Powerful web management platforms like the WordPress CMS have effectively improved web design and web development for business owners.
This is great for business owners thinking about starting a web presence that is easy to manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of user-friendly CMS tools, if you wanted to build a site built for your business, you typically would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This could take weeks, even months!
The development of WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how WP themes save your business money on web development costs, and how WP themes allow you to easily customize your website.
Web Site Design Revolution
Website owners are benefiting from a revolution in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a small business owner, you may want to learn more about this, because it could save your business a lot of time and money on website development or website design costs.
Let’s review how things worked in “traditional” web design before WordPress were developed:
First, you would discuss your project with a web site developer or designer. After this, the design of the site itself had to be decided upon. This involved time being spent with a professional web site designer going over areas of the site such as the layout, colours, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be individually created with all of your design elements and codes written into the page content. All pages were then assembled together into a website using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything passed testing and was performing how it should (and looking the way the client had wanted it to look), was the web site deemed to have been completed and ready for sign off.
Then, website “templates” were introduced”. Web site templates allow the design of the website to be worked on separately from the page content. The development of ready-made templates helped speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed web developers to service businesses with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of website development firms adopting “template-based” web design services increased, web templates were created that offered a range of custom features, such as colour palettes, the ability to select different styles and styles, and so on.
As websites and website editor tools evolved, web templates also began evolving into web template ”systems”, letting website owners manage their web site’s design components.
Then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress was introduced and helped to start a new 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 takes the concept of a website template system even further.
A WP theme controls the design elements of your web site. It lets you add a “skin” to your site much like a template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, presentation and ability to customize template settings.
As explained in 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 stated in the quote above, a unique feature of WordPress is that the way your website looks to visitors is kept independent of the management of your content.
In simple terms, what this means is that you can change 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 set up WP website for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this great for small businesses?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be done. You can get your business website built simply and get started with any WP theme you like, and then completely modify the look, feel and design of your website in minutes, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WordPress site without needing any website code editing skills. Simply pick a WP theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like header images, page layout, styling options and more with just a few mouse clicks …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, commercial web design companies from all over the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of high quality WP themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are generally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE directory of WordPress themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent WordPress themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As more businesses turn to WordPress for publishing and managing their digital presence, more designers are now focusing on creating themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
WordPress themes range from professional-looking, to designs that are visually stunning and could typically cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most WordPress themes are quite inexpensive to buy.
You can see a number of WordPress theme galleries containing stunning examples of great WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing applications that require traditional web template design:
WP Theme Installation Is Easy, Quick & Simple
Themes are quite easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free WP theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WordPress admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of commercial web developers and development companies who make thousands of quality WP Themes available to users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent look across all of the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your blog’s content. This allows you replace the “look and feel” of your web site or blog as often as you need without modifying your underlying content.
- Many WP themes provide built-in features and options that enable you to customize the theme’s layout and design elements to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that lets you update themes to a newer theme version without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your site’s administration interface.
- WordPress themes helps you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically very inexpensive.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many theme designers are now developing WordPress themes that incorporate “responsive” design.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. computers, iPads, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each device type. Users can scroll, read and load a site on most if not all devices without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to install additional browser tools.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website will display correctly on all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design coding.
We hope this article has given you a clearer understanding of themes, what WordPress themes are, how they can help you save money on web development costs, and how WordPress themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to search for great WP themes for your website, visit this page: Finding The Best Paid And Free WordPress Web Themes On The Web.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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