If you own a website or work in web development, you are probably familiar with WordPress.
It’s one of the most powerful and popular content management systems (CMS) because it makes website creation and management manageable for people of all levels of experience.
Since its introduction, the platform has continued to develop, adding new features and tools to enhance its functionality.
Still, its evolution continues. And as the CMS develops, trends change along with it.
While some practices remain effective, others have declined or stopped working.
Thus, following the latest trends will help you determine what works and what doesn’t anymore, allowing you to create a website that stands out from the competition.
Keep reading if you’re interested in discovering them. This article will provide you with the latest WordPress trends in 2021.
Let’s dive right in!
- Multipurpose WordPress themes
- Drag-and-drop page builders
- Live chat and chatbots
- Video backgrounds
- 3D content, virtual reality, and augmented reality
- Parallax effect
- Use of white space
- Improvement of accessibility
- Microinteractions
- Dark mode
- Animations
- Design elements overlapping
- Progressive web apps
- Mobile-first thinking
- Artistic typography
1. Multipurpose WordPress themes
People and professionals used to prefer niche WordPress themes that were designed specifically for a particular purpose.
Considering that people are juggling multiple projects now, niche themes are much less in demand than multipurpose themes.
As their name implies, these WP themes, serve different purposes, so you can use them for various projects even if they aren’t topic-related.
Themes such as Monstroid2 and Hazel are vivid examples. They provide you with multiple home and inner pages versions that are ready to use, and you can implement them into your website with just one click. Plus, they’re compatible with the most popular WP page builders, ensuring you an easy and hassle-free customization.
2. Drag-and-drop page builders
Drag-and-drop page builders represent one of the current and on-the-rise WordPress trends.
Something strictly related to their popularity is the convenience and ease of use. They allow you to edit any page or element of your website in real-time and easily.
Furthermore, they usually provide a library of ready-to-use elements that you can drag and drop into your page wherever you like.
Below you can find the most trending WordPress drag-and-drop page builders.
Elementor
Elementor is one of the most used WP page builders; it counts 8 million active users. It comes with a basic free and a more advanced paid version.
Although it presents advanced features, you can also install custom Elementor add-ons and templates that will enable you to create a more complex and engaging website with enhanced functionalities.
Divi
Divi is another great WP drag-and-drop page builder that makes visual page creation and customization easy.
It comes with several pre-made designs and modules that you can implement within seconds. Plus, it includes several features that will allow you to build an impressive and professional website.
Gutenberg
The Gutenberg editor is a WordPress official editor that is continuously evolving. Starting with basic functions, this editor is becoming more and more advanced as time goes on. Additionally, there are many Gutenberg plugins on the web that you can install and use to make your customizations more polished.
3. Live chat and chatbots
Within the WordPress trends list, it is worth it to include the integration of live chats and chatbots.
More and more websites are implementing these functionalities to offer a better user experience and improve and quicken customer service.
Chatbots can automate these processes rather than having a person answer questions and provide information that is requested repeatedly by users. They can, in fact, provide relevant information and answers, generate leads, collect feedback, and guide users throughout your website.
As well, installing a Live Chat plugin will help you handle issues in real-time and increase your users’ satisfaction.
4. Video backgrounds
It’s nothing new to have a header or background video. However, their use has been growing rapidly during the past few years, making it a popular trend within the WordPress community.
A video can help you transmit feelings and communicate a straight message to all your visitors, making a memorable impression.
There are now ready-to-use background video templates and themes that you can implement straightforwardly. Make sure they aren’t too heavy and consider optimizing them before implementing them if you don’t want to affect the performance of your website.
5. 3D content, virtual reality, and augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are digital innovations that are rapidly growing in popularity and development since they allow users to enjoy 360° digital experiences.
Especially if you own an eCommerce site, you can use these advanced technologies to simulate the in-store experience and improve the shopping experience.
There are already plugins that enable you to implement and offer virtual experiences on your WordPress website. For example, some of them allow you to show 360-degree product images and interactive 3D videos.
Also, for a more advanced and realistic user experience, consider using 3D models and illustrations throughout your website.
6. Parallax effect
Although the parallax effect is not new, it continues to dominate WordPress trends.
Also known as parallax scrolling, this effect creates an illusion when scrolling the page, where background content moves at a slower rate than foreground content.
Thus, it can serve you to offer an impressive and more memorable user experience.
To implement this effect onto your website, you can use one of the most popular WordPress parallax scrolling themes.
7. Use of white space
As you may already know, each user is constantly bombarded with an enormous amount of information every day.
This explains why if users come across a website full of clutter, text, and no breathing space, they will most likely leave your website and choose one of your competitors instead.
