Powerful web publishing tools like the WordPress CMS platform have effectively simplified web design and web development for non-technical users.
This greatly benefits business owners planning to build a web presence that they can easily manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of easy-to-use content management systems, if you needed a professional web site, you would have to wait until both the website development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, even months of waiting around!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, we will explore what WP themes are, how they save you and your business money on website development costs, and how themes let you easily customize your website.
Website Design Evolution
Businesses have been benefiting from a revolutionary change in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a business owner, you will want to learn more about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on website development or web design costs.
Let’s briefly go over what typically took place before WordPress were developed:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a website development agency or web designer. Next, the “web design” would be decided upon. This involved spending time with a professional web designer going over elements of the site such as the layout, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with all of your design elements and codes inserted into your page content. 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 needed to make your site work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and was functioning the way it should (and looking how a client had imagined it to look), was the web site deemed as being completed and ready to go live.
Then, web design “templates” came along”. Web templates allow the design of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. Having ready-made templates helped speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in reduced production costs. This also allowed web site development firms to service businesses with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses choosing “template-based” websites increased, templates started being created that offered clients with expanding customizable features, such as the ability to switch colours, styles, layouts
As web sites and website editor applications developed, website templates also began evolving into website template ”systems”, letting website owners customize their website’s visual elements.
Then, WordPress was developed and helped to kick off a new online publishing 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 WordPress theme system controls every aspect of your website design. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site in a similar way that a website template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, appearance and customization aspects of 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 states, a unique and revolutionary feature of WordPress is that how your web site looks to visitors externally is kept independent of the management of your content.
In simple terms, what this means is that themes let you change the look and feel of your website as often as you want without modifying your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built 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 your web site. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your website’s design is completed. You can get your website built simply and start with any theme you like, and then completely edit the look, feel and design of your website in seconds, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without needing any web design skills. Simply choose any theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and modify elements like headers, page layout, typography and more in less than a few minutes …
As WordPress is made available as open source software, web design companies from all over the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. WP are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great WordPress themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider audience of web users.
WP themes range from professional-looking, to exciting designs that are beautiful and would typically cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, WordPress themes can be purchased very inexpensively, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a website designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can see several theme galleries that include many examples of great premium themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of Using Themes
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over using website building applications that require traditional website design:
Easy Installation
WP themes are quite easy to install on your site. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user area and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP dashboard.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a growing community of commercial theme designers who make thousands of quality WP Themes available to users. And many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all your blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This means you can change themes as often as you like without disturbing the underlying content.
- Many themes come with additional functionality and options that let you customize your site’s layout and design properties to create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many themes are built using a framework that allows you to update the theme to newer theme versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within the dashboard.
- Themes allow WP users to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically very inexpensive.
About Responsive WordPress Theme Design
Many theme designers are now developing WP themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly over different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. computers, iPads, smart phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can scroll, read and load the site on most if not all device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to have installed additional browser tools.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that the content and layout of your site works across all devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards of website design and coding.
We hope this post has given you a better understanding of themes, what themes are, how they can help you save money on website design costs, and how themes let you easily customize your WordPress site.
To learn where to find great WP themes for your blog, go here:
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