The development of web site publishing technologies like WordPress has truly simplified web design and web development for users.
This greatly benefits non-technical users thinking about building a website that is simple and easy to manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of powerful and simple content management systems, if you wanted a business site, you would have to wait until both the web development and web design processes were fully completed. This could take many weeks, sometimes even months!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this blog post, we explain what WordPress themes are, how WP themes can help you and your business save money, and how themes help you easily customize your website.
Evolution In Web Site Design
Businesses are benefiting from a revolution in website design that started a number of years ago. If you own a small business, you will want to learn about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on website development or web design costs.
Let’s take a look at what normally took place before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your project with a web site development firm or web site designer. After this, the design of your web site would be decided upon. This required spending time and money with a professional web site designer going over things of the site such as the, colors, styles, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with all of your elements and codes scripted into your content. All of the pages were then assembled together into a web site using links and custom coded 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 after everything had been tested and performed how it was supposed to (and looking how the client had wanted it to look), was the site deemed as being finished and ready for sign off.
The next step in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “web templates”. A website template allows the ”look and feel” of the website to be created separately from content on the page. The development of template elements helped to make the process of website creation faster and resulted in lowered production costs. This also allowed web site development firms to service smaller businesses and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses started using “template-based” websites, templates were created to provide different customizable features, like the ability to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As websites and web editor applications developed, website templates also started evolving into website templating ”systems”, letting website owners and website developers customize their web site’s design aspects.
And then, WordPress was developed and helped to start 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
WordPress themes expand web templating systems further.
The WP theme system controls and unifies the design elements of the website. It lets you add a “skin” to your entire site much like a website template system does but it also also provides users with complete control over the management and ability to customize template settings.
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 quote states, one of the unique features of the WordPress theme is that the way your site displays to site visitors in no way affects the way your content is managed.
In plain English terms, what this means is that you can change the design of your website as often as you like without affecting your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if your site has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this great for business owners?
Because with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be done. You can get your business website built simply and get started with any theme you want, and completely edit 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 without the need of website coding knowledge. Simply choose a WP theme you want, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like headers, layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, professional website designers anywhere in the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that loads of great WP themes are made available to WP users. WordPress are usually distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE theme directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great WP themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now focusing on developing themes for a wider range of users.
WP themes range from bare-looking, to designs that are quite stunning and could normally cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most premium WordPress themes can be purchased quite inexpensively, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a website designer had to build it from scratch.
You can view several theme galleries containing various examples of themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing tools that require traditional web template design:
WordPress Theme Installation Is Easy And Fast
WordPress themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes directory at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP dashboard.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a large community of professional website designers and design companies who contribute thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all of your blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This means you can replace the “look and feel” of your web site as often as you like without deleting your underlying content of your web site.
- Many WP themes come with built-in features and options that enable you to customize your site’s layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows users to update the theme to newer theme versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your site’s administration interface.
- Themes helps you save hundreds of dollars on web design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically quite inexpensive.
Responsive Themes
Many theme developers are now developing WP themes that incorporate “responsive” web design.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically resize to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different platforms. Users can navigate, read and display the site on most if not all devices without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to install additional browser elements.
Note: When selecting, 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 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 web design and web coding.
We hope that this overview has given you a better understanding of WP themes, what themes are, how themes help you save money, and how WP themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to find the best WordPress themes for your blog, click here:
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