The introduction of web management applications like the WordPress CMS platform has effectively improved web design and web development for users.
This is a great thing for businesses planning to run a digital presence that is simple and easy to manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the introduction of advanced CMS technologies, if you needed a business web site, you normally would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, sometimes even months of waiting around!
The introduction of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this post, we take a look at what WP themes are, how they save you and your business money on website design costs, and how themes make it easy to customize your site.
A Revolution In Web Design
Businesses, especially small businesses, will benefit from a great change in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a business, you may want to know more about this, because it can save your business thousands of dollars on website development or web design costs.
Let’s review how things worked in “traditional” website design before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web development firm or designer. Then, the actual design had to be discussed and agreed upon. This meant spending time with someone with website design skills discussing elements of your site like the, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your site then had to be hand-coded with all the elements and scripts coded around the content. All of the pages were then assembled into a website using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and performed how it was supposed to (and looking the way the client had wanted it to look), was the website deemed as being finished and ready to go live.
Then, website “templates” came along”. A website template allows ”look and feel” elements of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. Having ready-made templates helped to speed up the web development process and resulted in lowered production costs. This also enabled web development companies to service smaller business clients and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more website development companies started choosing “template-based” websites, templates were designed to offer clients with different customizable options, such as the option to switch colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and website building applications developed, web templates also started transforming into website template ”systems”, which allowed users to control the design components of their web site.
Then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress was developed and helped to kick off 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 pushes website templating systems one step further.
A WordPress theme controls and integrates the design aspects of the website. It lets you add a “skin” to your entire site in a similar way that a template system does but it also also provides you with complete control over the management, presentation and ability to customize your template options.
As the official WordPress site explains …
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, a unique feature of the WordPress theme is that the way your web site looks to site visitors does not affect the way your website functions in the backend to handle areas like content management and functionality.
Basically, what this means is that you can change the appearance of your site as often as you like without touching your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if you have set up your website for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your web site. All e-commerce features, site and plugin settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be done. You can get your website built quickly and start with any WordPress theme you like, and then customize the entire look, feel and design of your site in mere minutes, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site with no website design skills required. Just choose any WordPress theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and modify elements like headers, page layout, typography and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is distributed as open source software, professional website designers can create themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WP template system.
This means that loads of great WP themes are made available to WP users. Themes are normally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent website templates at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now focusing on developing themes for a wider audience of web users.
WP themes range from simple-looking, to designs that are visually stunning and could typically cost hundreds to many thousands of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most themes are fairly inexpensive to purchase.
You can see several theme galleries that include many examples of great WP themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over using applications that require traditional web template design:
WordPress Theme Installation Is Easy
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WP admin user login and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WordPress themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving community of commercial theme designers who make thousands of fantastic WP Themes available to WordPress users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This allows you change the “look and feel” of your web site or blog as often as you need without affecting your underlying content.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional built-in functionality and options that allow you to customize your theme’s layout, style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables you to upgrade the theme to newer theme versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically from the admin panel.
- WordPress themes lets you save thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are normally quite inexpensive.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many WordPress theme designers are now creating “responsive” WP themes.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each device type. Users can navigate, read and load your site on all devices without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to have installed additional browser elements.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that the content and layout of your site will display correctly on your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards and practices of website design and coding.
Hopefully, this overview has given you a better understanding of themes, what WP themes are, how themes can help you save money, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your site.
To learn where to find the best WordPress themes for your website, click here:
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