After owning the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs for two years, I can honestly say that buying a website theme is like buying a car or house. You need to look under the hood. So let’s take a close look at this 17th Ave Designs theme.
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Table of Contents
- Why I Purchased the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs
- The 17th Avenue Mia Theme Falls Short in a Major Area: SEO
- A Full-Stack Expert Concluded That YOU CANNOT OPTIMIZE the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs for a Green Google Performance Score on Mobile
- The Creators of the Perfmatters Site Speed Plugin Intervene and Further Accelerate the Site
- Another Full-Stack Developer Tackles the Theme and Corrects the Accessibility Issues
- Why Is Mobile Page Speed Important?
- The 2024 Updated Mia Theme Does Not Address the Two Biggest Issues My Site Has: First Contentful Paint and Largest Contentful Paint
- Did I Reach Out to 17th Avenue Designs?
- Is the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs a Good Investment?
- Additional Observations about the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs
- Is There Anything I Can Do to Further Improve Speed and Performance on the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs?
- How to Buy a Website Theme
- Is the Website Theme Functional on a Mobile Phone?
- Opt for a Theme That’s Easy to Customize
- Conclusion
- Was This Article Helpful for You?
Why I Purchased the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs
I purchased the 17th Ave Designs theme for my first blog, a food blog, because it is very pretty. In retrospect, I realized that buying a website theme based on aesthetics and advertising isn’t enough. The Mia Theme is, for example, listed as “SEO optimized,” but 17th Avenue Designs didn’t at all take performance into consideration when it developed this theme.
The 17th Avenue Mia Theme Falls Short in a Major Area: SEO
I recently found out that the 17th Avenue Mia Theme falls short in a major area: SEO. 17th Avenue Designs did not optimize the Mia theme to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals Assessment for mobile. In other words, the Mia theme is not optimized to get a passing Green score on Google’s PageSpeed Insights test for mobile.
If you are new to blogging you might not know that PageSpeed Insights is where Google scores your website in the following four categories: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices and SEO. Google has three color ratings: Red (0-49), Orange (50-89) and Green (90-100).
Two years into learning how to run my site, I decided to finally sort out the page speed issue, since my site had always been in the Red for performance on both mobile and desktop.
The Information on the 17th Avenue Website Does Not Solve the Mobile Performance Problem
Of course, I first consulted the website of 17th Avenue Designs, because they provide a lot of help on their site.
Item 1: They recommend switching from a host like Bluehost which I initially had (since it’s inexpensive) to SiteGround or a managed WordPress host. I switched to SiteGround since I wasn’t ready to pay a lot more money for a managed hosting plan. But that didn’t solve my problem.
Switching to a managed WordPress host such as Amazon or Cloudways would probably speed up my site a little bit, but a colleague who runs a 17th Avenue theme on Cloudways also doesn’t have a Green score for Performance on mobile.
Item 2: Plugins – 17th Avenue Designs suggests doing a plugin audit which I did. My site has fewer than 20 plugins and a plugin audit did very little to improve my mobile Performance score.
Item 3: Advertisements: I’m running Google AdSense and disabling ads on my home page also didn’t solve the problem. While my Performance score went up slightly, it didn’t turn Green.
The “guidance” on the 17th Avenue Designs website sends theme owners on a wild goose chase since these issues are not the root of the problem. The problem lies in the use of antiquated coding that slows down the theme.
A Full-Stack Expert Concluded That YOU CANNOT OPTIMIZE the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs for a Green Google Performance Score on Mobile
So, I found a full-stack expert who in the course of three days tested multiple plugins and settings on my site. The conclusion: You cannot optimize the site for a Green Performance score on mobile. For that to happen, you would have to change the coding since, for example, combining CSS, which speeds up sites, actually breaks the 17th Avenue theme.
We were able to optimize the site for an Orange Performance score on mobile and a Green Performance score on desktop. But Orange on mobile is VERY DISAPPOINTING, since 85 percent of my traffic comes from smartphones. So, if you buy a website theme these days, you really need to make sure that it is fast and functional on a mobile phone.
My mobile and desktop Google Performance scores after a full-stack expert worked on the site:
The Creators of the Perfmatters Site Speed Plugin Intervene and Further Accelerate the Site
The Orange Performance score for mobile continued to bother me, so I reached out to Perfmatters. After all, the Perfmatters plugin is running on my site and I wanted them to check the settings.
