The introduction of web site management technologies like WordPress has truly simplified web design and web development for anyone wanting to start a website.
This is great news for entrepreneurial-minded people planning to start a website that is easy to manage.
Prior to blogging and the introduction of user-friendly content management systems, if you needed a business web site, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This could mean weeks, even sometimes months of waiting for the work to be done!
The introduction of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, we explore what WordPress themes are, how they save you and your business money on website development costs, and how themes make it easy to customize your site.
A New Development In Website Design
Businesses, especially small businesses, will benefit from a tremendous revolution in web design that has been going for several years now. If you are a small business owner, you will want to learn more about this, because it can save your business a lot of time and money on web development or website design costs.
In a nutshell, here’s how things typically worked in “traditional” web design before system like WordPress was developed:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web developer or designer. Then, the design of the website itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This meant spending time with someone with website design skills discussing elements of your site such as the, colors, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with the design elements and scripts coded around the page content. The pages were then assembled together into a website using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with all other files required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and functioned the way it should (and looking how a client had imagined it to look), was the site considered to be completed and ready for delivery.
The next step in the evolution of business website design was the introduction of “web templating elements”. A website template allows the ”look and feel” of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. Having ready-made templates helped make website creation faster and resulted in lowered production costs. This also enabled web site development agencies to service businesses and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses started choosing “template-based” websites, web templates started being designed that provided expanding customizable settings, like color palettes, the ability to pick different content styles, formats, header, footer and navigation elements, layouts, etc …
As websites and website editing software evolved, web templates also started transforming into website template “systems” that let users manage their site’s visual elements.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress was developed and helped to start a new online publishing revolution …
(WordPress – A Content Publishing Revolution)
To learn more about content management systems and the benefits of the WordPress CMS, see the tutorial below:
WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme pushes the idea of a web template system further.
The WP theme system controls every aspect of your site’s design. It lets you add a “skin” over your site similarly to what a web template system does but it also also gives you more control over the management, presentation and ability to customize all template settings.
As WordPress has stated in its 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 stated above, one of the unique features of WordPress is that how your website looks to visitors is managed separately from the way your website works internally to handle areas like content management and functionality.
In simple terms, what this means is that themes let you modify the design of your website as often as you want without affecting your website’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if your site has been set up for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your website. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when your site is built with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your website to be done. You can get your website built simply and start with any theme you like, and then change the entire look, feel and design of your site in minutes, whenever you choose … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WordPress site with no website code programming skills necessary. Simply pick a theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your entire site’s web design and customize elements like header images, page layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Because WordPress is distributed as open source software, hundreds of web design companies can design themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. WP are usually distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) WP themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As more users turn to WordPress for online publishing, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes range from functional-looking, to designs that are visually stunning and would typically cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, themes are very inexpensive to buy.
You can see a number of WordPress theme galleries that include stunning examples of themes in this page:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits And Advantages Of Themes
Here are just some of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over using traditional website design:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
Themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme directory at WordPress.org) directly inside your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large community of professional website developers and development companies who contribute thousands of fantastic WP Themes available to users. And many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent look across all of the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This makes it possible to change WP themes as often as you want without affecting the settings.
- Many themes come with additional functionality and options that allow you to easily customize your site’s layout, style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that lets you update the theme to newer theme versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically inside the admin panel.
- WP themes allow users to save thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically quite inexpensive.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many theme developers are now creating themes that incorporate “responsive” web design.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically resize to display smoothly over different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and load a site on different device browsers without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional themes.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site works across your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design coding.
We hope that this basic overview has helped you gain a better understanding about WordPress themes, what themes are, how themes help your business save money, and how themes let you easily customize a WP site.
In our next article in our article WP beginners on understanding basic WP features, we show you where to find the best themes for your website.
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