The introduction of advanced website management tools like the WordPress CMS has effectively improved web design and web development for anyone wanting to start a website.
This is a great thing for businesses thinking of starting a website that they can fully manage by themselves.
Before blogging and the development of easy-to-use CMS tools, if you wanted to build a website for your business, you normally had to wait until both the website development and web design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting around for weeks, sometimes even many months!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, you will learn what themes are, how themes save your business money on web development costs, and how themes help you easily customize your website.
Web Design Evolution
Businesses, especially small businesses, will benefit from an evolution in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a business owner, you will want to learn about this, because it can save your business thousands of dollars on website development and web design costs.
In a nutshell, this is how things worked in “traditional” website development before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your project with a web developer or website designer. After this, the actual “web design” itself would be decided upon. This meant spending time with someone with web site design skills going over elements of the web site like the, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be individually created with all of your elements and scripts coded around the content. The pages were then assembled together into a web site using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file required to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and functioned the way it should (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed to have been completed and ready to go live.
The next step in the evolution of business website design was the introduction of “web templates”. A web template allows the design of the website to be created separately from content on the page. Having template elements helped to speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also enabled website designers to service business clients and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more web site development firms started using “template-based” websites, templates were created to offer a number of customization options, like the option to switch colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and web editor tools evolved, web templates also began to evolve into website template “systems” that enabled website owners and web developers to manage their web site’s design aspects.
Then, WordPress came along and helped to start a new content management revolution …
(WordPress – A Content Publishing Revolution)
To learn more about content management systems and the benefits of the WordPress CMS, see the tutorial below:
WordPress Themes
WordPress themes take web templating systems even further.
The WP theme system controls and unifies the design elements of a web site. It lets you add a “skin” to your entire site in a similar way that a template system does but also provides you with more control over the management, appearance and ability to customize template options.
As WordPress has stated 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 and revolutionary features of the WP theme is that the way your site appears to visitors on the outside is a different system from the way your site works in the backend to handle areas like content management and functionality.
In plain English terms, what this means is that themes let you modify the design of your website as much and as often as you like without modifying your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WP website has been set up for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your 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 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 start with any WordPress theme you want, and change the entire look, feel and design of your website in a few seconds, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without needing any website coding skills. Simply pick a WordPress theme you like, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your site’s design and modify elements like headers, layout, style settings and more in a few seconds …
Because WordPress is distributed as open source software, web design companies all around the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP templating system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. Themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE directory of WP themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of great web templates at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focusing on developing themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
Themes vary from corporate-looking, to designs that are quite spectacular and could typically cost many hundreds of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most premium WordPress themes are really inexpensive.
You can view several theme galleries that include many examples of themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing applications that require traditional web design:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
WP themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free WP theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a growing community of professional web designers and design companies who contribute thousands of professional WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all of the blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your blog’s content. This means you can replace themes as often as you need without modifying your content.
- Many themes provide additional built-in functionality and settings that let you easily customize the site’s style, layout and design elements to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables you to update themes to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically within the site’s administration interface.
- WP themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally very affordable.
Responsive WP Theme Design
Many WP theme developers are now developing “responsive” themes for WordPress.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. PCs, tablets, smart phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can scroll, read and display the site on most if not all device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional display elements.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your web site works across your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design coding.
We hope that this post has given you a clearer understanding of themes, what WP themes are, how WP themes help you and your business save money, and how WP themes make customizing web sites easy.
To learn where to search for great themes for your blog, click here:
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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