I was very lucky! Perfmatters has excellent customer service. The founders and creators of the plugin, Brian and Brett Jackson, not only offered to check the plugin’s settings. They actually went above and beyond and checked and adjusted all plugins and factors that contribute to site performance. Ultimately, they even made a few code changes in the child theme to boost performance – all FREE OF CHARGE.
I emerged with a thorough understanding of the 17th Avenue Designs Mia Theme and a lot of knowledge about the factors that contribute to site performance, including image size. For example, Perfmatters asked me to further compress the site header/logo; after all, it appears on every page. They also asked me to compress one of the homepage images and recommended using Squoosh to make these images a lot smaller without quality loss.
So, if you’re having trouble with your 17th Avenue Designs theme, don’t hesitate to contact Perfmatters. They are amazing!
The mobile and desktop scores for Core Web Vitals after Perfmatters worked on my site and made code changes. Perfmatters explained that if I wanted mobile Core Web Vital scores around 98-100, I would have to switch themes.
Another Full-Stack Developer Tackles the Theme and Corrects the Accessibility Issues
Next, Naresh Devineni, a full-stack developer at Codeable, did a phenomenal job editing the PHP/HTML code to correct the site’s Accessibility issues. So, mobile and desktop both have green Accessibility scores.
My site’s PageSpeed Insights scores after the Accessibility issues were corrected.
Two Accessibility Issues Weren’t Corrected
Google PageSpeed Insights continues to flag two Accessibility issues for the following reasons:
1) “Heading elements are not in a sequentially-descending order“: Due to the widget structure of the 17th Ave Designs Mia Theme, you can’t set up a perfect H1, H2, H3, H4, etc. page structure. But I came pretty close.
I initially had a link on each of the three homepage images. The problem: Each link was an H4. So I removed two of the links, leaving only the one in the middle. I also did this to make the 17th Avenue Designs theme more user-friendly on mobile. Now mobile users immediately see the drop-down menu and aren’t distracted by a link on a photo.
Moreover, the newsletter sign-up form, which has an H4 heading, had initially been below the three homepage images. So, I moved the newsletter sign-up form further down the page and inserted the Search widget below the three homepage images.
I put the Search widget there for two reasons: It doesn’t have a header number and it makes it easier for mobile users to search the site.
So, after the H1 on top, there’s only one H4 title (instead of five), followed by all eight H2 titles from landing page 3 (“Featured Posts”). Note: I deleted the H4 title “Featured Posts,” so the H4 title doesn’t interrupt the logical header sequence.
You can use the SEO Meta 1 Click Chrome Extension to see your header sequence. One H4 header now follows the H1. Previously five H4s had followed the H1. Despite the improvement, Google still flags my site for Accessibility.
2) “Attributes on active, focusable elements are not unique” – If Google flags you for this Accessibility issue, it’s because 17th Ave Designs uses the Genesis Extended eNews widget as the newsletter sign-up form in three places in the theme.
I spoke with the widget’s creator who explained that the Genesis Extended eNews widget is designed for one-time use on a site. He also said the widget is no longer being updated, so the Accessibility issue will not be addressed.
What can you do to remedy the Accessibility issue? According to Naresh Devineni of Codeable, you can replace the Genesis Extended eNews widget with the WP Forms widget in all three places. WP Forms is coded differently and will eliminate the Accessibility issue. Naresh is, of course, happy to help you set it up.
Why Is Mobile Page Speed Important?
Mobile page speed has been a ranking factor on Google since 2018 for both mobile and desktop. This means that sites that load faster are going to rank higher in Google. In other words, my website was losing traffic because it wasn’t sufficiently optimized for SEO.
My GTmetrix scores for mobile and desktop performance after Perfmatters worked on my site.
The 2024 Updated Mia Theme Does Not Address the Two Biggest Issues My Site Has: First Contentful Paint and Largest Contentful Paint
Theme updates by 17th Avenue Designs do not address the theme’s performance issues.
As I write this, I am running the updated 2024 version of the Mia Theme which is version 2.1.0. When I updated the theme a few weeks ago and noted my Red Performance score, I went to the 17th Ave Designs website for guidance.
According to 17th Ave Designs, the biggest cause of Content Layout Shift in their themes is the fade-up effect which smoothly loads sections of the page as you scroll down. They also state that by April of 2021 all of their themes were updated to remove the fade-up effect on mobile. My mobile Performance was, however, in the Red.
