Flexible web publishing technologies like the WordPress CMS have effectively simplified web design and web development for non-technical business users.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses thinking of getting a website that they can easily manage by themselves.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of easy-to-use CMS software, if you needed to build a professional website for your business, you typically would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This process could take weeks, even months!
The introduction of WordPress themes changed all this. In this article, we take a look at what WordPress themes are, how themes save your business money on web development costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your website.
Web Design Revolution
Website owners are benefiting from a tremendous revolution in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you will want to know about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on website development and web design costs.
Let’s briefly take a look at what used to happen before CMS solutions like WordPress were introduced:
First, you would meet with a web developer or designer for a brief. Then, the design itself had to be decided upon. This involved time being spent with a professional web designer discussing design elements of your website like the layout, colours, styles, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with your elements and codes scripted into the content. All pages were then assembled into a web site using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and functioned the way it should (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the website deemed as being finished and ready to go live.
Then, website “templates” came along”. A website template allows design elements of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. Having templates helped make the process of developing websites faster and resulted in reduced production costs. This also allowed web site designers to service small business clients with smaller marketing budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more website development agencies started adopting “template-based” web design services, web templates were created that offered clients with expanding customization features, like the ability to switch colors, styles, layouts
As websites and web editing software developed, web templates also began to evolve into web template “systems” that let website owners customize their site’s visual components.
And then, a “blogging” software called WordPress came along 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:
The WordPress Theme
WordPress themes push the concept of a web template system further.
The WordPress theme system controls and integrates every aspect of your website design. It allows you to add a “skin” to your site much like a website template system does but also gives you more control over the management and customization aspects of all template features.
As WordPress states in its official website …
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, a unique feature of the WP theme is that the way your web site displays to visitors externally does not affect how your content is managed.
In simple terms, what this means is that a WordPress theme lets you modify the look and feel of your website as often as you want without affecting your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if your site has been set up 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, plugin settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
Why is this such a big deal?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your website’s design is done. You can get your business website built simply and start with any theme you want, and then completely customize the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in mere seconds, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WP site without needing website code programming skills. Just choose a theme you want, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like header images, layout, typography and more with just a few mouse clicks …
Because WordPress is made available as open source software, thousands of website designers anywhere in the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that loads of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WP are normally distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which allows WordPress users to download and access, thousands of excellent themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
WordPress themes range from simple-looking, to quirky designs that are quite breathtaking and could normally cost thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most WP themes can be bought fairly cheaply, especially when you compare the price to what you would have been charged if a web designer had to build it from scratch.
You can view several theme galleries that include many examples of great WP themes in this post:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits And Advantages Of Using WP Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over using traditional web design:
Ready To Use In Minutes
WP themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your WP dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WordPress themes directory at WordPress.org) directly inside your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional website developers and development companies who, collectively, make thousands of great WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all of your blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your blog’s content. This makes it possible to replace themes as often as you like without deleting the content.
- Many themes come with additional built-in features and settings that enable you to customize your theme’s style, layout and design elements and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many themes are built using a framework that enables you to update the theme to a newer theme version without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your admin panel.
- WP themes helps you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally quite affordable.
About Responsive WP Theme Design
Many WordPress theme developers are now developing “responsive” themes for the WordPress CMS platform.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. computers, iPads, cell phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and display the site on various device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, 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 a responsive theme ensure that your web site displays well across your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards and practices of website design coding.
Hopefully, this overview has given you a better understanding about WordPress themes, what WP themes are, how they help you and your business save money on web design costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your website.
To learn where to search for great WP themes for your website or blog, click here:
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