Flexible website management platforms like the WordPress CMS have truly improved web design and web development for business users.
This greatly benefits business owners thinking of building a website that they can manage themselves.
Before blogging and the development of sophisticated CMS solutions, if you wanted a business web site, you typically would have to wait until both the web 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 WordPress themes are, how WordPress themes can help you save money on web development costs, and how WP themes let you easily customize your site.
Web Design Evolution
More businesses will benefit from an evolution in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a business owner, you may want to learn about this, because it can save your business a lot of time and money on web development or web design costs.
Very briefly, this is how things typically worked in “traditional” web design before CMS tools like WordPress were developed:
The first step would be to discuss your project with a web site developer or website designer. Next, the actual design itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This involved time being spent with a professional website designer discussing things of the site like the layout, colours, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be individually created with all of your design elements and codes scripted into your page content. All pages were then assembled into a web site using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything passed testing and performed the way it was supposed to (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the website deemed as being completed and ready for sign off.
The next phase in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “web templating elements”. A web template allows ”look and feel” elements of the website to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having templates helped to speed up the web site creation process and resulted in lowered production costs. This also enabled web development companies to service business clients and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses began choosing “template-based” websites, templates started being developed to offer a number of customizable options, such as the option to switch colours, styles, layouts
As websites and website editing applications developed, website templates also began to transform into website templating “systems” that permit website owners and web designers to customize the design elements of their website.
And then, WordPress was introduced and helped to kick off a new online publishing 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 drives website template systems much further.
A WP theme controls and integrates all of the design areas of your website. It lets you add a “skin” over your site similarly to what a web template system does but also provides users with more control over the management, presentation and ability to customize template options.
As described 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 and revolutionary feature of the WP theme is that the way your web site looks to visitors does not affect how your content is managed.
In simple terms, what this means is that a theme lets you modify the look and feel of your website as often as you want without modifying your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WordPress site has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of the site with another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your website to be completed. You can get your website built simply 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 install a theme on your site without needing any web code programming skills. Simply pick a theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your website design and customize elements like headers, page layout, typography and more in minutes …
Since WordPress is open source software, web design companies can create themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of high quality WP themes are made available to WordPress users. WordPress are usually distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
As more users turn to WordPress for online publishing, more designers are now focusing on creating themes for a wider range of applications.
WordPress themes range from corporate-looking, to designs that are simply stunning and would easily cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most WordPress themes are quite inexpensive to purchase.
You can view a number of theme galleries containing various examples of WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over using traditional web template design:
Be Up And Running In Very Little Time
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin files to your Plugin folder via your admin user login and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional theme designers and design companies who contribute thousands of fantastic WP Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all 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 deleting the underlying content of your blog.
- Many themes provide additional built-in features and settings that allow you to customize the site’s style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that lets you update the theme to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically from your admin panel.
- WP themes helps you save thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically quite affordable.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many WP theme developers are now creating “responsive” themes for the WordPress platform.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. PCs, iPads, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and display a site on different device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to install additional browser elements.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your website will work correctly across all devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards and practices of web design and web coding.
I hope this post has given you a good overview of WP themes, what themes are, how WP themes help your business save money on web design costs, and how themes make customizing sites easy.
To learn where to search for great WP themes for your blog, go here:
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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