The introduction of web management systems like WordPress has effectively improved web design and web development for business users.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses planning to run an online business presence that they can easily manage themselves.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of sophisticated content management systems, if you wanted to build a professional web site for your business, you had to wait until both the web development and web design processes were fully completed. This process could take weeks, sometimes even many months!
The development of WordPress themes changed all this. In this blog post, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how WordPress themes save your business money on web development costs, and how themes help you easily customize your site.
Web Design Evolution
More website owners today have been benefiting from a tremendous change in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a small business owner, you may want to learn about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on website development or web design costs.
Very briefly, here’s what happened before CMS applications like WordPress were developed:
The first step would be to meet with a website development company or website designer for a brief. After this, the actual design itself would be decided upon. This involved spending time and money with a professional web designer discussing things of the site such as the layout, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be individually created with all the design elements and codes written into your page content. All pages were then assembled into a website using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and was functioning how it should (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the website considered to have been completed and ready for sign off.
The next stage in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “website templates”. A web template allows ”look and feel” elements of the website to be created separately from content on the page. Having templates helped speed up the web site creation process and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled web site development companies to work with businesses and clients with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses using “template-based” web design services increased, templates were introduced that provided clients with a number of customization options, like the option to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and web editor applications developed, website templates also began evolving into website template ”systems”, letting users customize the visual aspects of their website.
Then, a “blogging” application called WordPress was introduced and helped to kick off a new digital 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
WordPress themes drive the concept of a website templating system even further.
The WordPress theme system controls every aspect of your web design. It lets you add a “skin” over your site in a similar way that a template system does but it also also gives you more control over the management and customization of your 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 the above states, a unique and revolutionary feature of the WP theme is that how your website looks to visitors externally is controlled separately from the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that a theme lets you change the appearance of your site as much and as often as you want without modifying your website’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 your website. 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 your site is built with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your website design to be done. You can get your website built simply and start with any WordPress theme you like, and completely modify the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in minutes, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site with no web code editing skills necessary. Just choose a WP theme you like, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in less than a few minutes …
Since WordPress is open source software, website design companies all around the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that loads of great WP themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WP are usually distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which allows WordPress users to access thousands of great WordPress themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of uses.
Themes range from corporate-looking, to designs that are visually spectacular and could normally cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, WP themes can be purchased fairly inexpensively, especially when compared to what you would have had to pay if a web designer had to code it from scratch.
You can view several theme galleries that include various examples of great themes in this page:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just some of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over choosing applications that require traditional web design:
Easy To Install
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large online community of commercial theme designers who, collectively, contribute thousands of fantastic WordPress Themes available to users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent “look and feel” across all the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your site’s content. This makes it possible to replace themes as often as you like without modifying your website’s underlying data.
- Many themes come with built-in features and options that enable you to easily customize the theme’s layout, style and design properties to create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many themes are built using a framework that lets you upgrade themes to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside your site’s administration interface.
- Themes allow users to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically quite affordable.
About Responsive WordPress Themes
Many WP theme developers are now creating “responsive” WP themes.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and load your site on most devices without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional browser elements.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that the content and layout of your site works across all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design coding.
Hopefully, this post has given you a clearer overview of themes, what WP themes are, how they can help your business save money on web development costs, and how WP themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to search for the best WordPress themes for your blog, click here:
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"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
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