The introduction of content publishing platforms like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) has truly improved web design and web development for website owners.
This is a great thing for businesses thinking of running an online presence that is simple, easy and inexpensive to manage.
Before blogging and the development of powerful CMS tools, if you needed a professional 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 introduction of WordPress themes helped change all this. In this post, we take a look at what WordPress themes are, how they help you and your business save money, and how themes help you easily customize your WordPress site.
Website Design Revolution
More website owners today have been benefiting from a change in web design that has been going for several years now. If you are a small business owner, you will want to learn about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on website development and website design costs.
Let’s briefly go over what used to happen before solution like WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web site developer or designer. Next, the ”look and feel” of the website would be decided upon. This meant time being spent with someone with website design skills discussing design elements of your website such as the, colours, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with the design elements and codes scripted into your content. The pages were then assembled together into a website using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and performed how it should (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the web site considered to be finished and ready to go live.
Then, web design “templates” were introduced”. Web site templates allow the ”look and feel” of the web site to be created separately from the page content. Having templates helped make the process of web site development faster and resulted in lowered production costs. This also enabled website development agencies to work with businesses and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of website development companies adopting “template-based” websites increased, templates were developed that could provide expanding custom features, like colour palettes, the ability to pick different menu styles or elements, and so on.
As websites and web editor tools evolved, web templates also started evolving into web templating “systems” that let website owners and website designers control their website’s visual elements.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress came along and helped to kick off a new content management 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 templating systems one step further.
The WordPress theme system controls all of the design aspects of the website. It lets you add a “skin” to your site in a similar way that a template system does but also provides you with complete control over the management, presentation and customization of your site’s 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 stated above, a unique feature of WordPress is that the way your website displays to site visitors externally is managed separately from the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that a WP theme lets you change the appearance of your website as often as you like without touching your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WP website has been set up for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your website. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be completed. You can get your website built quickly and start with any theme you like, and then edit the entire look, feel and design of your WordPress site in seconds, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WordPress site without the need of web code editing skills. Simply choose a WordPress theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your entire site’s web design and customize elements like header images, layout, styling options and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, website designers all around the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are generally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE directory of WordPress themes which allows WordPress users to download and access, thousands of excellent WordPress themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As more users turn to WordPress for online publishing, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider audience of WordPress users.
Themes range from minimal-looking, to artsy designs that are simply breathtaking and could easily cost many hundreds of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most premium WP themes are fairly inexpensive to purchase.
You can see a number of WordPress theme galleries containing stunning examples of WP themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over using applications that require traditional website design:
Be Up And Running In No Time
WP themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WordPress admin user area and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WP dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving community of commercial website designers and design companies who make thousands of professional WordPress Themes available to WP users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This allows you change WP themes as often as you need without modifying the blog information.
- Many WP themes provide built-in features and options that allow you to customize the site’s style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many themes are built using a framework that enables users to update themes to newer versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically within your site’s administration interface.
- WordPress themes lets you save hundreds of dollars on website design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically very affordable.
Responsive Theme Design
Many theme designers are now developing “responsive” themes for the WP CMS.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly over different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, cell phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and display the site on most if not all device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional themes.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose 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 complies with the latest standards of web design.
I hope that the above article has provided you with a clearer understanding of WP themes, what themes are, how they help your business save money on web development costs, and how WordPress themes make customizing your web design easy.
In the next article on understanding basic features and functionality of WordPress, we show you where to search for the best themes for your website.
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