There is one thing I don’t quite like about a lot of WordPress theme developers: They try to put everything in a theme, thinking that their template will be adored by everyone. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as “one size fits all” kind of product.
Some will love what you’re doing, others will hate it. That’s simply how life works. There is a balance.
Having that in mind, today I’ll show you a theme that doesn’t have everything. Doesn’t have all the options. Still, it’s one of the best themes you can purchase today.
No matter if you are new to the WordPress world or you have years of experience, chances are that you’ve probably heard about StudioPress and the Genesis Framework.
The Genesis Framework is basically a WordPress theme, that’s fully optimized to make your site fast, SEO friendly, and allow you to present your content in the best possible way.
Their portfolio includes a lot of themes but one of the best, in my opinion, is Authority Pro Theme.
Today, in my detailed review, I’m going to show you how this theme will upgrade the looks of your WordPress site.
Who Is This Theme For? And Is It For You?
As the name suggests, the theme whispers authority.
It’s perfect for entrepreneurs and solo players who are building something all by themselves. If you’re a one man army and you want to create your own membership
The theme supports WooCommerce in full. Meaning, you can easily sell your services to the people visiting your site.
Not that it can’t be used by a corporate firm, but I think that it best fits single players who want to make a difference.
Installing Authority Pro Theme
Usually, you’ll download the .zip file of the theme and upload it inside the admin page of
Let me show you how and why:
So once you have an account with StudioPress, you need to download two files:
- The Genesis Framework;
- The theme file. In our case, Authority Pro Theme.
The Genesis theme is basically a parent theme. The Authority Pro is a child theme. Imagine it like this:
- Genesis – Main Category;
- Authority Pro – Sub category.
So, access your WordPress admin panel and navigate to your Appearance section > Add new:
Next, click on Upload Theme > Choose the Genesis.zip > Click Install now:
Activate:
The following message will appear prompting you to install a child theme.
So, simply repeat the process with the Authority Pro .zim file: Add new > Upload a theme > Choose file > Install now > Activate.
You’ll see these two themes appearing inside your Appearance section:
The Authority Pro should be the one active.
Are there Demos Included in Authority Pro?
The short answer here is No. There aren’t any demos included in the theme.
Basically, the theme itself, Authority Pro, is a demo of the Genesis framework. You’re buying a single theme layout when you’re buying Authority Pro. Well, you can buy all child themes but it will be a bit more expensive.
More about the prices later though.
Let’s get started with the setup of this theme:
Getting Started With Authority Pro WordPress Theme
So, before we check how our site looks, let’s go through the settings that are visible inside the admin section of your WordPress.
Go to Genesis > Theme settings. The first 3 options are the following:
- Updates;
- Add your Google Adsense ID;
- Select site layout: This sets the global layout of the site but it’s also something you can later change.
The second part of the settings page is this:
- Enable breadcrumbs: Most probably the best option is to enable them only for a
Single post; - Enable the comments on both posts and pages: A lot of times you will want comments on pages. If you don’t, you can disable this function for the specific page;
- Set how your content will appear on the archives pages. It’s good to match the overall design with your site.
Finally, you have these two:
- Decide which categories should be present here;
- In case you need to add header or footer script, you can do it from here.
Save the changes and go to Genesis SEO settings.
The Genesis Framework is famous for its SEO friendliness. Still, if you’re using SEO by Yoast you most probably won’t have to do anything on this page.
When you access the SEO settings, you will see a short disclaimer on the top of the page suggesting that we should go to the Customizer panel. So, why not make the changes there. Simply click on the link on this page or, go to Appearance > Customize.
This is what you’ll get:
Besides the awesome look, we can easily make the needed changes.
The first option is Document title:
SEO Settings – Document Title
This does the following: if your domain is domain.com, and your title is My Post is Awesome, the site title will appear like that in the search engines:
My Post is Awesome – domain.com
You can change the separator to be something different than “–” and also consider if you want your domain to appear after the post title.
SEO Settings – Homepage
Few things here:
- Primary title H1: Choose which of the ones should be your H1 tag;
- Homepage Document Title: You can specify your homepage title or leave it blank;
- Add meta description;
- Add Meta Keywords;
- I don’t personally suggest to check the last boxes.
SEO Settings – Document Head
The authors of this theme suggest that you shouldn’t touch the settings inside here if you don’t really know what you’re doing or what type of tags you want to include in your document title.
My suggestion will be the same:
Simply, leave the settings as they are.
SEO Settings – Indexing; Archiving; Directories
The default settings are that noindex will be applied for the listed section of the website:
Again, if you’re not sure what you’re doing, it’s best to leave the settings as they are.
In general, you don’t need the above mentioned tags to be indexed by Google and the other search engines because this will lead to duplicate content. And Google doesn’t like duplicate content.
You can also leave the other settings: archiving and directories, in their default configuration.
Authority Pro Main Settings
Ok, we’re done with the initial settings, let’s now see what other options are included in this theme.
