Flexible web management applications like the WordPress CMS have effectively improved web design and web development for non-technical business owners.
This is great for individuals or businesses wanting a digital presence that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Before “blogging” and the introduction of sophisticated CMS tools, if you wanted a professional website, you typically would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This could mean waiting around for weeks, even months!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this blog post, you will learn what WP themes are, how they save your business money on website development costs, and how WordPress themes let you easily customize your WP site.
Evolution In Website Design
Businesses, especially small businesses, are benefiting from an evolution in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you will want to learn more about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on website development or website design costs.
Very briefly, here’s how things used to work in “traditional” web development before CMS systems like WordPress came along:
The first step would be to meet with a web developer or designer for a brief. Then, the actual ”look and feel” of your website itself had to be decided upon. This involved time and money being spent with someone with web design skills discussing design elements of the website such as the, colors, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your site then had to be hand-coded with your design elements and codes written into your content. All of the pages were then assembled into a website using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and worked how it should (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the site considered to have been finished and ready to go live.
The next stage in the evolution of web design was the introduction of “web templating elements”. Website templates allow the ”look and feel” of the web site to be created separately from content on the page. Having template elements helped to speed up the process of developing websites and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed web site development firms to service business clients and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses began using “template-based” web design services, templates started being designed that offered clients with different customization features and options, such as colour palettes, the ability to pick different page layouts or elements, and so on.
As websites and website building applications evolved, website templates also began transforming into web template ”systems”, enabling website owners to manage their web site’s design components.
And then, WordPress came along 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:
The WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme expands website templating systems even further.
A WP theme controls every aspect of your site’s design. It lets you add a “skin” to your site similarly to what a template system does but also provides you with more control over the management, appearance and ability to customize all template features.
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 stated above, one of the unique features of WordPress is that the way your site displays to visitors externally is kept independent of the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that you can modify the look and feel of your site as often as you like without modifying your website’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if your website has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with a different theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, site and plugin settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
Why is this such a big deal?
Because when your website is powered with WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your site’s web design is done. You can get your business website built quickly and start with any WP theme you like, and edit the entire look, feel and design of your WordPress 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 website code programming skills. Just choose a theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and customize elements like headers, layout, styling options and more with just a few mouse clicks …
Since WordPress is distributed as open source software, website designers can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of high quality WordPress themes are made available to WordPress users. WordPress are normally distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) WP themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of great web templates at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes range from minimal-looking, to designs that are stunning and would typically cost thousands of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most themes are really inexpensive.
You can view several theme galleries that include stunning examples of great WordPress themes in this post:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just some of the many benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing applications that require traditional web design:
Be Up And Running In No Time
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress admin account and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes directory at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving community of professional theme designers and design companies who, collectively, contribute thousands of fantastic WP Themes available to WP users. Many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all of the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your blog’s content. This allows you swap the “look and feel” of your website as often as you need without affecting the content.
- Many themes come with additional built-in functionality and settings that let you customize your theme’s style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that enables users to update themes to a newer theme version without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically right inside the dashboard.
- Themes allow users to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally very affordable.
About Responsive WP Themes
Many WP theme developers are now developing WP themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each device type. Users can navigate, read and load the site on a range of devices without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner 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 the content and layout of your site displays well across all devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design coding.
Hopefully, the above overview has helped you gain a better understanding of themes, what WordPress themes are, how themes can help you save money, and how WP themes let you easily customize your web site.
To learn where to search for the best themes for your website, go here:
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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