In web development, speed is crucial for both user experience and search engine optimization (SEO). A fast-loading website not only keeps visitors engaged but also ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). As the most popular content management system (CMS), WordPress offers a vast array of themes. However, not all themes are optimized for speed. This article explores the 17 fastest WordPress themes to improve website SEO in 2024.
Fastest WordPress Themes To Improve Website SEO in 2024
There are numerous excellent WordPress themes to help you create a beautiful and functional website. From free, simple themes to costly, advanced bundles, the options can be overwhelming.
However, if loading speed is your priority, you should focus on the fastest WordPress themes available. Selecting the right theme can significantly impact your website’s success, especially regarding SEO. Below are the fastest WordPress themes for SEO in 2024, with in-depth reviews to help you find the perfect match for your website’s needs.
#1. Astra
This is one of the fastest WordPress themes available, boasting over 1 million downloads and a perfect 5 out of 5 rating.
In GTMetrix tests, Astra showed impressive results with a full load time of 1.4 seconds and a 98% performance score. The total page size was only 43.6KB with eight HTTP requests, contributing to its rapid loading speed.
Astra also excelled on PageSpeed Insights for mobile pages, scoring 99 with a speed index of 2.8 seconds, highlighting its fast loading and fully responsive nature.
This versatile theme offers numerous starter templates for various website types, including online stores, freelance businesses, and online courses. It is WooCommerce-ready, making it an excellent choice for building a fast-loading eCommerce site.
Astra provides extensive customization options, featuring over 700 Google Fonts and unlimited color choices, allowing you to perfectly match your brand’s color and typography.
The premium version of Astra is available for $47 per year or $249 for a lifetime license, with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
#2. GeneratePress
This is a high-speed premium WordPress theme offering 50 pre-built demo sites for a quick and seamless project start.
GeneratePress theme is WooCommerce-compatible, with a dedicated module providing additional customization options for your online store. By using an eCommerce demo site, you can effortlessly create a fully functional and visually appealing online store.
Premium features include dynamic hero images and an advanced hook system. For blog creators, the theme offers an infinite scroll function and a masonry layout.
GeneratePress is translation-ready and supports right-to-left (RTL) languages. Priced at $59 per year or $249 for a lifetime license, it allows use on up to 500 websites and includes one year of updates and support.
#3. Neve
This is a versatile WordPress theme, that boasts impressive performance metrics: scoring 98% on GTMetrix with a site load time of one second and a compact 32.4KB page size.
It excelled on the PageSpeed test with a perfect score of 100 and a speed index of 1.8 seconds, establishing itself as the fastest WordPress theme available.
For ease of use, Neve offers over 30 starter templates for quick setup and customization. It integrates seamlessly with Gutenberg and popular page builders like Elementor, Beaver Builder, and Divi.
The premium version starts at $59/year or $189 for a lifetime license, offering custom layouts, headers, and enhanced blogging features. Alternatively, the Business plan at $99/year or $159 for a lifetime license includes a WooCommerce booster module and priority support.
#4. Sydney
This is a WordPress theme tailored for business websites, boasts a lightweight design of less than 90 KB, and loads in 1.1 seconds on GTMetrix tests. While not the fastest, it maintains reliable performance, achieving a mobile PageSpeed Insights score of 95 with a 3.4-second load time.
The theme provides three pre-designed templates and incorporates a parallax background effect. It seamlessly integrates with popular page-builder plugins and offers extensive customization possibilities, including over 600 Google Fonts and a choice between static or slider headers.
#5. Twenty Twenty
This comes as a standard theme with every WordPress installation. While it may not boast the most eye-catching design, it stands out as one of the fastest WordPress themes available today.
According to GTMetrix, Twenty Twenty achieves an impressive 94% overall performance score, loading fully in just 1.9 seconds, despite its total page size of 273KB.
The theme supports the block editor, enabling users to create dynamic landing pages and personalize their site layouts.