So, basically, you can stay in the Customizer and simply go to the Authority Pro settings > Basic Settings. You will see the following 3 options:
First, the option to remove the front page hero section. If you uncheck this the picture of the lovely Melyssa and the whole section will be gone:
The second option transforms the first paragraph of every blog post into this
The third option is quite obvious: Do you want to show the featured image on your posts or not? Of course, my suggestion will be to use it:
My suggestion is to use all of the 3 options above.
Once you have this section configured, go back and enter the Top Banner Section:
It’s really cool that this option is included inside the theme. You don’t have to install an additional plugin to add a banner, something that comes really handy when you’re running a promotion on your website.
Again, settings here are quite straightforward: Choose do you want to have the top banner and what will be the text inside.
Configure Your Homepage with Authority Pro
Hero Portrait Section is the third tab inside the Authority Pro settings panel. This one is my favorite thing about the Authority Pro WordPress theme. Actually, this option is the main thing that differentiates this theme from all other themes.
Once you’re inside, you can easily spot which box is for which component on the right:
You can upload your own picture and even change the text on the right side of the picture:
Really cool, right?
There is one more final option inside this main tab, Authority Pro Settings, it’s called Hero Logo Section.
Basically, if your site is featured on other famous websites you can add the logos of these sites so people can see them. This will make you look more credible in the eyes of others.
To do so, simply upload logos using the Select Image option:
Voila, now it looks like I’m amazing and everyone wants to speak with me.
Still, there are additional settings that will make your homepage even better.
Before you purchased the theme, or if you’re still consider getting the theme, you will see that the page on the demo contains a email subscription form right next to the picture:
So how we can add that option?
Let me show you:
You need to first install the following plugin: Genesis eNews Extended. Go to plugins, Add new and search for this plugin. Once you find it simply install and activate the plugin.
Then, go to Appearance > Widgets > Find the box Genesis eNews Extend and move the box inside the Hero section:
You will see that a couple of options are appearing. Depending on the company you use to store emails (I use MailChimp), you need to add appropriate action. I’ll suggest checking this tutorial here: link.
Super neat. Let me show you another cool option:
Inside the Widget section, again, you can add really cool call to action banners to specific pages of your site.
For example, if you want your visitors to first check your About page, you can add that right after your Hero Avatar.
So, let me show you how:
Once you have pages added, add inside Front Page 1 section, the Genesis – Featured Page box + text box:
As you will see, a couple of options will be displayed:
- What should be the title;
- What page to add – keep in mind that you should first add page this option to be visible;
- Are we going to show the featured image and what will be the size?
- Image alignment;
- What content to appear and etc.
Once you’re done, you can add 4 additional sections like the one I mentioned above:
Click save and go to your homepage now:
It looks amazing. Clean design that will lead the customer to where you want.
I kind of adore the little arrow on the top.
Blog Section and Posts Settings
As you probably noticed already,
Your blog posts will appear chronologically:
If you want to change the way your blog posts are aligned, you can choose from the following options when you go to Edit a specific category:
Also, inside each post, you will see the following options:
SEO settings for each post. You can add your meta description and etc. Still, I prefer using SEO plugin by Yoast.
When you scroll a bit down you will see that there is also an option to change your layout for this specific post. This overwrites the global settings. Additionally, you will see a place where you can add header and body scripts.
Not that many options but it’s basically everything you need for a WordPress blog.
What Is The Price Of Authority Pro Theme?
So, what’s the price, right?
You can get the Genesis Framework and the Authority Pro child theme for $129.95. This is a one-time purchase. You don’t have to pay again for updates.
Additionally, the guys from StudioPress have an all in
The second option is great if you’re a developer and you’re creating sites for clients.
As for the individual price of the theme… Yes, it’s a bit more expensive than most of the themes we see on ThemeForest but it’s surely like nothing else you see on the market.
Still, let’s look at the pros and the cons:
Authority Pro WordPress Theme Pros And Cons:
Pros:
- Easy to use;
- Fast and fully responsive;
- SEO optimized;
- Clean and professional look;
- Unique design;
- All the basic features for a fully functional site;
Cons:
- Even though the theme has everything you need to have a great looking blog, there is something I don’t like about their themes: Some basic configurations are missing. For example, if you want to change the colors, or the fonts on the site, you need to go deep into CSS or HTML edits. If you don’t know how to do it, you need to install a couple of additional plugins to achieve that – like we did to add an email subscription box. Some of these plugins are even paid which will make the price of this theme higher.
Final Thoughts
This theme is surely a piece of art. When you refresh your website once you’re finished, it will look like something that was created from an art director of a famous brand.
All of this achieved in under a couple of hours.
Still, as I mentioned, the theme itself lacks some really basic configuration options and if you don’t know a thing about HTML or CSS you will either spend hours learning how to do simple changes or pay more money for additional plugins. Well, you can simply leave things as they are, but still, I kind of miss some of the options.
What are your thoughts about StudioPress and Authority Pro Theme in particular? I will love to hear your opinion in the comments below: