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Fast load times.
Search engine optimization.
Conversion-oriented design.
Are these the kinds of things you care about most? If so, Schema may be your favorite new WordPress theme.
What is Schema?
Schema is a performance-first WordPress theme designed and developed by MyThemeShop.
This theme is focused on clean, SEO-friendly code, fast load times, and conversion-boosting design. It’s primarily designed for bloggers and content creators.
If you’re liking what you see so far, you’re probably wondering what makes Schema different from other themes. There are a few features that stand out in particular.
Performance optimization
The WordPress theme you choose can have a huge impact on your site’s performance. A slow theme is basically setting your site up to fail.
Schema is a very fast WordPress theme. The Schema developers have gone to great lengths to ensure Schema is as optimized as possible. They’ve reduced the size and number of files the theme loads by minifying CSS & JS files and using a small number of images and fonts throughout the template.
Here are the outstanding results from testing Schema with Pingdom.
If you want your site to load even faster with Schema, you’ll want to configure WP Rocket and optimize your images too.
MyThemeShop recently published a comprehensive performance guide where they took Schema to a 100/100 Google PageSpeed score.
Minimalist design
The Schema theme is already pretty stripped down, but you can customize it to simplify the design even further.
With the design simplified, there is very little to distract visitors from your headlines. We design our themes with these same principles because they’re so powerful for content sites.
The to-the-point style of Schema ensures visitors pay attention to your most important content.
Customization features
The customization options in Schema are diverse and comprehensive. All of the available settings are neatly organized in the theme options panel in the WP admin dashboard.
While the overall aesthetic of the site will remain the same, you can easily modify the layouts, colors, fonts, and more. One of the coolest features is the sidebar management which allows you to create new widget areas on the fly.
You can view screenshots of all the customization options here.
eCommerce support
Most bloggers will use AdSense and affiliate links to monetize their content. Schema can help you monetize your blog in additional ways with its WooCommerce integration.
Here’s the best part – you don’t even have to sell your own products from your store. With WooCommerce, you can actually list products from an external vendor and then link out to their site with the “Add to Cart” buttons.
For many niches, this is an excellent way to further monetize a blog.
Compatible plugins
The developers at MyThemeShop have created a wide variety of plugins to help their theme users create better sites. Another benefit of choosing Schema is the compatibility and access to each of these plugins.
When you install Schema, you’ll see a new Install Plugins menu where you can download some of these plugins.
You don’t have to use them, but they’ll allow you to further extend the functionality provided by the Schema theme.
Some examples include the WP Review plugin which allows you add ratings to any review posts you publish and the WP Shortcode plugin that provides dozens of shortcodes to include interesting visual elements like buttons.
Each of the recommended plugins has a Pro counterpart with more advanced functionality, so you may want to consider the extended membership if you’re interested in using them on your site.
Nobody’s perfect
What I like about Schema is that it’s a very opinionated theme. It does some things really well and other things poorly, but that’s by design. Let me explain.
Schema would not work well for a photography or portfolio website. The design is really text-heavy. It also would not work well for someone who likes a lot of flair and flourishes on their site. Schema is aggressively minimalist placing all of its emphasis on performance.
Besides this, I would prefer if the theme’s customization options were placed in the Customizer panel rather than in an admin menu.
The downside with the theme options page is that you can’t see your updates take place live. That said, it’s more important that it has a lot of customization tools and they work as expected.
Who should consider Schema?
Schema is first and foremost a blogging theme. Bloggers who value performance and search engine rankings will appreciate the design choices made by MyThemeShop in making this theme.
Due to its WooCommerce integration, Schema could also be used for an eCommerce store that utilizes content marketing to build traffic and sales.
Lastly, I have to say that it makes more sense to prioritize the performance features offered by Schema than to pick a theme purely for aesthetics. After all, aren’t you interested in building a blog gets traffic and generates income?
If you think Schema could be the right theme for your site, click here to learn more about it and see the live demo in action.
