The introduction of advanced web publishing applications like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) has effectively improved web design and web development for website owners.
This is fantastic news for individuals or businesses that want a website that they can easily manage by themselves.
Prior to blogging and the development of user-friendly CMS software, if you needed a business site, you would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This could mean waiting for weeks, even many months!
The introduction of WordPress themes changed all this. In this article, we explore what WP themes are, how they help you save money on web design costs, and how WordPress themes help you easily customize your website.
Web Design Revolution
More website owners have benefited from a great change in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you may want to learn about this, because it can save your business thousands of dollars on web development and website design costs.
Let’s briefly take a look at what used to happen before software like WordPress were developed:
First, you would discuss your requirements with a web developer or designer. After this, the actual design of your site would be decided upon. This required time and money being spent with a professional web designer discussing design elements of the website such as the, colours, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be hand-coded with all of the design elements and codes inserted into the content. The pages were then assembled into a website using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and performed the way it should (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the web site deemed to have been completed and ready to go live.
The next step in the evolution of business web design was the introduction of “web templating elements”. Web templates allow the design of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. Having templates helped speed up the web site creation process and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled website developers to service business clients and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of web site development companies adopting “template-based” websites increased, web templates were developed to offer different customization features and options, like color palettes, the ability to pick different menu styles or elements, etc …
As websites and web building software evolved, web templates also started to evolve into website templating “systems” that let users control their website’s design components.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress was introduced and helped to kick off 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
A WordPress theme pushes the idea of a web template system much further.
A WP theme controls every aspect of your web site design. It lets you add a “skin” over your site similarly to what a template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, appearance and customization of your template settings.
As the official WordPress site states …
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 features of a WP theme is that the way your site appears to visitors is an entirely separate system from your site’s functional aspects (e.g. content management and functionality).
In simple terms, what this means is that themes let you change the look and feel of your website as often as you want without modifying your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have set up WP site for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the website. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your website’s design is done. You can get your business website built simply and start with any WordPress theme you like, and completely change the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in seconds, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WordPress site with no website code editing knowledge necessary. Simply pick any theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and customize elements like headers, layout, style settings and more with just a couple of mouse clicks …
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 thousands of high quality WP themes are made available to WP users. WordPress are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) WP themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE theme directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Free WP Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress soars, more designers are now focusing on creating themes for a wider range of uses.
WordPress themes range from minimal-looking, to designs that are simply impressive and could typically cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most premium WordPress themes can be purchased quite inexpensively, especially when you compare the cost to what you would have been charged if a web designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can see a number of WordPress theme galleries containing various examples of WP themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using WP Themes
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing web development tools that require traditional web design:
Fast Installation
WordPress themes are quite easy to install on your site. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP 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 WordPress dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large community of professional web designers who contribute thousands of high quality WP Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all the blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your site’s content. This means you can change the “look and feel” of your web site or blog as often as you need without disturbing your content.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional features and settings that allow you to easily customize the theme’s layout, style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many themes are built using a framework that lets you update themes to newer theme versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically inside your site’s administration interface.
- Themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically quite affordable.
Responsive WP Theme Design
Many WordPress theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes for WordPress.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and display a site on all device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to install additional display elements.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that the content and layout of your site works across all devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards of website design and web coding.
I hope that this overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding of WP themes, what WP themes are, how they can help you and your business save money, and how WP themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to find great themes for your website, click here:
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