The introduction of website management applications like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) has truly improved web design and web development for non-technical web users.
This is great for individuals or businesses that want to own a website that they can fully manage themselves.
Before blogging and the introduction of powerful content management systems, if you wanted a professional website, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean waiting for weeks, sometimes even many months!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this blog post, you will learn what themes are, how WP themes save you money on website development costs, and how themes make it easy to customize your site.
Evolution In Web Site Design
More website owners will benefit from a tremendous change in website design that has been going for several years now. If you own a small business, you may want to know more about this, because it can save your business a lot of time and money on web development or web design costs.
Let’s take a look at what happened before solution like WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a web developer or website designer for a brief. After this, the actual “web design” itself would be decided upon. This involved spending time and money with a professional website designer going over design elements of your website like the, colors, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be individually created with the elements and codes written into the page content. All of the pages were then assembled together into a web site using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file required to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything passed testing and performed the way it should (and looking the way the client had wanted it to look), was the web site considered as being finished and ready for sign off.
The next stage in the evolution of business web design was the introduction of “web templates”. A website template allows presentation elements of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. The development of templates helped to speed up the website development process and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled web development companies to service business clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses began adopting “template-based” websites, templates started being created that provided clients with various custom features, such as the ability to switch colours, styles, layouts
As web sites and website editing tools evolved, website templates also began transforming into web template ”systems”, allowing users and website designers to control the design elements of a web site.
And then, WordPress was developed and helped to start a new web revolution …
(WordPress – A Content Publishing Revolution)
To learn more about content management systems and the benefits of the WordPress CMS, see the tutorial below:
About WordPress Themes
WordPress themes drive web template systems even further.
A WordPress theme controls the design aspects of your web site. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site much like a template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management and ability to customize all template features.
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, a unique and revolutionary feature of a WP theme is that the way your web site displays to site visitors in no way affects the way your content is managed.
In plain English terms, what this means is that WP themes let you modify the design of your site as much and as often as you want without affecting your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if your site has been set up for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this great for small business owners?
Because when your site is powered by WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your site’s web design is done. You can get your website built quickly and start with any WordPress theme you want, and then modify the entire look, feel and design of your site in seconds, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without the need of website design skills. Simply choose a theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your entire site’s web design and customize elements like header images, page layout, styling options and more in minutes …
As WordPress is open source software, website designers from all over the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WordPress are usually distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent WordPress themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As more businesses turn to WordPress for publishing and managing their content online, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider audience of web users.
WordPress themes range from functional-looking, to designs that are visually impressive and would normally cost hundreds to many thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most premium themes can be bought fairly cheaply, especially when you compare the cost to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to code it from scratch.
You can view several WP theme galleries containing stunning examples of great themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing applications that require traditional web design:
Installation Is Easy
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your administrator section and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme repository at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large online community of professional website developers and development companies who make thousands of fantastic WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent “look and feel” across all of the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This allows you change the “look and feel” of your templates as often as you want without modifying the site’s settings.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional built-in features and settings that allow you to customize your site’s style, layout and design elements and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many themes are built using a framework that allows users to upgrade themes to newer versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside the dashboard.
- Themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically very inexpensive.
About Responsive WP Themes
Many WordPress theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes for WordPress.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can scroll, read and load your site on various device browsers without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to install additional themes.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your web site will work correctly on all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards, practices and techniques of web design.
Hopefully, the above overview has helped you gain a better understanding about WordPress themes, what WordPress themes are, how they can help you and your business save money on website design costs, and how themes let you easily customize your site.
To learn where to search for great WP themes for your website, see this post: Where To Get The Best Free And Premium Responsive WordPress Web Themes For Your Business.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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