Although Twenty Twenty lacks extensive features and has a larger page size, its advantage as a pre-installed, speedy WordPress theme is undeniable. It’s an excellent choice for those looking to build a straightforward website or blog without having to search extensively for a suitable theme.
#6. Writee
This is one of the fastest WordPress themes for blog or magazine websites. A GTMetrix test shows a total page size of 182KB and 16 HTTP requests, with the site fully loading in just 1.6 seconds. It boasts a 97% performance score for the desktop version.
With a PageSpeed score of 89, a speed index of 4 seconds, and a time to interactivity of 2.8 seconds, Writee remains impressively fast.
Writee offers over 600 Google Font options and built-in social media sharing buttons. It also includes pagination and extensive layout customization options. The free version provides nine pre-made templates, each with a unique layout style.
The premium version starts at $39.99 per year and includes various widgets, such as footer, social media, and custom widget areas. Both versions are WooCommerce compatible, making it easy to sell items on your blog.
#7. Hello Elementor
It is one of the fastest WordPress themes available, with a minimal page size of 21KB optimized for the Elementor page builder.
The theme delivers impressive performance, with a fully loaded time of just 0.9 seconds and a GTMetrix performance score of 99%. Its mobile performance is equally noteworthy, achieving a perfect score in PageSpeed Insights with a 2.1-second speed index.
Its compatibility with WooCommerce and outstanding speed make Hello Elementor an excellent choice for building a successful eCommerce store.
#8. Zakra
This theme, developed by ThemeGrill, is a fast and versatile WordPress theme offering over 40 demos for creating a unique website. Available for free, it includes substantial features, while the premium version provides additional customization options like advanced headers, WooCommerce tools, and enhanced blogging capabilities.
Zakra stands out with its excellent documentation and support, including numerous tutorials and access to customer support—services rarely offered with free themes.
#9. Airi
It is one of the fastest multipurpose WordPress themes available. It scored 97% on the GTMetrix test, with a fully loaded time of 1.6 seconds, despite the total page size being nearly 300KB and making up to 19 HTTP requests.
However, its performance on mobile devices is slightly slower. It received a score of 85 on PageSpeed Insights with a speed index of 4.1 seconds, indicating that it is slower than some other themes on mobile. The time to interactivity is 3.3 seconds, which is also higher.
The free version of Airi offers a variety of demo options suitable for different types of websites. This Elementor theme is compatible with the WooCommerce plugin, allowing for customization and the creation of eCommerce sites.
The premium version is available for $59 per year or $249 for a lifetime license, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The pro version includes additional demo options, blog layouts, and more footer customization options.
#10. OceanWP
OceanWP is a fast and versatile free WordPress theme optimized for performance, featuring WooCommerce integration.
GTMetrix test results show a load time of 1.6 seconds and an impressive 95% performance score, despite the theme’s total page size exceeding 200KB.
However, its mobile performance is somewhat limited, with a speed index of 4.2 seconds and an overall score of 87. Nonetheless, OceanWP remains a strong contender for building an e-commerce store.
With built-in WooCommerce support, features such as native cart pop-ups and floating add-to-cart bars can enhance conversion rates. Additionally, a quick view function enables users to access product information without navigating to a new page.
For those seeking advanced features, OceanWP offers a range of individual extensions or a bundled premium version of the theme.
#11. Blank Canvas
This is a free, minimalist theme ideal for single-page websites. As a child theme of Seedlet, a free theme by Automattic, it provides a completely blank layout for posts and pages, with no headers, navigation menus, or widgets by default. The design you create in the WordPress editor matches the frontend appearance, meaning this theme does not include any demos.
#12. Customify
Customify is a lightweight and SEO-friendly theme, optimized according to top coding practices. Its user-friendly interface enables easy customization of headers and footers to match your site’s design. The theme offers a variety of pre-built templates for quick setup and is compatible with eight different page builders, providing extensive customization options.
