Powerful web site management systems like the WordPress CMS have truly simplified web design and web development for anyone wanting to start a website.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses planning on getting a web presence that they can easily manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the introduction of advanced CMS software, if you wanted to build a professional website built for your business, you normally would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting for many weeks, sometimes even months!
The development of WordPress themes helped change all this. In this post, you will learn what themes are, how themes help your business save money, and how WordPress themes allow you to easily customize your website.
Evolution In Web Design
More businesses today have benefited from an evolution in website design that started a number of years ago. If you own a small business, you may want to know about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on web development and web design costs.
Very briefly, this is what used to happen before WordPress were developed:
First, you would meet with a website development company or web site designer for a brief. Next, the actual design of the website itself would be decided upon. This involved time and money being spent with someone with web design skills discussing areas of the website like the, colors, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your site then had to be hand-coded with all the design elements and scripts coded around your content. All pages were then assembled into a web site using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and functioned the way it was supposed to (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the website deemed to be finished and ready to go live.
The next step in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “website templates”. A web site template allows the presentation of the web site to be created separately from the page content. The development of ready-made templates helped to speed up the website creation process and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also enabled web designers to expand their services to include businesses and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses using “template-based” websites increased, templates started being introduced to provide different customizable settings, like the option to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and website building tools evolved, web templates also began transforming into website template “systems” that let users customize the design elements of a site.
Then, WordPress came along and helped to kick off a new business 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:
WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme drives web template systems much further.
A WP theme controls every aspect of your site’s design. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site in a similar way that a web template system does but also provides users with more control over the management, presentation and ability to customize the site’s 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 the above quote states, one of the unique features of a WP theme is that how your site looks to site visitors externally is a completely different system from the way your content is managed.
In plain English terms, what this means is that WordPress themes let you modify the look and feel of your site as often as you want without affecting your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have configured WordPress website for e-commerce, changing the entire look of the site with another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your site. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your site’s web design is completed. You can get your business website built quickly and start with any WordPress theme you like, and then customize the entire look, feel and design of your website in mere seconds, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without needing web code editing knowledge. Just pick a theme you want, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your web design and modify elements like header images, page layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Since WordPress is distributed as open source software, professional website designers can create themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. WordPress are usually distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to download and access, thousands of great themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider range of uses.
Themes range from simple-looking, to clever designs that are simply spectacular and would easily cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, most WordPress themes are really inexpensive to purchase.
You can see several WP theme galleries containing stunning examples of WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over using traditional website design:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
WP themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WP themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large online community of commercial website designers and design companies who make thousands of great WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all your blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This makes it possible to swap themes as often as you like without deleting your blog settings.
- Many themes provide additional built-in functionality and options that allow you to customize the site’s layout and design elements to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that enables you to update the theme to a newer theme version without losing any unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically inside your admin panel.
- Themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically very affordable.
About Responsive Themes
Many WP theme designers are now creating themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and load a site on most if not all device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your website works on your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards and practices of website design coding.
I hope this post has provided you with a good understanding of themes, what themes are, how themes help you and your business save money on web design costs, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your web site.
To learn where to find the best WordPress themes for your website or blog, click here:
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie
***