Advanced content publishing platforms like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) have truly improved web design and web development for non-technical business users.
This is great for entrepreneurial-minded people planning on getting a website that they can easily manage by themselves.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of user-friendly content management systems, if you needed a professional site, you would have to wait until both the website development and web design processes were fully completed. This could take weeks, sometimes even months!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, we explore what WordPress themes are, how they can help you save money on website design costs, and how themes let you easily customize your WP site.
Web Design Evolution
More businesses are benefiting from a tremendous revolution in website design that started a number of years ago. If you own a business, you may want to learn about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on web development and website design costs.
Very briefly, this is how things typically worked in “traditional” web development before WordPress came along:
First, you would discuss your project with a web development firm or designer. Then, the ”look and feel” of your web site itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This required time being spent with someone with web site design skills going over elements of the web site such as the, colours, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with the elements and codes written into your page content. All pages were then assembled into a web site using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and worked how it was intended to (and looking how a client had imagined it to look), was the web site deemed to have been completed and ready for sign off.
The next step in the evolution of business website design was the introduction of “web templates”. A web site template allows the design of the website to be worked on separately from the page content. The introduction of ready-made templates helped speed up the website development process and resulted in reduced production costs. This also allowed web development firms to work with business clients with smaller marketing budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more website development companies started adopting “template-based” web design services, templates were created to provide a number of customization features and options, like colour palettes, the ability to select different styles or menu styles, etc …
As web sites and website editing applications developed, web templates also began evolving into website templating ”systems”, letting website owners customize the design elements of their web site.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress came along and helped to start a new business 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:
WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme drives website template systems further.
A WordPress theme controls and unifies every aspect of your web site design. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site similarly to what a website template system does but it gives you complete control over the management, appearance and customization of all template options.
According to 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 quote states, a unique feature of the WP theme is that how your site appears to site visitors on the outside is managed independently of the way your website works internally to handle areas like content management and functionality.
Basically, what this means is that you can modify the design of your site as often as you want without affecting your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if your site has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the website. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when your site is powered by WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be done. You can get your website built quickly and start with any WordPress theme you want, and modify the entire look, feel and design of your site in seconds, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without needing any web code development skills. Just pick a theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your website design and customize elements like header images, page layout, typography and more in minutes …
As WordPress is distributed as open source software, professional web designers can design themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of great WP themes are made available to WordPress users. WP are normally distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU License Definition, 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 great themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As more users turn to WordPress for publishing and managing their digital presence, more designers are now focusing on developing themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes range from corporate-looking, to elegant designs that are breathtaking and would normally cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, themes can be bought very cheaply, especially when you compare the cost to what it would have cost you if a website designer had to create it from scratch.
You can see several WordPress theme galleries that include various examples of great themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits And Advantages Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over using website development tools that require traditional web design:
Be Up And Running In No Time
WP themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your admin section and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a growing online community of professional theme developers who make thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This allows you swap themes as often as you need without deleting the website’s settings.
- Many WP themes come with additional built-in features and settings that let you easily customize the theme’s layout, style and design properties to create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that lets users upgrade the theme to newer theme versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside the dashboard.
- Themes helps you save hundreds of dollars on web design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically very inexpensive.
Responsive WP Themes
Many WordPress theme designers are now creating “responsive” WordPress themes.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically resize to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and load a site on most device platforms without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to have installed additional themes.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site displays well across all devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards of website design.
I hope that this basic overview has given you a better understanding of WP themes, what WordPress themes are, how they help your business save money, and how WordPress themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to search for the best themes for your website or blog, visit this post: Where To Get The Best Free And Paid WordPress Templates Online.
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