Moreover, the full-stack expert who worked on my site removed the fade-up effect. I don’t know if it was on mobile or desktop or both but he fully removed it from my site. That helped increase my site’s speed but didn’t bump my Performance score into the Green on mobile.
As far as I can tell, 17th Avenue Designs does not address the root of the problem which is the coding. They need to revise the theme’s coding so the theme aligns with current trends.
Did I Reach Out to 17th Avenue Designs?
17th Ave Designs is easy to reach and provided me with a lot of help when I set up the theme. However, when it came to Google Core Web Vitals and page speed issues, 17th Avenue Designs never admitted that their coding is the problem. Instead they greatly inconvenienced me: I followed their guidance and switched hosts because of the Performance problem which cost me money and didn’t solve the problem. Then I had to hire a full-stack expert to work on the 17th Ave Designs site and also had to subscribe to two plugins.
Is the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs a Good Investment?
Initially drawn by the theme’s one-time fee and lifetime support, I have found that it is not a cheap theme to run. In addition to having pay a full-stack expert for optimization work, I had to buy two plugins for my site which renew every year. So, the 17th Avenue Designs theme is ultimately costing me more time and money than I had bargained for.
Additional Observations about the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs
The 17th Avenue Mia Theme Doesn’t Display Well on Mobile
The Drop-Down Menu Is Outdated – Structured with outdated JQuery code that slows down the site, the 17 Ave Designs drop-down menu adds an extra step since users have to click the menu to see all the site’s categories. If you look at the mobile versions of popular food blogs, you’ll see that most immediately display about six small food photos on the mobile landing page, immediately giving users a visual overview of the site’s categories.
The Search Icon and Box – People have told me they can’t find anything on my site. This is in part due to the following: The Search icon and box is really small and hard to see on both mobile and desktop. In fact, you don’t even see the Search icon on mobile until you click the theme’s drop-down menu. To remedy this, I put a Search widget on front page 2, so it’s now easier to find something on mobile.
The Social Share Icons – The social share icons in the top righthand corner of the desktop are hard to see, so I enlarged mine as large as the 17th Ave Designs theme would permit. But they are still really small.
Moreover, the social share icons do not appear at the top of a post, only at the bottom, where they are very small and hard to see on mobile. As a result, I added a social share plugin to my site.
Page Header Sequence Is Illogical in the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs and Flagged under Accessibility by Google Page Speed Insights
Like every post you write, every website page has a header sequence. If you want to see your site’s header sequence, just install a Chrome Extension such as SEO Meta in 1 Click.
As mentioned above, the 17th Avenue Mia Theme does not have a logical header sequence. Header sequence is, of course, part of Google’s Page Speed Accessibility score, where I am flagged for the following: “Heading elements are not in a sequentially-descending order.” Just click around and visit a few successful websites in your field. You will quickly see that successful websites are well-organized: The first header is H1 followed by H2, H3, H4, etc.
Due to the 17th Avenue site’s widget structure, you can’t set up a logically organized header sequence. In fact, the social icons on the top-right corner of the homepage were initially an H4 header and the first thing Google saw! This is very wrong on a website. I contacted 17th Avenue Designs and was given a CSS code to remove an “accessibility” feature that had screwed up the header sequence.
Although the header sequence on my homepage is better and now runs H1, H4, H2, H2, H2, H2, H2, H2, H2, H2, an H4 interrupts the header sequence. So, Google still flags my site for this Accessibility issue.
Pale Font and Button Colors
Low-contrast font and button colors are hard to read and therefore flagged by Google PageSpeed Insights as an Accessibility issue. If you’ve been flagged for this, just head to the Google Developers color page for further information. To input potential hex codes until the colors you’ve selected for your website pass the Google PageSpeed Accessibility test for sufficient “contrast ratio,” try the WebAIM contrast-checking tool.
Small Font on Homepage Navigation Bar
Just head to the desktop version of my homepage and check out the primary navigation bar where the menu headers say Home, Recipes, Kitchen Essentials, etc. The menu headers are as big as they can go which is 12px. They are really small and hard for people to see.
Is There Anything I Can Do to Further Improve Speed and Performance on the Mia Theme by 17th Avenue Designs?
The team at Perfmatters made the following two suggestions:
Switch Hosts
When my SiteGround subscription expires, I can switch hosts and, for example, try a more expensive managed server.
Remove Fonts
I can hire a developer and remove the theme’s Google fonts or custom fonts and switch to system fonts. Although this would change the theme’s aesthetics, it would improve user experience.
