Advanced content management applications like the WordPress CMS have truly simplified web design and web development for anyone wanting a website.
This is a great thing for business owners that want a website that is easy to manage.
Prior to blogging and the introduction of user-friendly content management systems, if you wanted a site, you would have to wait until both the web development and web design processes were fully completed. This could take weeks, even months!
The introduction of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this blog post, you will learn what themes are, how they save you money on web development costs, and how themes make it easy to customize your site.
Website Design Revolution
More businesses today will benefit from a great change in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you may want to learn more about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on web development and website design costs.
Let’s take a look at what used to happen before WordPress were developed:
First, you would discuss your project with a web development company or website designer. Then, the actual ”look and feel” of the site would be discussed and agreed upon. This required time and money being spent with a professional website designer discussing design elements of your web site such as the layout, colors, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your site then had to be hand-coded with the elements and codes written 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, along with all other files required to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and functioned the way it should (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the site considered to have been finished and ready for sign off.
Then, website “templates” were introduced”. A web site template allows the design of the web site to be created separately from the page content. Having template elements helped to make building web sites faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled web site designers to service business clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses started using “template-based” websites, web templates started being designed that could provide clients with expanding customizable features, such as the option to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As websites and website editor applications developed, web templates also began to transform into web template ”systems”, allowing website owners to manage their website’s design elements.
And then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress came along and helped to kick off 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:
The WordPress Theme
A WordPress theme drives the concept of a web templating system further.
A WP theme controls and unifies all of the design elements of your web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your entire site in a similar way that a website template system does but it also also provides users with more control over the management, presentation and customization aspects of the template features.
As per 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 above, one of the unique and revolutionary features of WordPress is that how your website displays to site visitors on the outside does not affect the management of your content.
In plain English terms, what this means is that themes let you change the design of your site as often as you like without touching your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have set up your site for e-commerce, changing the entire look of the site with another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your site. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this such a big deal?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your site’s web design is done. You can get your website built simply and get started with any WordPress theme you like, and completely change the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in minutes, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WordPress site without needing any website coding skills. Just choose any WordPress theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your website design and customize elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in minutes …
Because WordPress is open source software, web designers all around the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of great WP themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are generally distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE directory of WP themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of great web templates at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As more businesses turn to WordPress for publishing and managing their content online, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of uses.
WP themes range from professional-looking, to designs that are visually breathtaking and would typically cost thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most WordPress themes can be purchased quite cheaply, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to code it from scratch.
You can view several WordPress theme galleries that include many examples of WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing traditional website design:
Ready To Go To Work In Very Little Time
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP 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 within your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional web developers who contribute thousands of great-looking, high quality WP Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all of the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This allows you replace themes as often as you want without disturbing your website’s underlying information.
- Many themes come with additional built-in features and options that allow you to easily customize your site’s layout, style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows you to update the theme to newer theme versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically from the admin panel.
- WP themes helps you save hundreds of dollars on web design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally quite inexpensive.
Responsive WP Theme Design
Many theme designers are now creating WP themes that incorporate “responsive” design.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically resize to display smoothly over different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. PCs, tablets, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each device type. Users can scroll, read and load your site on most devices without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional browser tools.
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 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 web design and web coding.
We hope this basic overview has given you a better understanding about WP themes, what WP themes are, how themes help your business save money, and how WordPress themes make customizing web sites easy.
In the next blog post in the article series on basic features and functionality of WordPress, we show you where to find the best WP themes for your blog.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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