The introduction of powerful web management platforms like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) has effectively improved web design and web development for anyone wanting a website.
This greatly benefits entrepreneurial-minded people planning to start a digital presence that they can manage.
Before blogging and the introduction of easy-to-use CMS solutions, if you needed a web site, you would have to wait until both the website development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean waiting for weeks, sometimes even months!
The development of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this blog post, we will explore what WP themes are, how WP themes save your business money on website development costs, and how themes help you easily customize your site.
Evolution In Web Design
More businesses today will benefit from a change in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a business, you may want to know about this, because it can save your business thousands of dollars on website development or web design costs.
Let’s briefly go over what happened before software like WordPress was introduced:
The first step would be to meet with a web developer or website designer for a brief. Then, the “web design” itself had to be decided upon. This required spending time with someone with web design skills going over elements of your site such as the layout, colours, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be individually created with all of your elements and scripts coded around the page content. All pages were then assembled into a website using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files required to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything passed testing and was working how it was supposed to (and looking how the client had wanted it to look), was the site deemed to be finished and ready to go live.
The next stage in the evolution of business website design was the introduction of “web templates”. A website template allows ”look and feel” elements of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. The development of ready-made templates helped speed up the website creation process and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled web site developers to service small business clients and clients with smaller marketing budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses using “template-based” websites increased, web templates started being developed to offer expanding customizable features and options, such as color palettes, the ability to select different content styles, formats, header, footer and navigation elements, layouts, etc …
As web sites and web editor software developed, website templates also started to transform into website template ”systems”, which permitted website owners and web developers to customize their site’s design elements.
And then, a “blogging” application called WordPress came along and helped to start a new 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 take the idea of a web templating system further.
The WordPress theme system controls and unifies every aspect of your web design. It allows you to add a “skin” over your entire site similarly to what a template system does but it provides you with more control over the management, presentation and customization aspects of 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 the above states, one of the unique and revolutionary features of the WordPress theme is that how your web site appears to visitors on the outside is a different system from the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that a WP theme lets you modify the design of your website 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 website has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with a different theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your website’s design is done. You can get your website built simply and get started with any WordPress theme you like, and completely customize the look, feel and design of your website in mere seconds, whenever you choose … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site with no website coding skills required. Just choose a theme you want, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your site’s design and modify elements like headers, page layout, style settings and more in a few seconds …
Because WordPress is open source software, hundreds of web designers anywhere in the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WordPress are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of excellent website templates completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
WordPress themes vary from simple-looking, to designs that are quite breathtaking and could normally cost thousands of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, WordPress themes are very inexpensive to buy.
You can see a number of WordPress theme galleries that include stunning examples of great premium themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over using traditional web design:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
WordPress themes are really easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme directory at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a large community of professional website developers and development companies who make thousands of fantastic WordPress Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent “look and feel” across all the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This means you can swap themes as often as you need without modifying your site’s content.
- Many themes come with built-in features and options that enable you to easily customize the theme’s style, layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows users to upgrade the theme to newer versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside your site’s administration interface.
- Themes lets you save thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically very inexpensive.
Responsive WordPress Themes
Many theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. PCs, tablets, mobile phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each device type. Users can scroll, read and load your site on most device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to install additional browser tools.
Note: When purchasing WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site works across all of your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design and web coding.
Hopefully, this article has given you a good overview of themes, what WordPress themes are, how they help you and your business save money on website development costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize a WordPress site.
In the next article on helping you understand features and functionality of WordPress, we show you where to find the best themes for your website or blog.
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
***