The introduction of advanced content publishing systems like the WordPress CMS has effectively improved web design and web development for web users.
This is a great thing for businesses thinking about building an online business presence that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of powerful CMS tools, if you wanted a professional business site, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean waiting around for weeks, sometimes even months!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this post, we look at what WP themes are, how WordPress themes save you and your business money on web development costs, and how WP themes help you easily customize your site.
A Revolution In Web Design
Website owners are benefiting from a tremendous change in web design that started several years ago. If you own a business, you will want to learn about this, because it could save your business a lot of time and money on website development and web design costs.
Very briefly, here’s how things worked in “traditional” website development before a CMS application like WordPress came along:
The first step would be to meet with a website developer or web site designer for a brief. Next, the ”look and feel” of your website had to be decided upon. This required spending time and money with a professional web site designer going over things of the website such as the layout, colors, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with your design elements and scripts coded around your content. All of the pages were then assembled together into a website using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and was functioning the way it was intended to (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the site considered as being finished and ready for delivery.
Then, web design “templates” came along”. Web site templates allow presentation elements of the website to be created separately from the page content. The introduction of template elements helped speed up the web development process and resulted in reduced production costs. This also allowed web development firms to service business clients with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses began using “template-based” websites, templates were developed that could provide a number of custom options, like colour palettes, the ability to specify different styles, formats, elements, layouts, and so on.
As web sites and website editing software developed, website templates also started to evolve into website template “systems” that allow users to control the design components of a web site.
Then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress came along and helped to start a new web 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 takes the concept of a website template system much further.
A WordPress theme controls and integrates every aspect of your web design. It allows you to add a “skin” to your entire site in a similar way that a web template system does but it also also provides users with complete control over the management, appearance and customization of your template features.
As the official WordPress site explains …
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, one of the unique features of WordPress is that the way your website displays to site visitors is controlled separately from the way your website functions in the backend to handle areas like content management and functionality.
In plain English terms, what this means is that a WordPress theme lets you change the appearance of your site as often as you like without touching your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if WordPress site has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the web site. All e-commerce features, site and plugin 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 have to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be completed. You can get your business website built simply and start with any theme you like, and then completely change the look, feel and design of your website in a few seconds, whenever you want … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WP site with no website design skills required. Simply choose any WordPress theme you like, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your web design and customize elements like headers, page layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Because WordPress is made available as open source software, website designers can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WordPress are usually distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent WP themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of applications.
Themes range from bare-looking, to dynamic designs that are quite spectacular and could easily cost thousands of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, most premium WP themes can be purchased quite cheaply, especially when you compare the price to what you would have had to pay if a website designer had to create it from scratch.
You can view several WP theme galleries that include many examples of great WP themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of Themes
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over using tools that require traditional web template design:
Installation Is Easy, Fast & Simple
WordPress themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a large online community of commercial theme developers and development companies who contribute thousands of professional WordPress Themes available to users. And many of these themes are 100% 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, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This allows you change WP themes as often as you need without deleting your site’s information.
- Many themes come with additional features and settings that allow you to customize the site’s layout, style and design properties to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that lets you upgrade themes to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your admin panel.
- Themes helps you save thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically very affordable.
About Responsive Themes
Many theme designers are now developing themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can scroll, read and load the site on all device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to have installed additional themes.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your web site will work 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 of website design coding.
I hope this article has given you a clearer understanding of themes, what WP themes are, how they can help you save money on website development costs, and how themes make customizing web sites easy.
In the next blog post in the article series for non-technical users on basic WP features, we show you where to search for the best themes for your website.
***
"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)
***