It does, eventually, but the theme and layout shouldn’t be your primary concern when you just start blogging.
Your first 3-6 months are likely not going to attract much traffic, because SEO takes time.
Most professional bloggers worry about content first, and worry about design later.
As long as the content can be published and indexed, nothing will prevent you from overhauling the layout or tweaking its original design.
Beginning bloggers also fall into the over-optimization trap. They spend too much layout and design, and delay the writing and publishing process.
It doesn’t mean you should ignore it.
Why Blog Theme & Layout Matter
The reason why WordPress is a preferred choice for many is the flexibility and customization options.
When you want to improve your layout, think about the following:
- User Experience (UX) – A well-structured layout helps readers navigate easily, find content, and engage more
- Readability – Good typography, spacing, and color choices improve readability
- Mobile Responsiveness – Many readers browse on phones, so a mobile-friendly theme is essential
- SEO – A well-coded theme impacts your SEO efforts & search rankings
- First Impressions – Professional design encourages visitors to stay
One element often uplifts the other.
For example, a well-coded theme can impact the website speed, which then provides a better user experience for visitors.
Slow blogs or websites that take more than 3 seconds to load are likely to lose traffic.
Start With A Simple Blog Theme
I love the free WordPress 2025 theme and the new block editor. Because it’s simple, fast-loading, with clean code, and officially supported by WordPress
You can do the same, or start with one of the popular free themes and highly praised by Redditors:
You can always find thousands of free themes on wordpress.org/ for extra inspiration.
Close
A more custom blog theme is helpful, but it’s not a priority. It does help for niche blogs.
For instance, if you’re blogging about gardening, a green-colored layout with plant icons can create a more appealing impression for your visitors.
If you do design to make design tweaks:
- Always create a backup
- Set up a staging environment
- Test your tweaks first before applying them to your live website
When you’re starting a blog, your primary focus should be on writing and publishing content. Gradually, you can then consider improving the layout of your blog.
