WP Astra review

Do you build WordPress websites? And are you concerned about your Google rankings?

The best Free WordPress theme?

Most people who start building WordPress website have come across the default WordPress themes such as Twenty Nineteen and Twenty-Twenty. You probably have noticed that you can’t adjust certain elements on a page. In addition, you also want a fast website because this helps improve rankings in Google.

After trying a large number of free themes, the best free theme I came across was WP Astra. It was one of the best lightweight themes on the market, with a good number of options for customization!

Are you looking for a free WordPress theme, then I would definitely consider WP Astra.

Important SEO elements on a website:

Do you want to make money with your website, or use it for leads, then you really cannot ignore it to choose a premium theme. You want to have control over as many elements on your website as possible. See the following list:

  • Optimize the title of each page separately from the H1 header, especially when a On-page SEO tool recommends this, like Page Optimizer Pro
  • The footer must be fully customizable (removing links from theme builders etc)
  • The header must be fully customizable (including menu links, mobile menu)
  • Outbound links should easily be set to nofollow (including social media icons, images, sliders)
  • Having a simple customizer to adjust and optimize the layout, colors, and fonts
  • Text easily editable (header sizes adjustable, fonts etc)
  • Buttons easily adjustable (size, link attributes, etc.)
  • The ability to have full control over images (adding Alt text, adjusting the size, changing names etc)
  • Having a customizable 404 error page

Some of these components will be easy to catch with plugins, so the following components are also good to have:

  • A way to add Schema
  • An SEO plugin (such as SEOpress, Rankmath, Yoast) for adjusting Titles, Meta descriptions, NoIndex, Sitemaps to adjust etc.
  • Log of 404 errors
  • A way to manage redirects (301)
  • Possibility to adjust OG data and Twitter cards per page
WPAstra-Header-optimized

Why choose WP Astra PRO as a premium template?

As an SEO agency, we work with WordPress websites a lot. We come across many different kinds of themes and builders, and many are way too slow. Yes, I have Divi in mind.

Like I said earlier, I ended up with WP Astra after searching and trying themes. WP Astra is a theme built by the Brainstorm Force team. Besides this WordPress Theme, the developers also created separate addons for the most important Page-Builders, such as Gutenberg, Beaver Builder, and Elementor.

In addition to all that, the company also has 55+ starter sites for beginners. You can publish a full website with only 1 button-click. All you have to do is edit the text, and maybe the images. (These starter-sites are only built to start, and not recommended for SEO by the way. They need quite a bit of heading adjustments).

And that is why they are so popular! Also in the SEO community.

Fewer plugins, and fewer different companies to work with. That is 1 of the most important reasons why we chose the WP Astra Growth bundle.

Other options:

  • Hooks: add custom code or parts to your website with full full control where and when you want to do this.
  • Custom layouts (design with your favorite page builder your header, footer, menu etc.)
  • Sticky headers, transparent headers, mobile headers and page headers. To gain complete control over your headers for both desktop and mobile.
  • Mega Menus: create beautiful menus by using your favorite page builder.

WordPress plugins in the Growth Bundle (recommended)

The Astra Growth Bundle is a collection of plugins that not only make your websites more beautiful it will also generate more leads and sales.

WP Portfolio plugin

If you are a website builder, this is a super handy plugin to use your customers’ websites as a showcase. Easily create a showcase for your future customers.

Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder

addon for Buiver Builder

With the free version of Beaver Builder, called Beaver Builder Lite, you already have a number of content modules to design your website to the extreme. The Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder goes one step further and brings the following options:

  • 55 unique content modules (think of reviews, advanced menu, countdown timers, advanced buttons, rotating boxes etc.
  • 300+ beautiful page templates (add a full page to your site with 1 push of a button).
    This way you can not only make your website beautiful but they also automatically add structured data to make it even easier for search engines to understand the content of the website!
    For more information, see: https://www.ultimatebeaver.com/

Ultimate Addons for Elementor

Ultimate addon for elementor

With these addons for the popular Elementor, you can create the most beautiful websites in no time. The same thing that is said about the Ultimate Addons for Beaver Builder described above also applies to this plugin.
For more information, see: https://uaelementor.com/

Convert PRO

Convert PRO wordpress plugin

Do you want more leads and more conversions? Then Convert Pro helps you achieve that with an easy drag-and-drop editor to get more leads quickly and easily.

  • Full control to show certain popups. You can set exactly when, where and to whom you want to show the popups. The great thing about this is that you can also use the same designs on your website with shortcodes.
  • Options: Exit popups, multi-step popups, on-click popups, A / B testing, fully responsive, advanced targeting
  • Integrations with MailChimp, Zapier, ActiveCampaign, Mailster, AWeber, and many more.
  • For more information, see: https://www.convertpro.net/

Schema Pro

Schema PRO plugin

This plugin helps you to stand out even more in Google search results. Rich Snippets are only a minute away. With a simple wizard you are able to give your website an extra SEO boost. Adding Schema to your website helps search engines better understand your website and can increase rankings.
The following Schema types are now possible, and will only be expanded in the future:

  • Review
  • Local business
  • Article
  • Service
  • Product
  • Courses
  • Recipes
  • Person
  • Job Postings
  • Software applications
  • Books
  • Events
  • Video Objects
    For more information, visit : https://wpschema.com/

Final Verdict

The most important benefits of using WP Astra in combination with the Growth Bundle are the following:

  • One of the world’s fastest WordPress themes
  • No coding required
  • The BrainForce team is very active on social media and continuously release updates
  • They listen to feature requests
  • New options and plugins are regularly added to their arsenal
  • Huge Facebook community
  • Lifetime payment option for the Essential bundle and Growth bundles. Pay once. You are no longer tied to monthly or annual costs.
  • In case of problems, all these plugins are built within the same company. They can fight amongst themselves when problems arise. Plugins builders won’t blame the theme builders, and they can internally fix problems!
  • Many websites that we have built with the WPAstra theme have top-ranking positions in Google
  • Fewer plugins needed because plugins do not overlap
  • Super easy to build a website through the starter sites option with 1 push of a button
  • 300+ row and page templates to quickly and easily build a new page. Great for Ads and A/B testing.
  • WooCommerce layout customizable
  • Integrations with LifterLMS and LearnDash to host your own online courses!
  • Convert Pro plugin has many marketing integrations, like ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, HubSpot, AWeber, ConvertKit, Mailgun, Zapier, and about 40 others.

Unfortunately, in the last year, I have encountered several issues with WP Astra, that I can not recommend them anymore

Get WP Astra here