The introduction of content publishing applications like WordPress has truly improved web design and web development for anyone wanting to start a website.
This is great for non-technical users thinking of starting a web presence that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the introduction of powerful and effective CMS applications, if you needed a business web site, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This could mean weeks, even sometimes months of waiting!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this blog post, we take a look at what WordPress themes are, how themes can help you and your business save money on web design costs, and how WP themes allow you to easily customize your WP site.
The Evolution Of Web Site Design
More businesses will benefit from an evolution in website design that has been going for many years now. If you own a business, you may want to learn more about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on web development or website design costs.
Very briefly, here’s how things worked in “traditional” web design before WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a website development company or web site designer for a brief. After that, the ”look and feel” of the site itself would be decided upon. This meant time being spent with someone with web site design skills going over areas of the website such as the, colors, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with your elements and codes scripted into your page content. The pages were then assembled together into a website using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and performed how it should (and looking how a client had wanted it to look), was the site considered as being finished and ready to go live.
The next stage in the evolution of business web design was the introduction of “web templates”. Web templates allow presentation elements of the web site to be created separately from content on the page. The introduction of templates helped to make developing websites faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed web site developers to expand their services to include business clients and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses choosing “template-based” web design services increased, web templates were designed to provide clients with various customizable features and options, such as the option to switch colors, styles, layouts
As websites and website building tools evolved, website templates also started to transform into website template “systems” that let users manage the design elements of a web site.
And then, a “blogging” software called WordPress was developed 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:
About WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme drives the idea of a website template system one step further.
The WP theme system controls the design elements of a web site. It lets you add a “skin” to your entire site in a similar way that a template system does but also provides you with more control over the management, presentation and ability to customize your template options.
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 features of WordPress is that how your web site appears to visitors externally is kept independent of the way your site works in the backend to handle areas like content management and functionality.
In plain English terms, what this means is that WordPress themes let you modify the look and feel of your site as often as you want without modifying your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WordPress website has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with another 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 important. Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your website’s design is completed. You can get your website built simply and start with any theme you like, and then completely customize the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in mere minutes, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WordPress site with no website code editing knowledge required. Just choose any theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like header images, layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Because WordPress is open source software, website designers can create themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of high quality WP themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WordPress are usually distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of excellent themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – 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 bare-looking, to stylish designs that are visually stunning and would typically cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most premium WordPress themes are fairly inexpensive.
You can see several WordPress theme galleries that include various examples of great themes in this page:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing traditional website design:
Very Easy To Install
Themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugin files to your Plugins folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free WordPress theme directory at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional web designers and design companies who contribute thousands of great WordPress Themes available to users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all of the blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your blog’s content. This allows you change the “look and feel” of your web site as often as you want without disturbing your underlying content.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional functionality and options that let you easily customize the theme’s layout and design elements to create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that lets users update the theme to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your dashboard.
- WordPress themes allow WordPress users to save thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are normally quite affordable.
Responsive Theme Design
Many theme designers are now developing themes that incorporate “responsive” design protocols.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically resize to display smoothly over 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 each device type. Users can scroll, read and load the site on a range of device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed 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 displays well across all of your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore should comply with the latest standards of web design and web coding.
I hope this article has given you a good overview of themes, what WP themes are, how they can help you and your business save money on website development costs, and how WordPress themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to find great WordPress themes for your website or blog, see this page: Finding Great Free And Premium Responsive WordPress Web Templates For Your Business.
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