Flexible website management applications like WordPress have truly simplified web design and web development for users.
This is a great thing for businesses planning to start a website that is simple and easy to manage.
Before “blogging” and the development of sophisticated CMS applications, if you needed to get a professional web site for your business, you normally would have to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This could take weeks, even many months!
The introduction of WordPress themes changed all this. In this post, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how themes can help your business save money on web development costs, and how themes help you easily customize your website.
A Revolution In Web Site Design
Website owners have been benefiting from a revolution in website design that has been going for many 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 web design costs.
Very briefly, this is how things used to work in “traditional” web design before WordPress were developed:
First, you would meet with a web developer or designer for a brief. After that, the design of the website itself had to be discussed and agreed upon. This involved time being spent with someone with web design skills discussing areas of your web site such as the layout, colours, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with all your elements and codes inserted into the page content. The pages were then assembled together into a web site using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file needed to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and was performing the way it should (and looking the way the client had wanted it to look), was the website considered to have been completed and ready to go live.
The next phase in the evolution of web design was the introduction of “website templating elements”. A web template allows presentation elements of the website to be created separately from the page content. The development of ready-made templates helped to speed up the website development process and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed web development agencies to work with smaller business clients and clients with smaller marketing budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses began choosing “template-based” websites, web templates were developed that could offer different custom features and options, such as the option to switch colours, styles, layouts
As web sites and web editing tools developed, website templates also started to transform into website template ”systems”, which permitted users to manage their site’s visual components.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress came along 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:
About WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme pushes web templating systems much further.
A WordPress theme controls every aspect of your site’s design. It lets you add a “skin” over your site in a similar way that a template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, presentation and customization of template features.
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 stated above, one of the unique and revolutionary features of WordPress is that the way your web site displays to site visitors is kept independent of the management of your content.
In plain English terms, what this means is that you can change the design of your website as much and as often as you want without touching your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WP website has been configured 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 the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your website’s design is completed. You can get your website built quickly and get started with any WordPress theme you like, and then completely modify the look, feel and design of your website in seconds, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WP site with no web coding knowledge required. Simply choose any theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and modify elements like header images, layout, styling options and more in minutes …
As WordPress is open source software, website design companies can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. Themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) WP themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE directory of WordPress themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent WP themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider range of uses.
WP themes vary from corporate-looking, to designs that are stunning and could typically cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most WordPress themes are really inexpensive to buy.
You can view several theme galleries that include many examples of themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over using tools that require traditional web design:
Easy & Quick To Install
Themes are very 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 WP themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large online community of commercial theme developers and development companies who make thousands of high quality WP Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent “look and feel” across all the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This means you can change themes as often as you need without deleting your content.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional functionality and settings that let you customize your site’s style, layout and design elements and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that enables you to update the theme to a newer theme version without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically inside the dashboard.
- WP themes allow users to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are normally quite inexpensive.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many theme developers are now creating themes that incorporate “responsive” design standards.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. PCs, iPads, mobile phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different types of devices. Users can scroll, read and display your site on all device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to install additional browser tools.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site will work correctly across your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design coding.
Hopefully, the above article has given you a better understanding of WP themes, what themes are, how themes help you save money on web development costs, and how WP themes make customizing sites easy.
To learn where to find great WordPress themes for your blog, go here:
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