Flexible web management technologies like the WordPress CMS have effectively simplified web design and web development for business users.
This greatly benefits businesses planning to start or build a website that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Before blogging and the development of advanced CMS software, if you needed a site, you had to wait until both the website development and web design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, even many months of waiting!
The development of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, we explore what WordPress themes are, how WordPress themes help you and your business save money on web design costs, and how themes let you easily customize your WordPress site.
Web Design Evolution
More businesses have benefited from an evolution in web design that started several years ago. If you are a small business owner, you may want to learn more about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on website development or web design costs.
Let’s take a look at what happened before a CMS software like WordPress was developed:
The first step would be to meet with a website developer or website designer for a brief. After this, the “web design” itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This involved spending time with someone with web site design skills going over design elements of the site like the, colors, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be hand-coded with all of your design elements and codes scripted into your page content. All the pages were then assembled into a web site using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file needed to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything passed testing and performed the way it was intended to (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed to be completed and ready to go live.
Then, website “templates” were introduced”. A website template allows the design of the website to be created separately from the page content. Having templates helped speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also allowed web development companies to expand their services to include business clients and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more website development companies began adopting “template-based” websites, templates started being developed that offered clients with expanding customization features and options, such as color palettes, the ability to select different layouts or header, footer and navigation elements, etc …
As websites and web building applications evolved, web templates also began transforming into web templating ”systems”, which allowed users to control the design elements of their site.
Then, WordPress came along and helped to start a new digital publishing 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 drive the concept of a web templating system even further.
A WP theme controls and unifies all of the design aspects of a web site. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site much like a template system does but also gives you complete control over the management and customization of all template options.
As WordPress has explained 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, one of the unique features of the WordPress theme is that how your web site looks to visitors is kept independent of the management of your content.
In simple terms, what this means is that WP themes let you modify the look and feel of your website as often as you like without affecting your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have configured 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 intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when your site is built with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be completed. You can get your website built quickly and start with any WP theme you like, and completely change the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in mere minutes, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WP site without requiring web code programming skills. Simply pick a theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in a few seconds …
Because WordPress is made available as open source software, professional web design companies can design themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. WP are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE directory of WP themes which allows WordPress users to access thousands of excellent WP themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider range of users.
WordPress themes vary from bare-looking, to designs that are visually beautiful and would normally cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, WP themes can be bought quite cheaply, especially when compared to what you would have had to pay if a web designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can view a number of WordPress theme galleries containing many examples of great premium WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits And Advantages Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over choosing traditional website design:
WP Theme Installation Is Easy, Simple And Fast
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Just upload a zip file containing 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 themes repository at WordPress.org) directly inside your WordPress site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving community of commercial web designers and design companies who, collectively, contribute thousands of excellent WP Themes available to users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This makes it possible to swap the “look and feel” of your website as often as you need without modifying your underlying content.
- Many themes come with additional built-in functionality and settings that enable you to easily customize your theme’s layout and design properties to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that enables users to upgrade the theme to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically directly from within the dashboard.
- Themes helps you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically very affordable.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many WP theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can navigate, read and load your site on all device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional browser tools.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that the content and layout of your site will work correctly across your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design.
We hope that this overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding about WordPress themes, what themes are, how WordPress themes help your business save money, and how WP themes let you easily customize your web site.
In our next article in our article series for new WordPress users on understanding basic WordPress features, we show you where to search for great themes for your website or blog.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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