Here's a theme that I want to share with you. It's called Ruki, and this one could be the best WordPress theme for a content site. I recently switched the theme on Knowledgeable Mind, which is a website that I purchased a while back. In this post, I'm going to take you through what the theme is like and what I like and dislike about it.
All about switching to Ruki Theme
The theme is called Ruki, and it's available to buy on Theme Forest for $59. As I mentioned, I recently installed Ruki onto knowledgeablemind.com, which is a website that I purchased, and I didn't like that old theme.
I'm trying to flip it. That's the idea. So, I am here to make it better. It shows potential, and that site is already getting traffic. I'm working on it and want to clean it up and add more content. I used this theme because I wanted something simple, clean and easy to use. If you're interested in the entire process of switching the theme, I did it live on one of my streams that you can check out here.
I have to say that I had a few problems switching the theme. It came down to some of the plugins running on the site before I switched like Elementor was interfering with it for some reason.
A quick tip: If you are going to switch themes, it's best to turn off your plugins, especially ones you're not using or any page builders that might not work with the new theme. That should make the process a bit smoother.
What I like about the Ruki theme
I love the look and feel of this theme. It is wonderful, and it works great on mobile and tablets as well. A real winner for this theme is its look. It has a lovely and clean design. I'm in the process of updating the thumbnails on the site to vector graphics. I'm changing to vector graphics because the demo content that the theme has uses vector thumbnails. That inspired me to use them, and I found a great site called FreePik that you can check out to see cool graphics and images.
The next thing that I like about this theme is that it works well with Gutenberg. I haven't used Gutenberg much, if I'm honest. I tend to use Elementor or Thrive or anything else apart from Gutenberg. But with this theme, I've embraced Gutenberg, and I've been adding my content with it. And it's been a joy. It worked well, and I need to spend more time with Gutenberg and unleash its potential probably.
Another thing I like about this theme is that it's fast. Many themes have all the bells, and the whistles load a lot of javascript and CSS. All that stuff slows your site down. Whereas this theme because it's pretty simple, it loads fast. I've been getting good scores with this. I installed WP Rocket, and it gives you an extra boost to your speed and performance. I'm getting 70 on mobile and 80 on desktop. And I could probably get even better scores if I sized my images to the correct sizes.
What I dislike about this theme?
It's a little bit clunky in the back end regarding the options and how you set stuff up. There's no visual drag and drop as you get in Elementor. You need to do it all through the customizer section of WordPress, which is fine. But it's techy. It could be overwhelming if it's your first theme, and you haven't used WordPress. It's easier with Elementor or Thrive because these are very visual, and there are templates that you drag and drop. Also, it's important to mention that the documentation that comes with it is okay. However, if anything doesn't quite go to plan, it's not going to help you. Although it looks like the author is still updating the theme and replying to support tickets is a good thing. When I started using the Ruki theme, I noticed that it took a while to get your head around and set everything up with this theme.
My biggest problem is with:
- the customizer settings
- the way it uses these static blocks to set stuff out
It wasn't a too big problem for me. I sat down with it for a couple of hours and managed to figure it out and get it all working. Once it is all configured and you've got your layout set out for your home page and your category pages, then you don't have to worry about any of that stuff. I think an absolute beginner may struggle with the setup of this theme. The experience with Theme Forest has been pretty good.
Conclusion
As I said earlier, I think the Ruki theme is one of the best WordPress themes for content marketing sites because it shows off your content in such a brilliant way. I'd love to know what you think about the Ruki theme and the new look on Knowledgeable Mind.
