Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical for any website that wants to gain attention. If you’re using WordPress to power your website, you need a theme that does more than stand out. You want your theme to work for you and help boost the SEO pull of your site.

The following five themes do just that in a number of ways. Furthermore, they show just how powerful the Genesis Framework is. Out of all the themes out there, three powered by the Genesis Framework are on this list of five. No wonder Yoast recommended it.

However, the following five themes are all just about on equal footing, and no matter which one you choose, you can rest assured that your theme will be well supported and optimized. That means they all follow SEO best practices, are coded professionally to minimize base load times, and are responsive.

Comparison Table Information

Revolution Pro Theme	Paid only	Full support	$$$	5 stars
Magazine Pro Theme	Paid only	Full support	$$	4.5 stars
Altitude Pro Theme	Paid only	Full support	$$	4.5 stars
Spacious	Free/Paid	Support for Premium only	$$	3.5 stars
Bootstrap Blog	Free/Paid	Support for Premium only	$	4 stars

All Five Themes Are Equally Optimized for SEO

While it may be true that all of these themes are coded well, responsive, up-to-date, and likely to remain so for the time being – rating them has come down to the ease of use. Why? If you can’t figure out how to do what you want with a theme and get it to display the right content to your audience, it’s not worth anything.

That said, these are all excellent themes to begin with. If you’re comfortable figuring a few things out yourself or going elsewhere with your questions then you may rate them higher. Still, the themes with full support are undoubtedly the best SEO themes.

Revolution Pro Theme

After a stunning portfolio theme? If you’re looking for the most versatile, best WordPress theme that’s SEO friendly, look no further. If you can afford this, this is the theme you should be using.

Portfolio themes, in particular, can be tricky to build out when it comes to SEO best practices. Why? Portfolio typically means that the website being built on top of that theme will have to handle a lot of large image files. So, how can you make that work in an SEO-friendly way and still let those images showcase what the artist wants them to?

You minimize absolutely everything you can without sacrificing style. And that’s what the Revolution Pro Theme does.

This theme is also built on the Genesis Framework. Its compatible with a number of the most popular plug-ins, and like all StudioPress Pro themes, it can be used for ecommerce purposes with WooCommerce or another shopping cart. If you have any questions, there is a knowledge base with video tutorials, written guides, webcasts, and a ticket-based support system.

Top Features: Minimal design with plenty of emphasis on the work being showcased.

Pros:

• Five dedicated homepage layouts and stock examples
• Responsive design that keeps image quality on mobile
• Automatic setup populates the theme with one click (and integrates existing content)
• Compatible with gutenberg block editor

Cons:

• Works Best as a portfolio theme

Magazine Pro Theme

This may just be the best SEO WordPress theme created for an online magazine to date. It comes with a number of theme colors and layout designs all made with the online magazine in mind.

It includes  the Gutenberg builder optimization to allow you to modify your theme, keep track of changes, and make sure the design is uniform site wide and across all posts and pages. All without looking at any code.

Basic theme customizer, custom header settings, widget areas, and six theme layout options are also included even without Gutenberg. This theme has also been professionally coded and minimized. Smart HTML5 markup helps your SEO efforts, too. For more about this, please see the video below.

Like the theme mentioned above, this Magazine Pro Theme is built on the Genesis Framework (which comes included with the price of this theme).

Top Features: Organization and responsive design make it easy to read content. “Infinite scroll” is also possible.

Pros:

• Spaces for banner and display ad integration
• Ad-blocker plug-in compatibility
• Layouts designed to handle and organize lots of content
• Professionally coded and minimized

Cons:

• May seem a little simplistic for a “Premium” theme at first glance but do keep in mind that most of that “premium content” is working behind the scenes keeping your site secure and up to date

Altitude Pro Theme

Want an SEO-friendly WordPress theme that lets you use the ever-popular parallax effect to create eye-catching pages? That’s where Altitude comes in. This is one of the best SEO WordPress themes to make use of the parallax trend.

Just like the two themes reviewed above, the Altitude theme is created by StudioPress and built on top of the Genesis Framework. Purchasing this theme means you are also purchasing the Genesis Framework and all that comes with it – from plug-ins to additional options and security. However, this review isn’t including any of those features, only those that are specific to the Altitude theme itself.

Top Features: Uses the parallax effect without slowing your site down

Pros:

• 6-Week course with video training on how to make the most of the altitude pro theme
• 14-Day free trial
• Responsive and optimized for a number of mobile devices

Cons:

• Somewhat minimal theme with limited layout presets
• No base social integration

Spacious by ThemeGrill

The Spacious theme is bright, minimal, and graphic. It stands out as the kind of WordPress theme that’s versatile enough to work for nearly any project. Of course, that could also be read as “this theme looks a little generic.”

Still, the “Spacious” theme was developed to show that you can have all the content without your WordPress website looking the least bit cluttered. It’s coded professionally and kept up to date by the staff at ThemeGrill.

It comes in two versions: Pro and Free. The Pro version has many more cosmetic options and a few advanced development features. The Free version is just as SEO friendly for a WordPress theme.

Overall, even though this is a free theme built on an entirely different framework, there are still more options, cosmetic and functional, than any single person will probably every use. Support, even for Premium users, may be a little slow but there is a dedicated forum to help mitigate this.

Pros:

• Free and SEO friendly
• Upgrade when you want to or need to
• Professionally updated and maintained
• Hundreds of variables and options

Cons:

• Slower ticket-based support option (the dedicated premium-only forum helps mitigate this problem)
• Potentially “generic” design out of the box (making the most of the dozens of design and layout options fixes this.)

Bootstrap Blog by Bootstrap Themes

The BootStrap Blog Theme by Bootstrap Themes is a graphic-based blog theme. It’s free with a relatively cheap Premium version if you ever feel the inclination to upgrade. Upgrading gives you access to a ticket-based support system and several advanced design and developer options.

The basic, free version of this Bootstrap Blog WordPress Theme comes with a drag and drop builder, full WooCommerce and shopping cart support and integration, one main layout, Google Fonts integration, and full social media integration. It’s also fully responsive and mobile friendly.

For a free version of a Premium theme, that’s almost as much as most full-price premium themes. The paid version unlocks more layouts, a bypass module for ad-blockers, and additional color options. It also allows you to remove the copyright text in the footer for Bootstrap Themes.

Top Features: Drag and drop sections and exemplary shopping cart support via woocommerce integration.

Pros:

• Google fonts integration
• Fully responsive design
• 1-Click setup  
• A wide range of tested browser compatibility

Cons:

• Limited layout and design options
• Copyright link in footer in the free version
• No support for the free version

In Conclusion: Premium Themes Are Worth the Price

Say you find a free theme you like that is SEO compatible, just like anything on this list. Then, in four months there’s a big WordPress update. However, the developer of your theme never updates it to be compatible. You try and contact them, so do dozens of others. No response. Then you have to find a new theme and hope that everything migrates over well.

With any of these themes, even the free options, you don’t have to worry about things like that. Not only are these some of the best SEO friendly WordPress themes available, but they are also backed up by professionals and professional levels of support (if you choose to go all-in and buy a theme.)