Using One Website Theme for a

Portfolio of Websites – part 2

Part two of our article covering using one website theme for a portfolio of websites.

We are not saying using one website theme will work in your situation, but if it is right for you, there can be many benefits.

Also please note as mentioned in part one, you need to make sure the license of the chosen theme allows modification and meets your requirements.

Evolving the Theme design.

Evolving a website design isn’t just about designing a theme that looks better, but evolving a theme that works towards your objectives for the sites utilising the design.

Being able to work with just one theme design could enable you to be more proactive to the changing markets, rather than reactive.

A good scenario is when a new standard page and module are required across a number of websites in your portfolio.

If you already have a clear understanding on where it should be on one core theme to maximise its placement, then rolling it out across your portfolio will take a fraction of the time, than if you had to sit down and make the same judgement for x number of sites and their unique website themes.

Also improving the optimisation of a website theme, again will be quicker if using one core theme.

The graphics and colours could be different, but the core principles the same.

Changing a png for a jpg, a jpg for a gif, else a gif for a hexadecimal colour code.

One change that you can easily walk through the steps on numerous other sites, rather than sitting down and analysing a design on a per site basis, you are analysing one theme, regardless of sites.

Type of theme that might work for a wide selection of websites.

This really does vary and depends on the type of portfolio you have.

Many people who own a portfolio of websites, stick to what they know, which means their offerings, regardless of topic could be similar in presentational style.

For example a person who loves sports might have a selection of websites covering rugby, soccer and tennis.

So you would expect as well as detailed content, plenty of video footage and images.

Perhaps there is a theme available with a suitable license that works well for all three sport websites, but just the colours and images need to be changed.

A person who runs a series of affiliate websites selling products, will probably require a completely different theme design to the sports portfolio owner.

Importantly any tweaks to layout could be required across all the sites, meaning if a major coding change is required, it is probably applicable to all websites using the theme.

The same goes for optimisation requirements for the design. Easier to put together a design roadmap for one theme, rather than for x different themes.

What are the changes to consider initially?

Obviously there is putting together a colour scheme for each of your websites, that fits your branding / house style and content.

However what about considerations theme designers often forget about?

The copyright, terms and conditions and privacy policy locations are three often overlooked. Do these all need to be contending with your main web pages?

Perhaps you adapt the footer area to fit your requirements, and then you can quickly replicate this across your whole portfolio.

Picking plugins

Many owners of website portfolios use the same practices across their whole portfolio for engagement and marketing.

So when you find a plugin that works well with a theme on one website, it well could be the case the same setup will work well across the portfolio using the same theme.

This means you start to benefit from increased familiarity with a set of plugins, rather than cherry picking on a per site basis, and having to learn how to use different plugins to suit different themes.

Adding a new website to your portfolio.

When you come to add a new website to your portfolio, perhaps you realise the same setup will fit your new addition. It means the design, development and implementation time has already been reduced, enabling you to quickly roll out your latest website.

The future of the portfolio.

As your websites mature and the site content grows you undoubtedly will learn what works and what doesn’t, perhaps even finding out one of the sites should be using a completely different theme.

However all those websites that use the same theme hopefully will benefit from the same improvements. i.e

. A replacement java library that resolve a browser incompatibility issue for a visual element.

A new module that integrates well for the theme for a new social network etc.

Conclusion

We are not saying one theme will work for your website portfolio.

This article is purely to give website portfolio owners something to consider, but many established portfolio owners already have their own favourite themes, so perhaps for some this article is old news.

If you are struggling with multiple themes, perhaps using just one or a few select themes is right for you?

Hire Neogain!

When it comes to web development and great theme design, you should hire Neogain! Regardless of whether you are using one theme or a whole range.

If you require a new theme designed or modifications to an existing theme, you should hire Neogain.

If you need a website designer, you should hire Neogain.