What's the best theme for seo if you are going to use yoast anyway

[willie79]

I am going to edit my theme myself so I don't need something like thesis for that.  But people say that the thesis framework is amazing for seo, and it's hard to edit it manually.  Does using the thesis theme do anything for you if you are going to use yoast anyway?

Thanks

William

[crvw]

Hey William,

You didn't say explicitdly in your post but based on the plugins and themes you are discussing, I'll assume you are asking about Themes for Wordpress.

Selecting the right theme is still very important, even if you are going to use a solid SEO plugin like Wordpress SEO from Joost de Valk (Visit plugin site)

For starters the plugin doesn't let you control every element you might want to optimize.  Such as specifying what content on a page get's H1 tags, etc...

The plugin won't influence how fast your site is, how big the pages are, etc... (it does have some useful minification features but it's far better to start with an efficient page).  You also want your theme to provide good code for multiple page posts, standards compliance, etc...  So a good theme is essential.

Thesis is a good framework, has a solid SEO structure, and is very popular.  There have been some intellectual property disputes with Thesis and Wordpress that have resulted in a number of people moving to other options.  Genesis is another great framework, from the good people at CopyBlogger.com, http://www.studiopress.com/.  It's very strong from an SEO standpoint, it lets you use all the other excellent CopyBlogger tools, StudioPress child themes, etc...

You probably can't go wrong with Genesis or Thesis.

[willie79]

Hello crvw, thanks for the info.

1.  I guess what I am getting at is that let's say I don't like the way thesis or genesis looks, or any of their available themes and I plan on having a programmer completely edit the template to change the way it looks, is it better to start with the thesis or geneis framework-than say the yoast blank seo optimized template for example?

2.  Why would people change from thesis because of that?   Just curious.  Thanks so much

William