The development of web management applications like WordPress has effectively simplified web design and web development for business owners.
This greatly benefits non-technical users that want an online presence that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Prior to blogging and the introduction of advanced content management systems, if you wanted to build a professional web site built for your business, you had to wait until both the website development and web design processes were completely done. This process could take many weeks, even months!
The introduction of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, you will learn what themes are, how themes can help you save money, and how WP themes help you easily customize your site.
A Revolution In Web Site Design
More website owners today will benefit from a revolution in website design that has been going for many years now. If you are a 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 web design costs.
In a nutshell, here’s what normally happened before WordPress was introduced:
First, you would discuss your project with a web site development firm or designer. After this, the “web design” had to be decided upon. This involved spending time with a professional web designer going over elements of the site such as the layout, colors, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with the elements and codes written into the content. The pages were then assembled into a web site 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 elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and functioned the way it should (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the site considered as being completed and ready to go live.
The next phase in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “web templating elements”. A web site template allows design elements of the website to be worked on separately from the page content. The development of template elements helped to speed up the website creation process and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled web site designers to work with business clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more web site development firms began choosing “template-based” websites, templates started being introduced to provide clients with expanding customization options, such as the option to choose different colours, styles, layouts
As websites and web editing software developed, website templates also started to evolve into website template ”systems”, letting website owners control the design components of their site.
And then, a “blogging” application called WordPress came along 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:
WordPress Themes
WordPress themes push the concept of a web templating system further.
A WP theme controls and unifies all of the design areas of your website. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site in a similar way that a web template system does but also gives you complete control over the management and customization of all template options.
As WordPress 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, a unique and revolutionary feature of the WP theme is that the way your site displays to visitors externally is controlled independently of the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that you can modify the look and feel of your site as often as you want without modifying your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if your site has been set up for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with a different theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the web site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your site’s web design is done. You can get your business website built simply and start with any WordPress theme you want, and completely modify the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in mere seconds, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site with no website design skills required. Just choose any theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your website design and customize elements like header images, layout, styling options and more with just a few mouse clicks …
As WordPress is distributed as open source software, website designers anywhere in the world can design themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of high quality WP themes are made available to WP users. WordPress are generally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) WP themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great WordPress themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider audience of WordPress users.
Themes vary from functional-looking, to creative designs that are simply breathtaking and would typically cost hundreds to many thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most premium WP themes can be purchased fairly cheaply, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to build it from scratch.
You can see several theme galleries that include various examples of great premium WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of WordPress Themes
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing web development tools that require traditional web template design:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
WP themes are very 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 WP themes directory at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large community of commercial web designers who contribute thousands of excellent WP Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all your blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This makes it possible to replace the “look and feel” of your templates as often as you need without affecting your blog settings.
- Many WP themes come with built-in functionality and options that enable you to customize the theme’s style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- 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 lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within the admin panel.
- Themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically quite inexpensive.
Responsive WP Themes
Many theme developers are now creating “responsive” WordPress themes.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. computers, iPads, smart phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each device type. Users can scroll, read and display the site on different devices without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website displays well across your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards and practices of web design coding.
We hope that this overview has given you a clearer understanding of WordPress themes, what WordPress themes are, how themes can help you and your business save money, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your website.
To learn where to find great WordPress themes for your website, click here:
***
"Learning WordPress has been a huge stumbling block for me. I've been looking for something that covers absolutely everything but doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you so much ... you have just provided me with what I have been looking for! Truly appreciated!" - Tanya
***