Top WordPress Trends for 2023

It’s been almost two decades since WordPress was created and a lot has changed since then. Nowadays, WordPress is one of the most popular and powerful content management systems (CMS) in the world.

With 65.3% of the market share, WordPress is simply dominating the market, leaving the rest of the competitors in the dust. 

Due to its open-source nature, WordPress is constantly being modified and improved. It’s simple to use and very beginner-friendly, which is why so many websites are, indeed, powered by WordPress.-

Each year, more features, extensions, and plug-ins are introduced for users to use and improve their websites or blogs. Furthermore, constant updates, fixes, and patches make this platform better than ever before.

It’s safe to say that WordPress allows anyone to create a truly unique website that’s more than capable of meeting modern market demands. Not just that, but its revolutionary design will also impress your target audience.

Next year, WordPress will celebrate its 20th birthday after its initial launch back on May 27, 2003. It’s been a long journey and WordPress still has some surprises for its users. 

So, let’s have a look at the top WordPress trends that await us in 2023.

1. Drag-and-drop Page Builders

WordPress has always been famous for its customization and personalization capabilities. You can manage the content on your website or blog any way you see fit. It’s easy to do and many WordPress users have managed to create amazing layouts so far.

Today, that process has been made even more seamless with the so-called drag-and-drop page builders. As their name suggests, these builders allow you to design and create page layouts without having to use any coding.

You simply drag and drop page elements into their place and you’ll have a full preview of what it will all look like once the edits have been made. You don’t have to be a tech expert in order to operate such a simple tool.

So far, you had the option of purchasing premium WordPress themes that allowed you to customize and personalize it the way you wanted it. However, without any prior knowledge of HTML or CSS programming languages, you’d have a very difficult time doing so.

Now, all you have to do is choose a drag-and-drop plug-in that suits your needs the best and you can start building your own page layout right away. This will allow users without any technical know-how to create website pages that will match their creative spirit.

2. Multipurpose WordPress Themes

It goes without saying that different websites serve different purposes. This is where WordPress’s multipurpose themes come into play. This feature has been around for some time now, but it’s becoming more relevant today than ever before.

Simply put, the multipurpose theme trend is gaining some significant momentum these days. The main reason is that these themes offer a lot of functionality and flexibility to their users. So, what exactly are multipurpose themes?

As you might imagine, these WordPress themes serve multiple purposes. They allow users to build any type of website, whether it’s for personal or business use. That being said, they allow you to do so with ease.

This is basically a plug-in bundle that comes with built-in features and tools that will allow you to manage your website or blog the best way possible. Therefore, no matter what kind of website you may need, a multipurpose WordPress theme will help you build it.

Moreover, they allow you to change the purpose of your website later on. For instance, let’s say you have a blog that you’d like to turn into an eCommerce store. You happen to have some products that your audience is interested in purchasing.

You can simply load the necessary features from the theme and your blog will become your very own online store. It’s fast and easy to manage. 

However, there’s a wide range of multipurpose themes and they all cost money, so make sure you do some research before you make your decision. 

3. Mobile-friendly WordPress Themes

As you may already know by now, mobile traffic is dominating the online world. Websites or blogs that aren’t optimized for mobile devices tend to lose a lot of organic traffic. Not just that, but your visibility on search engines will also go down if your pages and your content aren’t mobile-friendly.

This is especially true since Google released their mobile-first indexing update for their search engine algorithm. Nowadays, every website that isn’t mobile-friendly will get penalized by Google. WordPress has focused on that particular issue.

Now, more and more, mobile-friendly themes are available to WordPress users. This trend is likely to gain a lot of momentum in the upcoming years. Simply put, no one can ignore the growing number of mobile users that browse the internet.

However, you should consider hiring a custom web design company to ensure that your website is completely mobile-friendly. After all, implementing an adaptive or responsive design into the website itself is the surest way to achieve ideal optimization.

But if you’re just starting out, a responsive WordPress theme will do just fine. You can either choose the WordPress themes that are available to you or have one custom-made. 

The choice is yours, but it’s safe to say that there will be more mobile-first WordPress themes being developed in the future.

4. More Features for eCommerce Stores

As mentioned before, you can easily turn your website or blog into an online shop using a multipurpose theme. However, you can even go a step further and develop an eCommerce business using plug-ins, such as WooCommerce.

WordPress platform understands the importance of eCommerce websites, which is why more features for online shops are being developed. 

Here are a few examples of the most common eCommerce features available through WordPress:

• Payment gateways

• Inventory management

• Marketing features

• SEO-friendliness

• Optimizing product pages

• Establishing a point of sale (POS)

All these things are required to establish a fully functional eCommerce store. However, there’s always more to add that will make your store truly unique.

For example, one of the latest trends is VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) plug-ins that can enhance your in-store experience and product presentations. 

VR and AR technology have been around for some time, but this tech is becoming more advanced year after year.

For instance, AR technology allows customers a better view of the product, as well as a preview of how the item would look in their home, if it’s a piece of furniture or on themselves, if it’s a piece of clothing, for example. This vastly improves customer experience, which leads to better conversions and more sales. 

AR plug-ins are already available on WordPress and they will become even more popular as time goes by.

5. Chatbot Plug-ins

The rise of chatbots is clearly evident, especially due to their numerous benefits for online businesses. 

Chatbots are computer programs usually powered by artificial intelligence (AI). They leverage machine learning, natural language processing and deep learning capabilities to mimic human behavior and perform numerous functions as a human would.

They are commonly found on messaging apps, as well as part of customer service and support features where they “chat” with consumers and provide them with information or assistance. There are many chatbot plug-ins being developed for WordPress.

The main benefit of using chatbots is that they can provide assistance to consumers 24/7. They can also have multiple conversations with numerous consumers at the same time. This can tremendously help out eCommerce owners, especially the ones that are just starting out.

If you plan on opening an online shop using WordPress, you should strongly consider getting one of the chatbot features at your earliest convenience. It will help you reduce operating costs and you won’t have to hire customer support staff.

Furthermore, chatbots are easy to maintain and they’ll use all the information you feed them with to learn new things and adapt accordingly. 

In other words, you can also use chatbots to automate some of the mundane and repetitive business tasks. This will save you both time and money in the long run.

Closing Words

WordPress is a platform that keeps evolving each year. But it’s not just the platform itself that’s improving. As a matter of fact, the community of designers and developers who make third-party extensions and plugins is also creating new and better products.

This is all in an effort to make WordPress better and more convenient for its users. When you have a stable platform with a plethora of tools and features that will improve your website in the best way possible, you cannot go wrong.

WordPress will continue to improve and more users will use this platform to power their websites and blogs. 

What else awaits WordPress and its users in 2023 remains to be seen, but the future looks more than promising. That’s why it’s important to keep an eye on the upcoming WordPress trends.