Did you know that state-of-the-art, performance-oriented website themes make system fonts the default font?
21.1% of my site’s page size is from fonts, so switching to system fonts would probably have a positive impact on site-wide performance.
How to Buy a Website Theme
Do Thorough Research
Do thorough research before buying a website theme. If you don’t know much about website themes, find someone who does – preferably someone who isn’t trying to sell you a product.
Remember: You will spend a lot of time on your blog, so be sure to get a theme that performs well.
Test the Theme on Google Page Speed Insights
If you like a theme a friend has, test it on Google Page Speed Insights. Look at the issues it has on both mobile and desktop. Then discuss the issues with the owner or someone who is knowledgeable.
Is the Website Theme Functional on a Mobile Phone?
Remember that we’re in a mobile world. That’s where most of the traffic is. So, be sure to look at how a website theme looks on a mobile phone. If you think someone has a great site that is easy to navigate on mobile, make a note of what the features are.
Opt for a Theme That’s Easy to Customize
When I first started blogging I wasn’t aware of the issues mentioned in this post and the fact that I would eventually want to customize more than just the site’s colors.
Be Wary of Hiring Developers Who Promise You a GTmetrix Score of 100
Did you know that developers can fudge GTmetrix scores? They can hide parts of a website and prevent scanners from, for example, seeing slow areas of a site. So, choose your help wisely.
Conclusion
When buying a website theme, do your research carefully. It’s like buying a house: You should never buy a home with foundation problems and you should never buy a website theme with questionable coding.
I personally am disappointed that 17th Ave Designs doesn’t update the Mia theme’s coding to improve mobile speed and performance as well as the Accessibility issues that Google flags.
The issue is, by the way, nothing new. I have found other comments on the internet that were written several years ago stating that 17th Avenue themes are slow, so 17th Avenue Designs is fully aware of the issue.
Amy Lamparelli says
I love my 17th Avenue Design theme from an aesthetic perspective, but I am having the same problem with my Vivienne theme that I purchased from them. I’ve spent loads of extra money on plugins to help increase site speed, optimized all of my images and reached out to their support. Their support is fantastic but I also had the same experience when inquiring about site speed. I was told it wasn’t their theme causing the poor load time. Glad to know I’m not loosing my mind. A beautiful site is important to me but if no one sees my site because Google won’t show it to them because of slow site speed then it doesn’t really matter how pretty it is. I’m trying to figure out what to do. So frustrated.
Cathy @ Cathy's Cake Salon says
Yes, it’s disgusting that we end up spending time and money on the theme. I checked your site at Google Page Speed Insights and neither mobile nor desktop has a green Performance score. That’s very upsetting, especially after one puts so much time into conceptualizing a website’s content. As far as I can tell, there are only two options: Live with it or get a new theme (and research well before buying). People sell anything these days, whether it works or not. I do not understand why 17th Avenue does not update the coding or offer us a new theme that is actually functional. I have seen comments dating back 6 years about how slow 17th Ave themes are.
Jen says
Thanks for posting this and explaining what’s going on. I have the same problem with a 17th Ave theme. I also spent time and money and switched hosts but my site still isn’t fast. The whole thing makes me angry. I think I’ll just get a new theme.
Cathy @ Cathy's Cake Salon says
I’m sorry to hear that. Yes, it’s a real bummer. If you’re not that far along with your blog, then by all means get a new theme that is optimized for both mobile and desktop.
Jazzmin says
Thank you for sharing this post and the behind the scenes details of this theme. It’s exactly the kind of blog post I wish I had stumbled upon before I purchased this theme. Your analogy of buying a website theme to purchasing a house resonated with me, it’s so accurate. I’ve had similar problems with my 17th Ave theme. Even after investing considerable time and resources and even switching to a pricier hosting provider, my site’s page speed failed to meet my expectations. It was incredibly frustrating, especially when their support team couldn’t address my concerns regarding the site speed issues. I ended up reaching out to Perfmatters with your recommendation, and I’m glad I did. Their customer service was fantastic, and they were also able to work on my site and made my website load faster on mobile devices which I didn’t think was possible. It’s made a big difference for me and I’m really happy with the results so far.
Cathy @ Cathy's Cake Salon says
I’m sorry that you also bought a 17th Ave Design theme. But I’m glad that my post helped you resolve the issue. Perfmatters is wonderful and I’m happy they were also able to speed up your site!