Powerful web site management technologies like WordPress have effectively simplified web design and web development for users.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses wanting to start a digital presence that is simple and easy to manage.
Prior to blogging and the development of easy-to-use content management systems, if you needed to build a site built for your business, you would have to wait until both the website development and web design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, even months of waiting around!
The introduction of WordPress themes changed all this. In this article, you will learn what themes are, how they save your business money on website design costs, and how WP themes help you easily customize your WordPress site.
Web Design Evolution
Businesses, especially small businesses, will benefit from a revolution in website design that has been going for a number of years now. If you own a small business, you will want to know about this, because it could save your business thousands of dollars on website development or web design costs.
Let’s briefly go over what typically took place before software like WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a web developer or web site designer for a brief. Then, the actual “web design” would be discussed and agreed upon. This involved spending time with a professional web designer discussing areas of the site like the layout, colours, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be hand-coded with all of the elements and scripts coded into your content. All pages were then assembled together into a web site using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files required to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and functioned the way it was intended to (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed as being completed and ready to go live.
The next stage in the evolution of web design was the introduction of “web templates”. A web site template allows the design of the website to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having templates helped to make the process of building websites faster and resulted in lowered production costs. This also enabled website development companies to service smaller businesses and clients with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses began choosing “template-based” websites, web templates started being designed that could provide a range of custom features and options, like color palettes, the ability to pick different styles or elements, etc …
As websites and web building applications evolved, website templates also began transforming into web template ”systems”, letting users and web developers control the visual components of their web site.
And then, a “blogging” application called WordPress was introduced 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:
The WordPress Theme
WordPress themes expand website template systems further.
A WordPress theme controls and integrates every aspect of your web design. It lets you add a “skin” to your entire site similarly to what a template system does but it also also gives you more control over the management, presentation and customization of all template options.
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 stated above, one of the unique and revolutionary features of the WordPress theme is that how your web site displays to site visitors is managed separately from the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that themes let you change the appearance of your site as often as you want without modifying your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if your website 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 settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because when your site is powered by WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your website’s design is done. You can get your website built simply and start with any theme you want, and then completely modify the look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without needing website design skills. Just pick a theme you like, upload it to your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in minutes …
As WordPress is made available as open source software, professional web designers all around the world can design themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WP template system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WP are usually distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which allows WordPress users to download and access, thousands of great themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
Themes range from simple-looking, to dynamic designs that are visually spectacular and could normally cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most themes are quite inexpensive.
You can see several theme galleries containing many examples of WP themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of WordPress Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over using applications that require traditional web template design:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP 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 WordPress dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional theme designers and design companies who, collectively, make thousands of excellent WP Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all your blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This makes it possible to change WP themes as often as you like without disturbing the underlying content of your website.
- Many WordPress themes provide built-in features and options that enable you to easily customize the theme’s layout and design elements and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables users to upgrade themes to newer theme versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from your site’s administration interface.
- Themes helps you save hundreds of dollars on website development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally very inexpensive.
Responsive Themes
Many WP theme designers are now creating WordPress themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and display the site on different device browsers without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to install additional browser elements.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that the content and layout of your site works across your visitors’ devices, but 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 and coding.
We hope that this post has given you a good overview of WordPress themes, what WordPress themes are, how WordPress themes can help you save money on website design costs, and how WordPress themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to find great themes for your blog, go 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
***