The introduction of flexible website management technologies like WordPress has truly improved web design and web development for business owners.
This greatly benefits business owners thinking of building a web presence that is relatively simple, easy and inexpensive to manage.
Before blogging and the introduction of user-friendly CMS software, if you wanted to build a site built for your business, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean weeks, even many months of waiting for the work to be done!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this post, we will explore what themes are, how themes save you and your business money on website development costs, and how themes let you easily customize your WP site.
Evolution In Web Design
More website owners are benefiting from an evolution in website design that started several years ago. If you own a business, you will want to know more about this, because it can save your business a lot of time and money on web development or website design costs.
In a nutshell, here’s what happened before applications like WordPress were introduced:
The first step would be to discuss your project with a web site developer or website designer. After this, the design of the website itself had to be discussed and agreed upon. This involved spending time and money with someone with website design skills going over elements of the website such as the, colors, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with all of your elements and codes written into the page content. All the pages were then assembled into a website 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 once everything passed testing and functioned how it should (and looking how a client had wanted it to look), was the web site deemed as being finished and ready for sign off.
Then, web design “templates” were introduced”. A web template allows presentation elements of the website to be worked on separately from the page content. The introduction of templates helped speed up the web development process and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also enabled website developers and designers to service small business clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses began adopting “template-based” websites, web templates were developed to offer clients with different custom options, such as the ability to switch colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and website building software evolved, website templates also started to evolve into web templating ”systems”, allowing website owners to manage their site’s visual aspects.
Then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress was introduced and helped to start a new digital 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
A WordPress theme pushes web template systems even further.
The WP theme system controls the design aspects of your web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your site similarly to what a template system does but it provides users with more control over the management, appearance and ability to customize all template features.
As explained in the official WordPress site …
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 in the quote above, a unique feature of WordPress is that the way your website looks to site visitors in no way affects your site’s content management settings.
In plain English terms, what this means is that a theme lets you modify the design of your website as much and as often as you like without modifying your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WordPress site has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of the site with a different 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 the site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your website’s design is done. You can get your website built quickly and start with any theme you want, and change the entire look, feel and design of your website in mere seconds, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WordPress site without having website code editing knowledge. Simply pick any theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your website design and modify elements like header images, page layout, style settings and more in less than a few minutes …
Since WordPress is distributed as open source software, hundreds of web designers can create themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that thousands of great WP 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) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great website templates completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of applications.
Themes vary from functional-looking, to clever designs that are simply impressive and would easily cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most premium themes can be bought quite cheaply, especially when you compare the cost to what you would have been charged if a web designer had to create it from scratch.
You can see several theme galleries containing various examples of great premium themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over using traditional web template design:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your admin login and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a growing online community of commercial web developers who contribute thousands of high quality WordPress Themes available to WP users. And many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent look across all your site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This allows you change WP themes as often as you want without changing the website’s content.
- Many themes provide additional built-in features and settings that allow you to customize the theme’s layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many themes are built using a framework that allows users to update themes to newer theme versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically inside the admin panel.
- WP themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically quite affordable.
Responsive Themes
Many WordPress theme designers are now creating themes that incorporate “responsive” design.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically resize to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and load the site on all device platforms without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to have installed additional browser elements.
Note: When purchasing 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 works on your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards and practices of web design and web coding.
Hopefully, the above overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding about WordPress themes, what themes are, how themes help you save money on web development costs, and how themes make it easy to customize your web site.
To learn where to search for great themes for your website or blog, 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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