Through effective use of white spaces, you will be able to direct visitors’ attention to the most pertinent information, provide a more enjoyable scrolling experience, and improve user engagement.
Plus, the use of white space will help provide a better mobile-friendly experience.
Using a minimalist WordPress theme will facilitate your work and give you a clean, well-organized, and ready-to-use layout.
8. Improvement of accessibility
Making a website accessible to everyone, including those who are physically or visually impaired, is an increasing WordPress trend.
If your website is not accessible to those people, you’ll lose chances of getting more traffic and leads, other than offering a poor user experience.
What’s more, by enhancing the accessibility of your website, you can also improve your SEO.
For instance, some ways of making your website more accessible are:
- including subtitles to videos;
- including proper alt text for images;
- using colours with care;
- optimizing your content for voice search;
- staying away from automatic media and navigation.
9. Microinteractions
Micro-interactions are a great way to make the experience more engaging for users. They’re able to provide a live feeling to your website, and you’ll present users with interactive content instead of a static one.
An example of a micro-interaction is an element that automatically performs an animation when the user hovers the mouse over it.
To implement micro-interactions on your WordPress site, you must install some specific plugins.
10. Dark mode
Several social media platforms, such as Instagram and now Google, enable users to switch between light and dark modes. From then on, many website owners have implemented dark mode for their sites as well.
With its ability to provide users with a vibrant impression and impeccable visibility, dark mode now represents one of the upcoming WordPress trends.
It is possible to find a variety of dark WordPress themes that are available only in this version, and some of them also allow the user to switch from light to dark mode so that they can choose the one that they prefer.
11. Animations
Animations have been around for a long time. However, the use of these elements has been steadily increasing since the last period, becoming one of the hottest WordPress trends in 2021.
Although many people used to be afraid of using animations because they may slow down the website or affect the overall performance, now they’re optimized for search engines and provide lightweight and SEO-friendly code along with a responsive design.
Thus, you can use animations to give your website a more impressive and engaging look while creating a more memorable user experience.
You can animate the text, illustrations, menus, or images of your website. Also, you can add different types of animations to your website, including rotation, scrolling, hovering, loading, etc.
12. Design elements overlapping
Overlapping design elements is the new WordPress trend; the rule of each element having its own space is, therefore, over.
The overlapping might involve multiple images or mixed elements, such as texts and images. You can experiment with colours, styles, animations, and more to find the perfect design using this technique.
This will allow you to create an eye-catching and outstanding section capable of grabbing users’ attention immediately.
13. Progressive web apps
Progressive web apps (PWA) are among the latest WordPress trends as well.
Web apps are a combination of native mobile apps or desktop applications and web-based apps.
PWAs allow users to experience the same experience that they would have had if they had installed a native mobile app.
Plus, because many users prefer not to install apps, you won’t lose them by offering a web app.
To mention more, web apps bring more benefits, such as having a faster loading time, better user experience, and more flexibility.
If you want to embed a web app into your website, you’ll need to install a plugin such as PWA and download web app templates.
14. Mobile-first thinking
A growing number of people are using mobile phones to navigate the web and search for information. As such, there is the need to optimize websites for smaller screens, making them 100% responsive.
This explains why more people are considering mobile-first themes and other digital elements rather than those designed for desktop computers.
By doing so, they’ll get a product that’s already optimized for mobile, and the editing will be minimal or none at all.
By optimizing your website for mobile, thus, your users will be able to view any element of your website, navigate seamlessly, and experience no interruptions.
Having a mobile-friendly website will also benefit you from a search engine optimization perspective since search engines like Google prioritize responsive websites. Consequently, your website will rank higher on search engine results and get more traffic and leads.
15. Artistic typography
Typography plays an important role in any type of website. So, people are finding new ways to outline this element, making artistic typography an up-rising WordPress trend.
Thus, you can choose an impressive font, play with your text, make it bigger, change colour, animate it, try different effects until you come up with a design that you like and that can grab your visitor’s interest.
Don’t overdo it, that’s the key. If not, you may end up with a mess of content, and users may get confused.
Wrapping Up
Here comes the end of this blog post about the latest WordPress trends in 2021.
Several of these trends are currently in use, and others are upcoming trends that will emerge soon.
Following all, or at least some of them will allow you to stay ahead of the competition and provide the experience that your customers expect.
Consider subscribing to MonsterONE if you want to purchase multiple digital products that will allow you to apply some of these trends to your website. You can download unlimited digital products with any of its subscription plans, such as themes, plugins, and graphic elements.
You can also find help with the customization of your website through TemplateMonster’s services and let a team of experts handle the implementation of your project for you.