Which Theme To Go With? [Please vote on the poll!]

[King]

I'm having trouble tossing up between two themes. One is more aesthetically pleasing and interesting, but the other is incredibly usable and comfortable to read in, plus is better for SEO. Let me know which one you'd rather read.

Theme 1 (Click to View)

This one is better in terms of SEO. It's cleaner - more people might want to read it in the long term. It just looks really clean and nice. A little bland though, but I'm sure I could improve upon it.

Theme 2 (Click to View)

Slightly better looking.

Which one do I choose guys?

[Ƨhadow]

I like the second one, it's easier on my eyes (I can't stand pure white backgrounds) and it has a more professional feel to it compared to the first one.

[Clones]

The first one is better than the 2nd. As you said, good in SEO, so go with it and you can make some little changes to make it good looking. BTW! Is the Genesis Framework you use (for the first one) ?

[King]

The first one is better than the 2nd. As you said, good in SEO, so go with it and you can make some little changes to make it good looking. BTW! Is the Genesis Framework you use (for the first one) ?

Yes, and the second one is a Genesis child theme. Oh, I don't know which one to choose!

[DAMINK™]

SEO is first and foremost mate. You know that.
I personally like the second more but SEO is always the first consideration.

[King]

SEO is first and foremost mate. You know that.
I personally like the second more but SEO is always the first consideration.

I believe it's only slightly better. I can't quite get the excerpts working how I want them on the second theme. But apart from that, I see the second one better in almost every way. I've heard that plain, white themes are usually the most comfortable ones to read. I think the first theme is a little too plain though, unfortunately.

[DAMINK™]

Agree King. I dont actually like either to much. To plain looking to be honest.
But im just a black theme fan big time. Always have been.
But SEO is the first consideration and look has to be second.
Ultimately you should be able to code the second to the same standard as the first anyway.
I mean most SEO is done with blogs from mods and adons.
Your obviously skilled enough so why not make one from scratch?

[King]

Agree King. I dont actually like either to much. To plain looking to be honest.
But im just a black theme fan big time. Always have been.
But SEO is the first consideration and look has to be second.
Ultimately you should be able to code the second to the same standard as the first anyway.
I mean most SEO is done with blogs from mods and adons.
Your obviously skilled enough so why not make one from scratch?

Wouldn't know where to start with a blog theme. I've only ever done forum and independent projects. I was watching a podcast where some professional blogger guy said SEO didn't mean anything for blogs. Apparently, if you have good enough content and some decent backlinks, you'll go fine.

I like to keep the themes pretty simple. Nothing too difficult to read, but at the same some somewhat pretty. I also read that people were able to read black writing on white background much better than white writing on black backgrounds. ;)

[DAMINK™]

SEO is critical IMHO.
I run several blogs mate.
What i consider important is this.
SEO, content, backlinks
Always start with good SEO.
Then work content while building backlinks.
Thats how i do it and it works quite well.
Sure Google now does not hold as much weight to backlinks as they did but its still important long term i believe.

[King]

SEO is critical IMHO.
I run several blogs mate.
What i consider important is this.
SEO, content, backlinks
Always start with good SEO.
Then work content while building backlinks.
Thats how i do it and it works quite well.
Sure Google now does not hold as much weight to backlinks as they did but its still important long term i believe.

The only issue that I know of about Theme 2 for SEO is the slight duplicate content issue. The first two posts are displayed fully on the home page and also in their own page (when you click on the title to view that post and that post only). That kind of duplicate content you want to get rid of. That's why people often use excerpts on their home page so they don't have the same content in multiple places.

I can't quite figure out how to do that on this theme. The thing is, it's only the first two posts that display the full content on the home page. There are other ones below them which are just excerpts. I'm hoping that by posting frequently, this won't actually become an issue because it will cycle through the posts being displayed in full as I write more content.

I think I'll stick with Theme 2 anyway.

Everything else from there will just be building quality backlinks and doing a little advertisement work. Hopefully my domain and content will take over from there on in.