#13. Hestia Pro
Hestia Pro is a fast WordPress theme with optimized, lightweight coding. It supports popular caching and minification plugins to further enhance your website’s loading speed. Compatible with Gutenberg and various drag-and-drop page builders, Hestia Pro makes website creation easy.
It features numerous starter templates for quick setup, a fully customizable homepage, and sections for portfolios and pricing. Hestia Pro also offers lifetime support with its basic plan and provides an extensive collection of video tutorials to guide you through the website-building process.
# 14. Bimber
This is among the fastest WordPress themes available, ideal for creating viral marketing websites quickly. It offers over 20 pre-built demo sites, enabling users to set up a site in under 24 hours. The theme includes sharing buttons and categorization for hot and trending topics.
Optimized for speed, Bimber uses minified and modular CSS and JavaScript, ensuring a minimal file size. It features smart plugin integration, loading only the necessary plugins when needed.
Bimber is compatible with various caching plugins to enhance page speed and includes an advanced lazy loading feature for media files and widgets. This feature delays loading images and videos until the visitor views that section of the page.
Additionally, Bimber supports WooCommerce and includes a front-end product submission feature, making it easy for users to submit listings.
# 15. Divi
It is a top multipurpose WordPress theme known for its speed and full responsiveness. It offers extensive customization options, including the unique Divi drag-and-drop builder and animation support for interactive websites.
Customization is Divi’s highlight, with its page builder allowing modifications to every website element. It features over 40 elements, including sliders, call-to-action buttons, blogs, and forms.
Divi provides more than 100 complete website templates and over 800 pre-made website layouts. It also includes a built-in split testing feature to help test different designs and optimize user experience.
Although not the fastest WordPress theme, Divi balances speed with extensive customizability.
#16. Wanium
Wanium is a versatile WordPress theme priced at $16 for a regular license, making it a budget-friendly option compared to other premium themes on this list.
It includes 18 pre-built demo starter sites and allows you to mix and match features from each using the WPBakery page builder. This gives you 18 header layout options and eight footer layout choices, both available in light and dark versions. Additionally, the color preset feature lets you easily customize the color of every element.
This theme is compatible with WooCommerce and includes a custom pricing table builder, making it ideal for e-commerce websites. Other features include a one-page layout, parallax scrolling, and a countdown timer module.
#17. The7
This is a highly customizable and fast WordPress theme that is fully responsive and SEO-friendly, enhancing your website’s performance and search engine ranking.
The7 supports Elementor and WPBakery page builders for easy customization. It also features The7 Elements, which adds various new elements to these page builders, such as advanced integration with Elementor Pro Theme Builder, new post types, and WooCommerce enhancements.
With over 60 pre-built starter demo sites available, The7 covers a range of designs including one-page layouts, online store templates, and exclusive templates for Elementor and WPBakery. You can use The7’s one-click installer to quickly set up your chosen demo site and kickstart your project.
How To Measure Speed
To effectively gauge website speed, utilize tools such as GT Metrix and PageSpeed Insights, which analyze loading times, page size, and overall performance. It’s crucial to note that your choice of web hosting plan significantly influences your site’s speed, so make a well-informed decision.
Advantages of a Fast Website
1. Enhanced User Experience
Speedier websites maintain visitor engagement.
2. Improved SEO Performance
Google prioritizes fast-loading sites in search rankings.
3. Increased Conversion Rates
Users tend to convert more readily on sites that load quickly.
Conclusion
Choosing the appropriate WordPress theme is essential for enhancing your website’s speed and SEO performance. These 17 Fastest WordPress themes to improve website SEO in 2024 mentioned above, each provide distinct features and customization choices. Whether you’re establishing a blog, business site, or online store, these themes will facilitate swift loading and high search engine rankings for your website.
Choosing a fast WordPress theme is an investment in improving user experience and increasing your site’s prominence in search engine listings, thereby driving greater traffic and conversions.
