The introduction of content publishing systems like WordPress has effectively simplified web design and web development for non-technical users.
This greatly benefits non-technical users planning on getting a website that they can manage.
Before “blogging” and the introduction of powerful and simple CMS solutions, if you wanted to get a professional web site built for your business, you typically had to wait until both the website development and web design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting for many weeks, sometimes even many months!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, we explore what themes are, how they save you money on web development costs, and how WP themes help you easily customize your WordPress site.
Web Design Evolution
Businesses have benefited from a revolution in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a business owner, you will want to know about this, because it could save your business thousands of dollars on website development and website design costs.
Very briefly, here’s what happened before WordPress was developed:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web site developer or website designer. After this, the design of the web site itself would be decided upon. This required time being spent with a professional web site designer going over areas of your site like the, colours, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be individually created with all the elements and scripts coded around your content. All of the pages were then assembled into a website using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and performed the way it was intended to (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed to be completed and ready to go live.
Then, web design “templates” were developed”. A web template allows the design of the website to be created separately from the page content. Having ready-made templates helped make developing websites faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled website development companies to service smaller businesses with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses started using “template-based” websites, templates started being introduced to provide various customizable settings, like color palettes, the ability to specify different styles or elements, etc …
As websites and web editing tools evolved, web templates also began to evolve into web template “systems” that let users manage their website’s visual elements.
And then, a “blogging” application called WordPress came along and helped to start a new web revolution …
(WordPress – A Content Publishing Revolution)
To learn more about content management systems and the benefits of the WordPress CMS, see the tutorial below:
About WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme expands the idea of a website templating system one step further.
The WP theme system controls and unifies the design aspects of your web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your entire site in a similar way that a website template system does but also gives you complete control over the management and customization of all template settings.
As the official WordPress site puts it …
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 states, one of the unique and revolutionary features of the WordPress theme is that how your site looks to visitors is controlled separately from your site’s functionality and content management.
In simple terms, what this means is that a theme lets you change the design of your site as much and as often as you like without modifying your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have set up your website for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with a different theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your website. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be completed. You can get your business website built quickly and get started with any theme you want, and then customize the entire look, feel and design of your website in a few seconds, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without requiring web code editing knowledge. Simply choose any WordPress theme you want, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your entire site’s web design and modify elements like headers, layout, styling options and more in a few seconds …
Because WordPress is made available as open source software, web design companies all around the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of great WP themes are made available to WordPress users. Themes are generally distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or sold as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE directory of WP themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Free WordPress Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes range from functional-looking, to stylish designs that are visually impressive and could typically cost many hundreds of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, WP themes can be bought quite inexpensively, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a website designer had to code it from scratch.
You can see several theme galleries containing various examples of great WP themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits And Advantages Of Using WordPress Themes
Here are just some of the many benefits of choosing WordPress themes over using tools that require traditional web template design:
Really Easy To Install
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free WordPress theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a large community of professional web developers and development companies who, collectively, contribute thousands of professional WordPress Themes available to users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent “look and feel” across all of your site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This allows you replace themes as often as you need without modifying the website’s information.
- Many WordPress themes come with additional features and options that allow you to easily customize your site’s layout, style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that allows users to update the theme to a newer theme version without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from the dashboard.
- Themes allow users to save thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are normally quite affordable.
About Responsive WordPress Theme Design
Many theme designers are now developing themes that incorporate “responsive” design.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and load a site on different devices without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional browser tools.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website will work correctly across your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards and practices of website design.
We hope this basic overview has given you a clearer understanding about WordPress themes, what WP themes are, how WP themes can help your business save money, and how WordPress themes make customizing websites easy.
To learn where to find great WP themes for your blog, click here:
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
***