Advanced website management platforms like the WordPress CMS have effectively improved web design and web development for anyone wanting a website.
This is great for individuals or businesses planning to run a website that they can manage by themselves.
Prior to blogging and the introduction of advanced content management systems, if you wanted to build a professional site for your business, you normally would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This could take weeks, even many months!
The introduction of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this blog post, we will explore what themes are, how WordPress themes help you and your business save money, and how themes help you easily customize your site.
Web Design Revolution
More businesses are benefiting from a tremendous change in web design that started several years ago. If you are a business owner, you may want to learn about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on website development and website design costs.
Let’s briefly go over what typically happened before WordPress were introduced:
The first step would be to discuss your project with a web developer or designer. After this, the design itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This meant time and money being spent with someone with web site design skills discussing things of your website such as the, colors, styles, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be individually created with all the elements and scripts coded around the page content. All of the pages were then assembled into a web site using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and functioned the way it should (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed to have been finished and ready to go live.
Then, web design “templates” were developed”. A web site template allows presentation elements of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having ready-made templates helped make the process of building websites faster and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also enabled web site development firms to work with smaller business clients and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of web development firms using “template-based” web design services increased, templates were introduced that could provide clients with expanding customization features, like color palettes, the ability to pick different content styles, formats, elements, layouts, and so on.
As websites and website editor applications developed, web templates also started evolving into website template ”systems”, allowing users to customize their website’s design components.
And then, a “blogging” software called WordPress came along and helped to start 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 push web template systems one step further.
The WP theme system controls and integrates every aspect of your site’s design. It lets you add a “skin” over your site much like a template system does but it gives you complete control over the management, presentation and ability to customize the template settings.
As per 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 the above quote states, a unique feature of the WP theme is that how your web site displays to visitors in no way affects your site’s content management aspects.
In plain English terms, what this means is that WP themes let you change the look and feel of your site as much and as often as you like without affecting your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WP site has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the 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 intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be done. You can get your website built quickly and get started with any WP theme you like, and then modify the entire look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you want … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without needing website code development skills. Simply pick any theme you want, upload it to your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your entire site’s web 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, website design companies can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of high quality WordPress themes are made available to WordPress users. WordPress are normally distributed freely under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent website templates at no cost …
(WordPress.org – WP Theme Directory)
As more businesses turn to WordPress for online publishing, more designers are now focused on developing themes for a wider audience of web users.
WP themes vary from professional-looking, to creative designs that are visually stunning and would easily cost thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most premium themes can be purchased fairly inexpensively, especially when you compare the price to what you would have been charged if a website designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can see a number of theme galleries that include stunning examples of themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits And Advantages Of Using WP Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over choosing website building tools that require traditional web template design:
Really Easy To Install
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your administrator section 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 large online community of professional theme designers who, collectively, make thousands of high quality WordPress Themes available to WP users. Many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent look across all your blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This makes it possible to swap the “look and feel” of your web site as often as you like without changing your site’s content.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional built-in features and settings that let you customize the site’s style and design elements to create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that lets users upgrade the theme to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically from your site’s administration interface.
- WP themes lets you save thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically quite affordable.
Responsive WordPress Themes
Many WP theme developers are now developing WordPress themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. computers, iPads, mobile phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and display the site on various device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to install additional display elements.
Note: When selecting, 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 will display correctly across all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards and practices of web design coding.
We hope this article has given you a better overview of themes, what WP themes are, how they can help you and your business save money on website design costs, and how WP themes let you easily customize your website.
To learn where to search for great themes for your website, visit this post: How To Find Great Paid And Free WordPress Web Themes For Your Business.
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