The introduction of advanced content management tools like the WordPress CMS platform has effectively improved web design and web development for business owners.
This is terrific news for business owners thinking of starting a web presence that they can manage themselves.
Before “blogging” and the development of powerful and simple CMS solutions, if you wanted a professional business website, you typically had to wait until both the website development and web design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting around for weeks, sometimes even months!
The introduction of WordPress themes helped change all this. In this blog post, we look at what WordPress themes are, how WP themes save you money on web development costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your WordPress site.
A Revolution In Website Design
Website owners will benefit from a great change in website design that has been going for several years now. If you are a business owner, you may want to learn about this, because it could save your business a lot of time and money on website development and website design costs.
Let’s take a look at how things used to work in “traditional” website development before application like WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a website development agency or designer for a brief. Next, the actual ”look and feel” of the web site itself would be decided upon. This required spending time and money with a professional website designer discussing elements of the website such as the, colours, styles, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your site then had to be individually created with all of the elements and codes inserted into the page content. All of the pages were then assembled into a website using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with all other files required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and was functioning the way it was intended to (and looking how the client had wanted it to look), was the website deemed to be completed and ready for delivery.
The next stage in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “website templating elements”. A website template allows the design of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. The development of ready-made templates helped to speed up the website creation process and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed website development companies to expand their services to include smaller business clients and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of web site development companies choosing “template-based” web design services increased, templates started being designed that could provide expanding customizable settings, such as the ability to switch colours, styles, layouts
As web sites and web editing tools evolved, web templates also began to transform into website template “systems” that let website owners control the visual elements of a web site.
And then, a “blogging” software called WordPress was introduced 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:
The WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme expands the concept of a web template system even further.
A WordPress theme controls and unifies the design elements of your web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your site much like a template system does but also gives you complete control over the management and customization of your template features.
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 WordPress theme is that how your website looks to site visitors is controlled independently of how your content is managed.
In simple terms, what this means is that WP themes let you change the look and feel of your website as much and as often as you want without touching your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WP site has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of the site with another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your web site. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
Why is this great news for small business owners?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your website’s design is completed. You can get your website built simply and get started with any WP theme you want, and completely modify the look, feel and design of your website in mere minutes, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WP site without needing any web code programming skills. Simply pick a theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like headers, layout, typography and more in less than a few minutes …
Because WordPress is distributed as open source software, hundreds of website design companies can design themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes are made available to WP users. Themes are usually distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE directory of WP themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of great WP themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider range of uses.
WP themes range from bare-looking, to designs that are visually spectacular and could typically cost hundreds to many thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most themes are quite inexpensive to purchase.
You can view a number of WordPress theme galleries that include many examples of themes here:
- How To Find Great Free And Premium Responsive WordPress Web Themes For Your Business Website Or Blog
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over choosing traditional web design:
Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time
WordPress themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your admin area and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WP themes directory at WordPress.org) directly from your WP dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large community of professional web designers and design companies who contribute thousands of fantastic WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent design across all of the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your site’s content. This allows you change WP themes as often as you want without affecting the website’s settings.
- Many themes provide additional features and options that enable you to easily customize the theme’s style, layout and design properties to create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that lets you update themes to a newer theme version without losing its unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically from your admin panel.
- Themes allow WordPress users to save hundreds of dollars on website design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically quite inexpensive.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many WordPress theme designers are now developing “responsive” themes for the WordPress 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. PCs, iPads, smart phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each device type. Users can navigate, read and load your site on various device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional browser elements.
Note: When purchasing WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website will display correctly on all of your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards of website design coding.
Hopefully, this overview has helped you gain a better understanding about themes, what themes are, how themes help your business save money on website development costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your website.
To learn where to search for the best WP themes for your website or blog, visit this page: Finding Great Free And Paid WordPress Templates On The Net.
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