Advanced content publishing platforms like the WordPress CMS have truly simplified web design and web development for anyone wanting a website.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses thinking about building a website that is simple, easy and inexpensive to manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of sophisticated content management systems, if you wanted a business site, you typically would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting for weeks, even many months!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, you will learn what themes are, how they save you and your business money on web design costs, and how WordPress themes help you easily customize your WordPress site.
Website Design Revolution
Businesses are benefiting from a tremendous change in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you may want to know more about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on website development and web design costs.
Let’s review what used to happen before CMS software like WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a website developer or web designer for a brief. After this, the actual “web design” itself would be decided upon. This involved time and money being spent with someone with web design skills going over elements of the site such as the layout, colours, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be hand-coded with all of the design elements and scripts coded into the page content. All of the pages were then assembled into a web site using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file required to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and was functioning the way it was supposed to (and looking how the client had imagined it to look), was the web site deemed to have been finished and ready to go live.
The next stage in the evolution of business web design was the introduction of “website templates”. A web site template allows ”look and feel” elements of the website to be created separately from content on the page. Having templates helped speed up the web site creation process and resulted in lowered production costs. This also enabled website development companies to work with smaller business clients and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses started using “template-based” web design services, web templates were created to offer a range of custom features and options, like color palettes, the ability to pick different menu styles, formats, elements, layouts, etc …
As web sites and web editor applications evolved, web templates also began to transform into website template ”systems”, permitting users to customize the design aspects of a site.
And then, WordPress was developed and helped to kick off a new content management 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 expand the concept of a website template system even further.
The WordPress theme system controls and integrates every aspect of your web design. It lets you add a “skin” to your site much like a template system does but it also also provides users with more control over the management and ability to customize all template options.
As the official WordPress site described it …
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, a unique and revolutionary feature of the WP theme is that how your web site looks to visitors is kept independent of the management of your content.
In plain English terms, what this means is that you can change the appearance of your site as much and as often as you want without modifying your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if you have set up WordPress website for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your web site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be done. You can get your website built simply and start with any theme you want, and then modify the entire 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 code editing knowledge necessary. Simply pick a WordPress theme you like, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your website design and customize elements like header images, page layout, typography and more with just a few mouse clicks …
As WordPress is made available as open source software, hundreds of website design companies anywhere in the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes are made available to WP users. Themes are usually distributed freely under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WP themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – WP Theme Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
Themes vary from simple-looking, to clever designs that are simply stunning and could easily cost hundreds to many thousands of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, themes can be purchased quite inexpensively, especially when compared to what you would have been charged if a website designer had to create it from scratch.
You can see several WordPress theme galleries that include many examples of great WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over choosing web building applications that require traditional web template design:
Ready To Go To Work In No Time
WordPress themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress administrator section and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a growing community of commercial theme developers and development companies who make thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all of the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This allows you replace themes as often as you need without affecting the underlying content of your website.
- Many themes provide additional features and options that enable you to customize the theme’s layout and design elements and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables users to upgrade themes to a newer theme version without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically within the admin panel.
- Themes lets you save thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are normally very affordable.
Responsive WordPress Themes
Many theme developers are now developing “responsive” themes for the WP CMS.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. computers, tablets, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can scroll, read and load a site on all device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website displays well across your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards and practices of web design and coding.
Hopefully, this overview has given you a better understanding of WP themes, what themes are, how themes help you save money, and how WordPress themes make customizing web sites easy.
To learn where to find great WP themes for your website, go here:
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