Powerful web site management technologies like the WordPress CMS have effectively improved web design and web development for web users.
This is a great thing for entrepreneurial-minded people wanting to start a website that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Prior to blogging and the development of easy-to-use content management systems, if you needed a business web site, you had to wait until both the web development and web design processes were fully completed. This could take many weeks, sometimes even many months!
The introduction of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this post, you will learn what themes are, how themes can help you save money on web development costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your site.
The Evolution Of Website Design
More businesses have benefited 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 about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on web development or web design costs.
Let’s briefly take a look at what used to happen before CMS solutions like WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a website developer or web designer for a brief. After that, the actual “web design” would be decided upon. This involved time being spent with someone with web site design skills going over design elements of your website like the layout, colours, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your site then had to be individually created with all of your elements and scripts coded into your content. All of the pages were then assembled into a web site using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file needed to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and was performing the way it was supposed to (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the website considered as being completed and ready to go live.
Then, web design “templates” were developed”. Web site templates allow design elements of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. Having templates helped make developing websites faster and resulted in lowered production costs. This also enabled website development firms to expand their services to include businesses and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of web development companies using “template-based” web design services increased, templates were created that provided various custom features, like colour palettes, the ability to select different styles and elements, and so on.
As web sites and website building software developed, website templates also began evolving into website template “systems” that let website owners manage the visual aspects of a website.
Then, a “blogging” application called WordPress came along and helped to kick off a new web 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
WordPress themes take the idea of a web template system one step further.
The WordPress theme system controls and integrates every aspect of your web design. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site much like a web template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, presentation and customization aspects of your site’s template features.
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 the WP theme is that the way your site appears to visitors externally is managed separately from your site’s content management aspects.
In simple terms, what this means is that you can change the look and feel of your site as often as you want without affecting your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have set up your website for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your site’s web design is done. You can get your business website built quickly and start with any WP theme you want, and then completely edit the look, feel and design of your site in a few minutes, whenever you want … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site with no website code development knowledge required. Simply choose a theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your site’s design and customize elements like headers, page layout, style settings and more in minutes …
Because WordPress is made available as open source software, professional web design companies from all over the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. Themes are usually distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE directory of WordPress themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now focusing on creating themes for a wider audience of web users.
WP themes range from minimal-looking, to stylish designs that are quite breathtaking and could normally cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, themes can be purchased very inexpensively, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to build it from scratch.
You can see a number of theme galleries that include many examples of themes in this page:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WordPress Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just some of the many benefits of choosing WordPress themes over choosing website building tools that require traditional web template design:
Easy And Fast To Install
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Just upload a zip folder that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WP theme directory at WordPress.org) directly from your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional website designers and design companies who, collectively, make thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all your blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This means you can swap the “look and feel” of your website as often as you want without deleting the underlying content.
- Many WP themes come with additional built-in features and options that let you customize the site’s style, layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that lets you upgrade themes to newer theme versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your dashboard.
- Themes helps you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically very inexpensive.
Responsive WP Theme Design
Many theme designers are now developing WP themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each device type. Users can scroll, read and display your site on all device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional browser elements.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site works across all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of web design.
We hope that the above overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding of themes, what themes are, how WP themes help you and your business save money on website design costs, and how themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to search for great themes for your website or blog, see this page: Finding The Best Paid And Free Responsive WordPress Web Templates Online.
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