The development of web site publishing applications like the WordPress CMS platform has effectively improved web design and web development for business users.
This greatly benefits non-technical users planning to start a web presence that they can fully manage themselves.
Before blogging and the introduction of advanced content management systems, if you wanted to get a website built for your business, you normally had to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This could take weeks, even many months!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this blog post, we will explore what themes are, how themes help you and your business save money on web design costs, and how themes let you easily customize your WordPress site.
The Evolution Of Web Site Design
More website owners today are benefiting from a tremendous revolution in website design that has been going for a number of years now. If you are a business owner, you may want to know more about this, because it could save your business thousands of dollars on web development and web design costs.
Let’s review how things used to work in “traditional” website design before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web development agency or designer. After this, the “web design” would be decided upon. This required spending time with someone with web site design skills going over areas of your website like the, colours, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be individually created with all your design elements and scripts coded into the page content. All of the pages were then assembled into a website using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file required to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and worked how it was intended to (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the site considered to have been finished and ready for delivery.
The next step in the evolution of web design was the introduction of “website templates”. A web template allows the ”look and feel” of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. Having template elements helped speed up the website creation process and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also allowed website developers to service smaller businesses and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses adopting “template-based” web design services increased, templates started being created that offered clients with various customization options, such as color palettes, the ability to specify different page layouts and content styles, etc …
As websites and web editor software developed, website templates also started evolving into website template “systems” that permitted website owners and web developers to customize the visual elements of a web site.
And then, WordPress was introduced and helped to kick off 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:
The WordPress Theme
WordPress themes drive web templating systems further.
A WordPress theme controls all of the design elements of the website. It lets you add a “skin” to your site much like a website template system does but it gives you more control over the management and customization of your template options.
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 above, a unique feature of WordPress is that how your site displays to site visitors is managed independently of how your website works in the backend to handle areas like content management and functionality.
Basically, what this means is that you can change the design of your site 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 set up your site for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your website design to be done. You can get your website built quickly and start with any theme you like, and then completely change the look, feel and design of your site in a few minutes, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without needing web design skills. Simply pick any WordPress theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your website design and modify elements like header images, page layout, styling options and more in a few seconds …
As WordPress is made available as open source software, thousands of web designers can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of great WordPress themes are made available to WordPress users. Themes are normally distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now focusing on creating themes for a wider range of applications.
Themes vary from corporate-looking, to designs that are quite impressive and would normally cost thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most premium themes can be bought very cheaply, especially when you compare the cost to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to build it from scratch.
You can see several theme galleries that include various examples of great premium themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over choosing traditional website design:
Ready To Start Using In Very Little Time
WordPress themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your administrator account and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional theme designers who, collectively, make thousands of high quality WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. And many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your site’s content. This means you can swap WordPress themes as often as you want without modifying your blog information.
- Many themes provide additional built-in functionality and options that let you customize your theme’s style, layout and design elements to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows you to upgrade the theme to a newer theme version without losing any unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically right within the site’s administration interface.
- Themes lets you save hundreds of dollars on website design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically quite affordable.
About Responsive WordPress Themes
Many theme developers are now developing “responsive” WordPress themes.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each platform. Users can scroll, read and display your site on different device platforms without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
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 displays well on all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards of web design and coding.
I hope that this post has given you a clearer understanding of WP themes, what WordPress themes are, how themes can help you and your business save money, and how themes make customizing sites easy.
To learn where to find the best themes for your blog, click 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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