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More InformationFeatures
Baseprice is 69$ but there usually is a discount code available. Unlike other Themes this involves unlimited usage with updates and support for one year only. Renewal is 19$ per year. If you want continous updates for the theme of your choice ~ and who wouldn’t ~ you should be prepared for a yearly subscription fee.
I like the overall look of the theme. Nothing too fancy but enough design to look nice. It feels like a tech theme and I am a tech guy so no surprise there.
The theme features a Theme Options Panel like most premium themes. Unusual is the deployment of shortcodes which come as a plugin with the theme – WP Shortcode. Required plugins besides that one are MyThemeShop Theme/Plugin Updater from an external source, as well as WP Tab Widget and WP Review from the WordPress.org repository.
It’s important to note, that you only get the free versions of WP Tab Widget and WP Review when purchasing a MyThmeShop theme. The pro versions are 29$ for WP Tab Widget Pro and 39$ for WP Review Pro on top.
WP Shortcode
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More InformationThe WP Shortcode plugin just inserts a shortcode into the content from a not so impressive list of present shortcodes. You get the worst of both worlds that way: shortcode cluttered posts/pages without the convenience of a visual composer.
Sturdiness
Schema is in v3.0.9 as I write this and pretty mature and solid overall. It is really fast and works well with concatenation and caching plugins. My gripes with the theme focus on compatibility to German law social sharing abilities.
Buggy social sharing buttons
As with Authority, you can not activate facebook-shares without activating facebook-likes ~ the button will simply not show up then. This should make all MyThemeShop themes pretty useless for the German market because our privacy laws prohibit relaying user IPs ~ and private data in general ~ to third parties, especially outside the EU. A link to the facebook sharer doesn’t do this while loading the facebook JavaScript-API does.
Sloppy Schema Microdata Implementation
If I expect one thing from a theme named Schema, it is perfect Schema.org microdata markup. Boy, have I been disappointed. Let me show you what happens when we share this single post to GooglePlus. Google actually prefers and recommends Schema markup in favor of OpenGraph. They even provide a tool to validate Schema.org markup. Here we go:
G+ share with Schema
G+ share with Savoy
The worst thing about this is, that the sloppy markup blocks pontentially good microdata. I’d need to surgically remove the sloppy microdata markup in order to add proper one.
Let me write that again very slowly. Schema, a theme promoted as blogging theme for social sharing with implemented Schema.org markup, falls short on social sharing to schema-markup-lovers like GooglePlus? Seriously?
I can now chose between ripping the theme apart to fix that or to switch my theme as early as possible.
Support
I know from my experience with Authority that MyThemeShop support is responsive and fixes bugs quite promptly. But would bugfixes in the next update be enough to cure my specific dissatisfaction with the compatibility to German law and my Schema markup dependent orientation towards G+? I don’t think so.
Conclusion
Schema is the fastest loading, ultra-SEO friendly WordPress theme.
Sounds great, right? I’ve really tried to get along with Schema. In the end, I did not find it that SEO friendly and downright buggy.
