Flexible web management technologies like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) have truly simplified web design and web development for website owners.
This greatly benefits non-technical users planning to run an online presence that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Before blogging and the introduction of user-friendly content management systems, if you wanted a site, you normally would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean weeks, even many months of waiting for the work to be done!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this post, we explore what themes are, how themes save you and your business money on web design costs, and how WP themes help you easily customize your WP site.
Web Design Evolution
More website owners today will benefit from a great change in web design that started several years ago. If you own a small business, you will want to learn about this, because it can save your business a lot of time and money on web development and website design costs.
Very briefly, here’s what happened before WordPress was developed:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a website development company or designer. After this, the “web design” itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This required time and money being spent with a professional web site designer discussing design elements of the website such as the layout, colours, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with all your elements and codes scripted into your content. The pages were then assembled together into a website using hyperlinks 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 after everything had been tested and was performing the way it should (and looking how the client had wanted it to look), was the web site considered to have been finished and ready to go live.
The next phase in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “website templating elements”. A web site template allows the presentation of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. The development of ready-made templates helped to make the process of developing websites faster and resulted in lowered production costs. This also allowed website development firms to service small business clients with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses adopting “template-based” web design services increased, templates were developed that could offer various customization features, like the option to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As websites and web editor software evolved, web templates also started evolving into website templating ”systems”, letting users manage the visual elements of a website.
Then, a “blogging” application called 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
A WordPress theme expands website templating systems further.
A WP theme controls all of the design elements of a web site. It allows you to add a “skin” to your site much like a template system does but it gives you complete control over the management and customization of template options.
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 the above states, a unique and revolutionary feature of the WP theme is that the way your site looks to site visitors does not affect the management of your content.
Basically, what this means is that you can change the design of your site as often as you want without touching your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if your website has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the 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 important. Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be completed. You can get your business website built quickly and start with any theme you like, and change the entire look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WP site with no website code editing knowledge necessary. Just pick any WordPress theme you want, upload it to your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and modify elements like header images, page layout, typography and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is open source software, web design companies all around the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are generally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) WP themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great WordPress themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider range of uses.
WP themes range from simple-looking, to designs that are quite stunning and would typically cost many hundreds of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, most premium WordPress themes are fairly inexpensive.
You can see several theme galleries that include various examples of great WordPress themes in this post:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WordPress Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing traditional website design:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
Themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your WordPress 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 admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a large community of professional web developers and development companies who, collectively, make thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all of the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This makes it possible to replace the “look and feel” of your site as often as you need without deleting your blog’s underlying information.
- Many themes come with additional built-in functionality and settings that let you customize the site’s layout, style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that lets you update themes to newer versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside your site’s administration interface.
- Themes allow WP users to save hundreds of dollars on web development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally quite affordable.
Responsive Theme Design
Many WP theme designers are now developing “responsive” WordPress themes.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and load a site on different devices without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to have installed additional browser elements.
Note: When purchasing WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that the content and layout of your site displays well across all 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 and coding.
I hope the above overview has helped you gain a better understanding of WP themes, what themes are, how themes can help you and your business save money, and how WP themes make customizing websites easy.
To learn where to search for the best themes for your website or blog, see this post: How To Find The Best Free And Premium WordPress Themes On The Net.
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"This is AMAZING! I had learnt about how to use WordPress previously, but this covers absolutely everything and more!! Incredible value! Thank you!" - Monique, Warrior Forum
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