Advanced web publishing tools like WordPress have effectively simplified web design and web development for anyone wanting to start a website.
This is great for non-technical users that want to own a web presence that they can easily manage by themselves.
Before blogging and the introduction of easy-to-use content management systems, if you wanted a professional site, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean waiting for weeks, even many months!
The development of WordPress themes helped change all this. In this blog post, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how themes help your business save money on website development costs, and how themes let you easily customize your WP site.
Web Design Evolution
Businesses, especially small businesses, are benefiting from a revolutionary change in website design that has been going for a number of years now. If you are a small business owner, you may want to learn more about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on web development or web design costs.
Let’s go over what used to happen before WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a website development agency or designer for a brief. Next, the actual design of the web site would be decided upon. This involved spending time with a professional web designer discussing areas of the web site such as the, colours, styles, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be hand-coded with all of your design elements and codes inserted into your page content. All pages were then assembled together into a website using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with all other files needed to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and worked the way it should (and looking how the client had imagined it to look), was the website considered to have been completed and ready for delivery.
Then, web design “templates” came along”. A website template allows design elements of the web site to be created separately from content on the page. Having template elements helped to make web site development faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed web site developers to work with smaller business clients and clients with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of businesses choosing “template-based” websites increased, templates started being introduced that provided clients with various customization options, such as the option to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and website editor applications evolved, website templates also started to transform into website template “systems” that enable users to control the visual components of a website.
And then, WordPress was developed 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:
About WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme pushes website templating systems further.
The WP theme system controls and unifies the design elements of the web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your site similarly to what a template system does but also provides users with complete control over the management, appearance and customization of the template options.
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 stated in the quote above, a unique feature of WordPress is that the way your website looks to site visitors in no way affects the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that you can modify the look and feel of your website as much and as often as you like without modifying your website’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if you have configured your site for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your site. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your website to be done. You can get your website built quickly and get started with any WordPress theme you want, and modify the entire look, feel and design of your WordPress site in a few minutes, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WP site without needing web code development skills. Just pick a WordPress theme you want, upload it to your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your web design and modify elements like headers, page layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, website designers anywhere in the world can create themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of high quality WordPress themes are made available to WP users. Themes are generally distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WP themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE directory of WordPress themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent themes for free …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes range from bare-looking, to designs that are spectacular and could normally cost many hundreds of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most themes are fairly inexpensive.
You can see a number of theme galleries containing various examples of WP themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using WordPress Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing website development tools that require traditional web template design:
WP Theme Installation Is Easy
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme directory at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional web designers who, collectively, contribute thousands of professional WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent design across all of your blog’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 themes as often as you want without affecting your underlying content.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional built-in functionality and settings that allow you to easily customize your theme’s style and design elements to create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many themes are built using a framework that lets users upgrade the theme to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your admin panel.
- Themes helps you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are normally very affordable.
Responsive WP Themes
Many theme developers are now creating WP themes that incorporate “responsive” design.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. PCs, iPads, cell phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and load a site on a range of device browsers without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to install additional browser tools.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that the content and layout of your site will display correctly on 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 and coding.
I hope that the above overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding of themes, what themes are, how they can help your business save money on website development costs, and how WP themes allow you to easily customize your web site.
To learn where to find the best WP themes for your website or blog, click here:
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