ThemeGrade

On the theme page, you’ll find this:

Tested on: WordPress ver x.xx
Preview on: WordPress ver y.yy (Strict Test)

The theme score is based on the result that runs on the WordPress ver x.xx

ThemeGrade.com always run on the latest WordPress ver y.yy so when you click on the Preview link (normal or strict test), you’ll see how the theme works in the most current WordPress version.

WordPress releases new versions quite frequently so it will be hard for us to retest all the themes every time WordPress updates its program. However, we have devised a method to keep the themes as updated as possible:

We will retest the themes when the tested WordPress version is more than 5 versions older than the latest version. For example, if a theme is tested on ver 2.5 and WordPress releases 5 versions in 2 months and the latest version is 2.6.3, we’ll retest that theme on 2.6.3 onwards.
We will retest the themes when there is a major WordPress upgrade.
We will give first priority to retest a theme if it is a certified Gold, Silver or Bronze theme.

Test item being uploaded to the sidebar
An oversized image with 900x200px in size

Criteria of passing the test
The oversized image should stay within the post area.

In the following example, with proper coding, the oversized image will be resized (or some part of the image will be hidden behind the post area).

….back to the test criteria page

Test items being uploaded to the sidebar
1) An image with 200x250px in size
2) A textfield form with a long embedded field of 40 characters
3) A string of text with 50 characters without spacing

Criteria of passing the test
All the oversized items (image, textfield form, text string) should stay within the sidebar.

In the case of the textfield form in a good design, the textfield form will stay inside the sidebar no matter how long the embedded field content is. See below for detail:

In the following example, with proper coding, the oversized image will be resized (or some part of the image will be hidden behind the sidebar).

In the case of the text string in a good design, the long text string will be hidden behind the sidebar. See below for detail:

….back to the test criteria page

If a theme designer provide support for his theme, this item will get a “tick” icon.

To decide if the designer offer theme support, the designer website should have an interactive support page of the theme in the form of comment, forum etc.

We have no control over what types of support to be offered. For example, some designers only offer support for general issues such as theme installation. Some don’t offer theme customization. You have to check with the respective designers to find it out.

Themes with support will get 2 points.

For themes designed by Templatelite.com, you can get the following support:
Top Priority – Functionality Issues
If you encounter functionality issues (eg. theme installation problem), we’ll look into that as first priority. You can post the problem in the comment section of the theme page.

Less Priority
For other issues, we’ll make your comments live and will address them whenever we have time. The solution is not guaranteed. I also hope that other users can help solve your issues while waiting for my reply.

As for plugin issues, we’ll only look into them if the plugins are widely used in the community.

….back to the test criteria page

Each and every one of the WordPress theme listed on ThemeGrade has gone through comprehensive tests. The tests cover general coding issues as well as the SEO.

In this post, we outline the tests being used, the weight of each test as well as the calculation details.

General Test

The general tests of a theme give you an idea of how well the designer coded the theme. When pass, the score will be added to the General Test. The tests with the higher score are more difficult to pass than the tests with the lower score.

If a theme passes all general tests, the theme will score 100%.

In all cases, a theme will be tested against the first 6 general tests.

For most of the times, a theme will be tested against the first 11 general tests.

Calculation method of the General Test.

• Step 1 – Find out how many items a theme has been tested on.
• Step 2 – Add the total score of the tested items
• Step 3 – Add the total score of the passed items
• Step 4 – Take the score of the tested items and divide it by the score of the passed items. Multiply that number with 100 to get the percentage score of the theme.

SEO Test

WordPress does a very good job in internal linking so that makes it easy for search engines to index the pages. To rank for the pages, generally, two main factors are considered: on-page optimization and off-page optimization.

The off-page optimization is relating to external links and it has nothing to do with the theme itself. To see if a theme is optimized for search engines, we need to review the theme coding (on-page optimization).

The SEO tests of a theme give you an idea of how well a theme had been optimized for search engines.

When pass, the score will be added to the SEO Test. The tests with the higher score are more difficult to pass than the tests with the lower score.

Calculation method of the SEO Test is the same as the General Test.

Calculation of the total score of a theme

General Test Score x 0.6 + SEO Test Score x 0.4