Powerful web site publishing technologies like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) have effectively simplified web design and web development for web users.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses planning to start or build a web presence that they can easily manage by themselves.
Before “blogging” and the introduction of powerful and effective content management systems, if you wanted to build a site built for your business, you normally had to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This could mean waiting around for weeks, sometimes even many months!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this post, we take a look at what WP themes are, how WP themes help you and your business save money, and how themes allow you to easily customize your site.
Web Design Evolution
More businesses today are benefiting from a revolution in web design that has been going for a number of years now. If you own a business, you may want to learn about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on website development or website design costs.
Let’s briefly go over what normally happened before software like WordPress was developed:
First, you would discuss your requirements with a website development company or web designer. After this, the “web design” itself would be decided upon. This meant spending time with someone with web site design skills discussing areas of the web site such as the layout, colours, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be individually created with the elements and scripts coded around the page content. The pages were then assembled into a website using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file required to make your site work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything passed testing and worked the way it was intended to (and looking how a client had imagined it to look), was the web site considered as being completed and ready to go live.
The next phase in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “web templates”. A web template allows the presentation of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. The introduction of ready-made templates helped speed up the website development process and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also enabled website development firms to expand their services to include smaller business clients with smaller marketing budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses began choosing “template-based” web design services, templates were introduced that could provide clients with a number of custom features, like colour palettes, the ability to pick different formats and layouts, etc …
As web sites and website building applications evolved, web templates also started to evolve into web templating ”systems”, allowing website owners to manage the design components of a site.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress was introduced and helped to start a new business website revolution …
(WordPress – A Content Publishing Revolution)
To learn more about content management systems and the benefits of the WordPress CMS, see the tutorial below:
The WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme drives the idea of a web template system even further.
The WordPress theme system controls every aspect of your web site design. It lets you add a “skin” to your site much like a template system does but it also also provides users with complete control over the management, presentation and ability to customize template options.
According to the official WordPress site …
A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a weblog. These files are called template files. A Theme modifies the way the site is displayed, without modifying the underlying software. Themes may include customized template files, image files (*.jpg, *.gif), style sheets (*.css), custom Pages, as well as any necessary code files (*.php).
(source: WordPress.org)
As the above quote states, a unique feature of a WP theme is that the way your site displays to site visitors is kept independent of the way your content is managed.
In simple terms, what this means is that a theme lets you modify the look and feel of your site as often as you want without touching your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if you have configured WP site for e-commerce, changing the entire look of the site with another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your web site. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this really great for small businesses?
Because when your site is powered with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your website to be completed. You can get your website built simply and get started with any theme you like, and completely modify the look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you want … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without the need of website coding knowledge. Simply choose a theme you want, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and customize elements like header images, layout, typography and more in less than a few minutes …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, thousands of web design companies can design themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of great WP themes are made available to WordPress users. Themes are usually distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of excellent web templates for free …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider audience of WordPress users.
Themes vary from minimal-looking, to designs that are simply impressive and would easily cost thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most premium themes are fairly inexpensive to purchase.
You can view several theme galleries that include various examples of great WordPress themes in this page:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over using web development tools that require traditional web design:
Easy & Fast To Install
WordPress themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large online community of professional theme designers and design companies who contribute thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to WP users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This means you can replace WP themes as often as you need without disturbing your site data.
- Many themes provide additional features and options that let you easily customize the theme’s style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables you to update the theme to a newer theme version without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside your dashboard.
- WP themes allow users to save hundreds of dollars on web design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are normally very affordable.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many WP theme designers are now creating WordPress themes that incorporate “responsive” design.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. laptops, iPads, cell phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and display a site on a range of devices without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website displays well on all devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards of web design and web coding.
We hope this overview has helped you gain a better understanding about themes, what WordPress themes are, how WP themes can help you save money on web design costs, and how WordPress themes let you easily customize your web site.
To learn where to find great themes for your website or blog, see this page: How To Find Great Paid And Free Responsive WordPress Web Themes For Your Business Online.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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