It seems that hardly a day goes by where WordPress publishes a blog about their newest theme or one that someone has created for the websites. Sometimes picking one can be a bit like a kid in a sweet shop – there’s so many, how do I choose? There are plenty of different ways to choose from the simple ‘I like it’ to choosing one aimed at the business type or industry you are in. The newest idea for themes is a more interactive style called parallax. So what is this? I spoke to the Grapefruit, one of the leading web design and optimisation businesses in the UK, to find out more about this type of theme and what kind of impact they might have on the SEO services London clients come to them for.

Parallax Basics

So what is a parallax theme? Parallax scrolling the technique where a background image of a website moves at a slower rate than the elements in the foreground or images when the page is scrolled through. This creates the illusion of depth and motion and gives the visitor a stunning effect while in no way affect the search engine optimisation of the website.

But more than just looking great, there is an element of practicality to the idea. With a normal theme, you would have a static image on the website, unless of course you were using a video or a flash. When using a parallax theme, the visitor can instead interact with what they see. This opens up a lot of different ideas and concepts that can be utilised to make the experience more immersive for the visitor and generally a lot more fun.

Uses of Parallax

One example of a clever use of a parallax theme is by a mobile app that uses its character to ‘walk’ through a dark, spooky neighbourhood and explain what he (the app) does to protect the user’s personal information. The visitor watches the story and can’t leave until the end, though it is visually interesting enough that they probably don’t want to.

Nor does it need to be too complex. Using parallax scrolling to trigger visitors to enter a site is a simple and effective idea. Visitors take the most notice of what they see ‘above the fold’ on a website, in other words the part that is on the screen when they arrive. Rather than scrolling down to find out more, the parallax theme prompts visitors to follow the prompt on screen straight in front of them.

Top Themes

Live is one of the top WordPress themes using the parallax scrolling idea. It is a cool and creative theme that features unlimited layers of parallax, a unique feature to this theme. It is fully responsive as well as being easy to work with.

Parallax is another responsible theme that comes with two colour variations to work with the smooth parallax scrolling effect as well as being completely Widget ready for all those add-ons that make a website. It is visually stunning and gets visitors attentions even from a mobile browser.

Harmony has been designed for the musicians and bands seeking a unique website. It includes the ability to play their songs, upload photo galleries from gigs and events and even sell their merchandise. The background images are big and the site is easy to customise.

So there you go – grab yourself a great-looking theme and make your website look amazing! And if you want to keep up with the Grapefruit, you can check out their Twitter feed (), for all sorts of news and tips on how to make the most of your web design and optimisation.

I’m such a big fan of the amazing Parallax themes that you can get for your WordPress sites, that I thought I’d share a few more with you.

Thanks to Helpful for the video – hopefully there’s a theme in there for your new site!