Should our Wordpress blog have the same theme as Magento store?

[Jseddon92]

We installed the Magento 'Aheadworks' extension for our blog but it's quite limited as to what blogging capabilities it has. We are now considering integrating Wordpress for our new blog, but keeping both on the same domain to increase the domain authority.

My question is, should we keep the same theme throughout? The blog should be informative and not sales based, so we was thinking of ditching the whole theme for the blog and not having our category navigation bar. Yes we can still have internal linking which may drive traffic from the blog to the web store.

We have been recommended the Wordpress Integration by Fishpig but I understand this carries through the Magento theme so I'm not sure exactly how it works. Could Wordpress plugins cause issues with our Magento store or shouldn't we be worried about this?

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Joshua

In my opinion, yes the blog should be consistent with the theme of both the website and the brand. Users can get thrown off by different visual cues and it can create a less than ideal user experience. While the blog isn't going to be sales driven, it's important you give user's a consistent user experience. That's how brands are built and how your audience will remember you. Keep in mind - this will be the first time some of your audience will access and interact with your brand. First impressions are the most important.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[Jseddon92]

Thanks for your advice, that completely makes sense. I think a Wordpress blog will create new opportunities that Magento is incapable of without serious development which is costly. We'll be sure to keep the same theme. Cheers

[donford]

I tend to agree with Patrick. While an the exact theme may not be achievable, I would strive to make it as close as possible.