The development of advanced web management systems like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) has effectively simplified web design and web development for business users.
This is a great thing for non-technical users planning to start a website that they can easily manage themselves.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of powerful content management systems, if you wanted to build a professional website built for your business, you normally had to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, sometimes even many months of waiting around!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this article, we look at what WordPress themes are, how themes help you and your business save money on web design costs, and how WordPress themes allow you to easily customize your website.
A New Development In Website Design
Website owners have been benefiting from a great change in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a business, you may want to know about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on web development or website design costs.
Very briefly, here’s how things used to work in “traditional” website development before a CMS solution like WordPress was introduced:
The first step would be to discuss your project with a web site developer or web designer. Then, the actual “web design” itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This required spending time and money with someone with web site design skills discussing things of the site like the layout, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Each page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with all your elements and scripts coded around the content. All pages were then assembled together into a web site using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, graphic images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and was performing how it was intended to (and looking how a client had imagined it to look), was the site considered to be completed and ready for delivery.
The next stage in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “website templating elements”. A web template allows the presentation of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having ready-made templates helped to make the process of developing web sites faster and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled web site developers to work with business clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses adopting “template-based” web design services increased, web templates started being introduced that offered clients with various custom features, like color palettes, the ability to pick different layouts or menu styles, and so on.
As websites and website building tools developed, web templates also began evolving into website template “systems” that allowed users to control the design aspects of a website.
Then, a “blogging” software called WordPress was introduced and helped to start 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:
WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme expands web template systems further.
A WordPress theme controls the design aspects of a website. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site in a similar way that a website template system does but also provides you with more control over the management and customization aspects of 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 stated above, one of the unique features of WordPress is that the way your site displays to visitors on the outside does not affect your site’s content management aspects.
In plain English terms, what this means is that a WP theme lets you modify 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 your site has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the website. All e-commerce features, plugin 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 completed. You can get your website built quickly and start with any WP theme you want, and completely change the look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site with no web coding knowledge required. Just choose a theme you want, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your website design and modify elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in a few seconds …
Because WordPress is made available as open source software, website designers from all over the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes are made available to WordPress users. WP are normally distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE theme directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes for free …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider audience of WordPress site owners.
Themes vary from bare-looking, to quirky designs that are spectacular and would easily cost thousands of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, themes are quite inexpensive.
You can view a number of WordPress theme galleries containing stunning examples of great WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WordPress Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress themes over using traditional web template design:
Ready To Start Using In Minutes
Themes are quite easy to install on your site. Just upload it to your Plugin folder via your admin user section and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WordPress themes repository at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional website designers and design companies who make thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This means you can change the “look and feel” of your web site as often as you need without deleting the website’s content.
- Many themes provide additional features and options that allow you to customize your site’s layout and design properties to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that enables you to upgrade themes to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your site’s administration interface.
- WordPress themes helps you save hundreds of dollars on website design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally very inexpensive.
About Responsive WordPress Themes
Many WP theme developers are now creating “responsive” themes for the WP CMS platform.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. PCs, tablets, cell phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and load the site on various device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional themes.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that the content and layout of your site displays well across all of your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards of website design.
I hope that the above overview has given you a better understanding of WordPress themes, what WordPress themes are, how they help you save money on website design costs, and how themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to find great themes for your blog, click here:
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