
  • AJAX filters

10. Hestia

Hestia is a modern WordPress theme for professionals. It fits creative business, small businesses (restaurants, wedding planners, sport/medical shops), startups, corporate businesses, online agencies and firms, portfolios, e-commerce (WooCommerce), and freelancers.

Features:

  • WooCommerce ready
  • Live Customizer
  • Page builder compatibility
  • One-click updates and fast support
  • Custom backgrounds

Your perfect WordPress website is just a click away. Partner with us and watch your digital dreams come to life!

Which is the Fastest Elementor Theme?

When it comes to the fastest Elementor themes for WordPress, several options stand out for their performance and speed. Here are some of the top contenders based on various performance tests and user feedback:

1) Neve:

Users consistently praise Neve for its speed and performance. It scores high on Google’s PageSpeed Insights with a perfect 100 and has very low load times, typically around 492ms. Designers have highly optimized it for mobile performance, making it lightweight with minimal HTTP requests (DeoThemes)​​ (aThemes)​.

Hello Elementor:

Designed by Elementor itself, the Hello theme is extremely lightweight and optimized for speed. It has a fast load time, often around 503ms, and is known for its minimalistic design, making it a great base for building custom sites with Elementor​ (Elementor)​​ (Themeisle)​.

GeneratePress:

GeneratePress is another top performer, known for its stability and speed. It is lightweight and offers a high degree of customization, with fast load times and a strong performance on speed tests, including a perfect score on PageSpeed Insights​ (

Adithya Shetty)​.

Astra:

Astra is one of the most popular themes, known for its speed and flexibility. It has a fast load time, typically around 410ms, and supports various page builders including Elementor. Astra is also SEO-friendly and highly customizable​ (aThemes)​​ (Adithya Shetty)​.

Kadence:

Kadence is a newer theme that has quickly become popular due to its speed and extensive customization options. It features a load time of around 441ms and is optimized for performance with modern coding practices​ (aThemes)​​ (Adithya Shetty)​.

Blocksy:

Blocksy is a lightweight theme that designers created for fast load times and customization. It includes features like lazy loading images and async JavaScript to enhance performance, with load times around 441ms​ (aThemes)​​ (Adithya Shetty)​.

These themes are all excellent choices if you are looking to build a fast and efficient wordpress website using Elementor. Each offers unique features and customization options, so the best choice may depend on your specific needs and preferences.