Powerful web publishing platforms like the WordPress CMS have effectively simplified web design and web development for web users.
This is a great thing for non-technical users planning to run a web presence that they can fully manage by themselves.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of user-friendly CMS applications, if you needed a business website, you normally had to wait until both the website development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean waiting for many weeks, sometimes even months!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this article, we look at what themes are, how WordPress themes can help you save money, and how themes allow you to easily customize your website.
Web Design Revolution
More businesses have been benefiting from a change in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a small business owner, you will want to know more about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on website development and website design costs.
In a nutshell, this is how things used to work in “traditional” website design before WordPress were introduced:
First, you would discuss your requirements with a website development agency or designer. Then, the actual “web design” would be decided upon. This involved spending time and money with someone with website design skills discussing elements of the site such as the layout, colours, styles, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your web site then had to be individually created with your elements and scripts coded into the content. The pages were then assembled together into a website using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything passed testing and worked how it should (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the website considered to be completed and ready to go live.
The next phase in the evolution of business website design was the introduction of “website templating elements”. Web templates allow the design of the website to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having ready-made templates helped make the process of developing websites faster and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also enabled web site developers to expand their services to include smaller businesses with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses started using “template-based” web design services, templates were designed that could provide clients with different customization features and options, like the ability to switch colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and website editor tools developed, website templates also began to evolve into web template “systems” that allow website owners to control their web site’s visual components.
Then, WordPress was developed and helped to kick off a new digital publishing 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 improve web template systems one step further.
The WordPress theme system controls and integrates every aspect of your site’s design. It allows you to add a “skin” over your entire site similarly to what a template system does but also provides you with more control over the management and customization of the template options.
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 quote states, one of the unique features of a WordPress theme is that how your site looks to site visitors does not affect your site’s content management aspects.
In simple terms, what this means is that a WP theme lets you modify the appearance of your site as much and as often as you like without affecting your website’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 your website. All e-commerce features, site and plugin settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
Why is this such a big deal?
Because with WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your site’s web design is completed. You can get your website built simply and get started with any WP theme you want, and edit the entire look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you want … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without needing web code programming knowledge. Just choose a theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your web design and modify elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, thousands of web design companies from all over the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that loads of high quality WP themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are generally distributed freely under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE directory of WP themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of great WP themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Free WP Theme Directory)
As more users turn to WordPress for publishing and managing their content online, more designers are now focusing on creating themes for a wider audience of web users.
WP themes range from minimal-looking, to designs that are impressive and would typically cost thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, WordPress themes are quite inexpensive.
You can see several WP theme galleries that include many examples of great WP themes in this post:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over using traditional website design:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the theme directory at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving community of commercial website designers who, collectively, contribute thousands of excellent WP Themes available to users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all the blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This means you can change the “look and feel” of your web site as often as you like without affecting the content.
- Many themes come with built-in functionality and options that let you easily customize the theme’s layout, style and design properties to create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many themes are built using a framework that enables you to update themes to newer versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically right within the dashboard.
- WordPress themes allow WP users to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are normally very affordable.
About Responsive Themes
Many theme designers are now developing “responsive” themes.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically resize to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can scroll, read and load your site on most device browsers without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional browser elements.
Note: When downloading 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 displays well on your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards of website design and coding.
I hope this post has given you a better understanding of WP themes, what WP themes are, how they help you and your business save money, and how WP themes make customizing sites easy.
In the next article on basic WP features, we show you where to search for great themes for your website or blog.
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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now
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