The introduction of web publishing technologies like the WordPress CMS has effectively simplified web design and web development for business owners.
This is great for entrepreneurial-minded people planning to start a website that is relatively simple, easy and inexpensive to manage.
Before “blogging” and the introduction of advanced CMS software, if you wanted a professional website, you typically would have to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, sometimes even many months of waiting for the work to be done!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, we explore what themes are, how they save you and your business money on website development costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your WP site.
Revolutionary Web Design
More businesses today will benefit from a great change in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you may want to know more about this, because it can save your business a lot of time and money on website development or web design costs.
Very briefly, this is how things worked in “traditional” web design before CMS solutions like WordPress were developed:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a website developer or website designer. After that, the actual “web design” itself had to be decided upon. This required time and money being spent with a professional web designer going over things of your site such as the, colors, styles, page elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be individually created with all your elements and codes inserted into the page content. All pages were then assembled into a web site using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and was working the way it should (and looking the way the client had wanted it to look), was the website considered to be finished and ready for sign off.
Then, website “templates” came along”. A web template allows ”look and feel” elements of the web site to be created separately from content on the page. The development of templates helped speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled website designers to expand their services to include businesses with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses started choosing “template-based” websites, templates were designed that provided clients with a number of custom options, such as the ability to switch colours, styles, layouts
As websites and website editor applications developed, website templates also began to transform into website template ”systems”, letting website owners manage their website’s design elements.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress was developed and helped to kick off 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:
About WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme takes web templating systems further.
A WordPress theme controls and unifies the design elements of the website. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site similarly to what a web template system does but also provides you with more control over the management, appearance and customization of all template settings.
As per 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 above, a unique feature of WordPress is that the way your website displays to site visitors on the outside is controlled independently of the management of your content.
In plain English terms, what this means is that a WP theme lets you change the appearance of your website as often as you like without affecting your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if your website has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the website. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be completed. You can get your website built simply and get started with any theme you like, and then edit the entire look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WP site without needing any website coding knowledge. Simply pick a theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your web design and modify elements like headers, layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Since WordPress is open source software, thousands of web designers anywhere in the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that loads of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are normally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE directory of WP themes which allows WordPress users to download and access, thousands of excellent WordPress themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes range from corporate-looking, to designs that are simply breathtaking and would normally cost thousands of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most WordPress themes are fairly inexpensive to buy.
You can see several WP theme galleries that include stunning examples of great premium WP themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Themes
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over using applications that require traditional website design:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
WP themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the theme directory at WordPress.org) directly from within your WordPress admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving community of professional theme designers and design companies who contribute thousands of fantastic WP Themes available to WordPress users. And 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, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This means you can replace themes as often as you need without disturbing the blog content.
- Many WP themes provide built-in functionality and options that allow you to customize your theme’s style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that allows you to update themes to a newer theme version without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically right within the admin panel.
- Themes lets you save thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically very inexpensive.
About Responsive Themes
Many WP theme developers are now creating themes that incorporate “responsive” design standards.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. computers, iPads, cell phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and display your site on a range of device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional browser tools.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site will display correctly on your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards of website design and coding.
Hopefully, the above overview has given you a clearer understanding about themes, what themes are, how WordPress themes help you save money on website design costs, and how WordPress themes make customizing web sites easy.
To learn where to find the best WordPress themes for your blog, visit this post: Where To Get The Best Free And Paid WordPress Themes For Your Business.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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