Flexible web site publishing applications like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) have effectively improved web design and web development for website owners.
This is a great thing for business owners wanting a web presence that they can fully manage themselves.
Prior to blogging and the development of sophisticated content management systems, if you needed a site, you had to wait until both the website development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting for many weeks, sometimes even many months!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how themes save you money on web development costs, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your website.
A Revolution In Web Design
Website owners will benefit from a tremendous revolution in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a small business owner, you will want to know more about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on website development and website design costs.
In a nutshell, this is what used to happen before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web development company or web designer. Next, the actual “web design” would be discussed and agreed upon. This meant spending time and money with a professional web site designer going over things of your web site such as the, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site 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 web site using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with all other files required to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and worked how it should (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed to be finished and ready for delivery.
Then, website “templates” came along”. Web templates allow design elements of the web site to be created separately from the page content. Having template elements helped to make the process of web site development faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed web site designers to service businesses with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses began using “template-based” websites, web templates were introduced that provided different custom features and options, such as the ability to switch colours, styles, layouts
As websites and website editing software developed, website templates also started to evolve into web templating ”systems”, which enabled users and website developers to manage the design components of a web site.
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:
The WordPress Theme
WordPress themes drive the idea of a website template system even further.
The WP theme system controls and unifies all of the design elements of a website. It lets you add a “skin” to your entire site similarly to what a template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, appearance and customization of the template options.
As WordPress has described in its official website …
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 website looks to visitors on the outside does not affect the way your site is configured in the backend to handle areas like content management and functionality.
In simple terms, what this means is that a theme lets you change the appearance of your site as much and as often as you like without modifying your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if you have configured your website 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 unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this important?
Because with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be done. You can get your website built simply and get started with any theme you want, and then completely modify the look, feel and design of your site in a few seconds, whenever you want … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without requiring any website code editing skills. Simply choose a WordPress theme you want, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your site’s design and customize elements like headers, layout, typography and more with just a few mouse clicks …
As WordPress is made available as open source software, website designers can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of great WP themes can be downloaded by WP users. WordPress are normally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE theme directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great website templates for free …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider audience of web users.
WordPress themes vary from corporate-looking, to designs that are quite spectacular and could easily cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most WP themes are really inexpensive.
You can view several theme galleries that include many examples of great premium WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over choosing applications that require traditional website design:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
WordPress themes are quite easy to install on your site. Just upload a zip file containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving community of professional theme designers who, collectively, contribute thousands of great WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent “look and feel” across all your blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your blog’s content. This means you can change WP themes as often as you need without affecting your settings.
- Many themes come with additional built-in features and options that allow you to easily customize your site’s layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that lets users update themes to a newer theme version without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically from your admin panel.
- Themes helps you save hundreds of dollars on website design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally very affordable.
About Responsive WP Themes
Many WordPress theme designers are now developing themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and display your site on various devices without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
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 will work 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.
We hope that the above overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding of themes, what themes are, how they can help you and your business save money, and how WordPress themes make customizing websites easy.
To learn where to search for great themes for your blog, visit this page: How To Find The Best Free And Paid Responsive WordPress Templates Online.
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