Flexible web management platforms like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) have effectively improved web design and web development for non-technical web users.
This greatly benefits entrepreneurial-minded people thinking of building a digital presence that is relatively easy to manage.
Prior to blogging and the introduction of powerful content management systems, if you needed to get a professional site built for your business, you would have to wait until both the website development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean weeks, sometimes even many months of waiting!
The development of WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how WordPress themes save you money on web development costs, and how themes let you easily customize your site.
A Revolution In Website Design
More website owners are benefiting from a revolution in website design that started many years ago. If you are a small business owner, you may want to know about this, because it can save you thousands of dollars on website development and web design costs.
Let’s briefly take a look at what used to happen before WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a web development agency or web site designer for a brief. Then, the actual design itself had to be discussed and agreed upon. This meant time and money being spent with someone with web design skills going over areas of your website such as the, colours, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be individually created with your elements and scripts coded around your page content. The pages were then assembled into a web site using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and was performing the way it was intended to (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the site considered to be completed and ready to go live.
The next step in the evolution of web design was the introduction of “website templates”. A web site template allows ”look and feel” elements of the web site to be created separately from the page content. The introduction of ready-made templates helped make the process of website creation faster and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also allowed website developers to service business clients and clients with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of businesses adopting “template-based” web design services increased, templates were designed that offered clients with different customizable settings, such as the option to switch colours, styles, layouts
As web sites and website building applications evolved, website templates also began transforming into web templating “systems” that permit website owners to customize their site’s design aspects.
And then, a “blogging” software called WordPress came along and helped to start 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
WordPress themes take web template systems further.
A WordPress theme controls and integrates every aspect of your web site design. It lets you add a “skin” to your site much like a web template system does but also provides users with complete control over the management and ability to customize all template features.
As WordPress puts 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 the above states, one of the unique features of WordPress is that the way your website displays to site visitors on the outside in no way affects the way your content is managed.
Basically, what this means is that a WordPress theme lets you modify the design of your website as much and as often as you want without touching your website’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if you have configured WP website for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the website. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when your website is built with WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your site to be done. You can get your website built simply and get started with any WP theme you want, and modify the entire look, feel and design of your site in seconds, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site with no website code editing knowledge required. Just choose any WP theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is open source software, website design companies all around the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes are made available to WordPress users. Themes are generally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which allows WordPress users to download and access, thousands of excellent themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of users.
Themes vary from simple-looking, to quirky designs that are simply breathtaking and could typically cost many hundreds of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most themes can be purchased quite inexpensively, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can view a number of WP theme galleries containing stunning examples of great WP themes in this post:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing traditional web template design:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WP themes repository at WordPress.org) directly inside your WordPress admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving community of commercial theme developers and development companies who, collectively, make thousands of great WP Themes available to WordPress users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all of your site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This allows you change the “look and feel” of your web site or blog as often as you need without changing the blog settings.
- Many themes come with additional built-in functionality and options that enable you to customize your site’s layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that lets you upgrade the theme to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically within the dashboard.
- Themes helps you save thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically quite affordable.
About Responsive Themes
Many WP theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically resize to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. computers, tablets, smart phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different platforms. Users can navigate, read and load your site on all device browsers without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your website will work correctly on all devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards and practices of website design coding.
We hope this article has provided you with a good understanding of WordPress themes, what WordPress themes are, how they can help you save money, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your site.
In the next blog post on basic features and functionality of WordPress, we show you where to find the best themes for your website or blog.
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