The development of advanced website management tools like the WordPress CMS platform has truly simplified web design and web development for website owners.
This is terrific news for non-technical users thinking about building a website that is easy to manage.
Before “blogging” and the development of powerful content management systems, if you needed to build a professional web site for your business, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This could mean waiting for weeks, even months!
The introduction of WordPress themes changed all this. In this post, you will learn what themes are, how themes can help your business save money on web design costs, and how WordPress themes let you easily customize your website.
Website Design Revolution
More website owners today have benefited from a revolution in web design that has been going for several years now. If you own a small business, you may want to know about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on website development and website design costs.
Very briefly, this is what used to happen before software like WordPress came along:
First, you would discuss your project with a website developer or web site designer. After this, the “web design” would be decided upon. This meant spending time and money with someone with website design skills discussing things of the website like the layout, colours, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be individually created with the design elements and scripts coded around the page content. All pages were then assembled together into a web site using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and was performing the way it was supposed to (and looking how a client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed to be completed and ready for delivery.
Then, web design “templates” came along”. A website template allows presentation elements of the web site to be created separately from content on the page. The development of ready-made templates helped speed up the web development process and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled website developers and designers to work with smaller businesses and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of web development agencies using “template-based” websites increased, web templates started being introduced that could offer a range of customizable settings, like the ability to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As websites and website editing software developed, website templates also started to transform into website template “systems” that let website owners control the visual components of a site.
Then, WordPress was developed and helped to start 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 website template system even further.
The WordPress theme system controls and integrates every aspect of your web design. It lets you add a “skin” to your entire site much like a template system does but it gives you complete control over the management, appearance and ability to customize all template settings.
As explained in 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 in the quote above, a unique and revolutionary feature of a WordPress theme is that the way your site looks to visitors is controlled separately from your site’s functional aspects (e.g. content management and functionality).
In plain English terms, what this means is that WordPress themes let you modify the appearance of your site as often as you want without modifying 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 web site. All e-commerce features, site and plugin settings and product information will remain intact, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! 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 get started with any theme you want, and then change the entire look, feel and design of your website in mere minutes, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WP site with no web code programming skills necessary. Simply choose a WP theme you want, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and customize elements like headers, page layout, style settings and more in minutes …
Because WordPress is distributed as open source software, hundreds of web design companies can design themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes are made available to WP users. Themes are usually distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or sold as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great WordPress themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider range of users.
Themes vary from functional-looking, to stylish designs that are visually impressive and would easily cost thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most themes can be purchased 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 several theme galleries containing various examples of great premium WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just some of the benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over choosing traditional web template design:
Quick Installation
WordPress themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your WP admin user account and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes directory at WordPress.org) directly from your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a large community of commercial theme developers who contribute thousands of high quality WordPress Themes available to WP users. Many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent “look and feel” across all your blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This means you can replace WordPress themes as often as you want without modifying the underlying content of your website.
- Many themes provide additional built-in features and settings that let you customize the theme’s layout, style and design elements to create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that allows users to upgrade themes to newer theme versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within your site’s administration interface.
- WP themes lets you save thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically quite inexpensive.
Responsive WordPress Theme Design
Many WP theme developers are now developing “responsive” WordPress themes.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically resize to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. laptops, iPads, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and load your site on all device browsers without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to have installed additional themes.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your website will display correctly 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 web design.
Hopefully, this overview has helped you gain a better understanding about themes, what themes are, how WP themes help you save money, and how themes let you easily customize your web site.
To learn where to search for the best themes for your blog, go here:
- How To Find The Best Free And Paid Responsive WordPress Templates For Your Business Website Or Blog.
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