The development of advanced content management applications like the WordPress CMS platform has truly improved web design and web development for anyone wanting a website.
This is a great thing for entrepreneurial-minded people wanting a web presence that they can manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of powerful and simple CMS tools, if you needed a website, you would have to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This could mean waiting around for weeks, even many months!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this article, you will learn what themes are, how they can help you and your business save money on web design costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your site.
Evolution In Web Design
Businesses, especially small businesses, are benefiting from a change in website design that has been going for a number of years now. If you own a business, you will want to know about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on web development or website design costs.
Very briefly, this is what typically happened before system like WordPress came along:
The first step would be to meet with a website development company or web designer for a brief. Then, the design had to be discussed and agreed upon. This involved time being spent with a professional website designer going over elements of your web site like the, colors, styles, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with the design elements and codes written into the content. All of the pages were then assembled together into a web site using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and performed the way it was intended to (and looking how the client had wanted it to look), was the web site deemed to have been finished and ready for sign off.
Then, web design “templates” were introduced”. A website template allows presentation elements of the website to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having templates helped to make the process of web site creation faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled web site development companies to service smaller businesses with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses started using “template-based” web design services, templates started being designed that offered clients with different customization features and options, such as the ability to choose different colours, styles, layouts
As web sites and website building software developed, website templates also began evolving into web template “systems” that let users and website developers manage their web site’s visual components.
And then, a “blogging” application called WordPress came along and helped to start a new online 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:
About WordPress Themes
WordPress themes improve the idea of a web template system much further.
A WP theme controls and integrates the design elements of a web site. It allows you to add a “skin” to your entire site similarly to what a website template system does but it also also provides users with more control over the management and customization of your template settings.
As stated in 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 in the quote above, one of the unique and revolutionary features of WordPress is that how your site appears to site visitors in no way affects the management of your content.
In simple terms, what this means is that WordPress 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 your site has been set up for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your site. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
Why is this such a big deal?
Because when your site is built with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your website to be done. You can get your business website built simply and start with any WP theme you want, and then completely modify the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in seconds, whenever you want … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site with no website design skills required. Just pick any WP theme you want, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your website design and modify elements like header images, layout, typography and more in minutes …
As WordPress is made available as open source software, website design companies can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of great WP themes are made available to WordPress users. Themes are usually distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to download and access, thousands of excellent themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focusing on developing themes for a wider range of uses.
WordPress themes range from functional-looking, to designs that are quite impressive and would easily cost many hundreds of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, themes can be bought very inexpensively, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to code it from scratch.
You can see several theme galleries containing many examples of great themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over using web building tools that require traditional web template design:
WordPress Theme Installation Is Easy, Fast & Simple
WP themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your WordPress administrator login and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large online community of professional website developers and development companies who, collectively, make thousands of high quality WP Themes available to users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent design across all of the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your web site’s content. This makes it possible to replace WP themes as often as you like without changing the blog’s underlying information.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional functionality and settings that enable you to customize your site’s style, layout and design properties to create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables users to upgrade the theme to a newer theme version without losing any unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically within the admin panel.
- WP themes allow users to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web development costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically very affordable.
About Responsive WordPress Theme Design
Many theme designers are now creating WordPress themes that incorporate “responsive” design standards.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly over different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each device type. Users can scroll, read and display a site on a range of device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to have installed additional themes.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your web site works across all of your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards and practices of website design and web coding.
We hope that the above article has given you a clearer understanding of WordPress themes, what WP themes are, how they help you save money on website design costs, and how WordPress themes make customizing sites easy.
To learn where to search for great themes for your blog, click here:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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