The development of web site publishing systems like WordPress has truly improved web design and web development for anyone wanting to start a website.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses planning to build a website that they can manage.
Prior to blogging and the introduction of sophisticated CMS software, if you wanted to get a professional web site for your business, you would have to wait until both the website development and website design processes were fully completed. This could mean weeks, sometimes even many months of waiting around!
The development of WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, we explore what themes are, how themes save your business money on website design costs, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your WordPress site.
A New Development In Web Design
More website owners have benefited from a tremendous change in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a small business owner, you may want to learn about this, because it can save your business thousands of dollars on web development or website design costs.
Very briefly, this is what used to happen before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web site development agency or designer. After this, the “web design” would be discussed and agreed upon. This involved spending time and money with someone with website design skills discussing design elements of the website such as the, colours, styles, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be hand-coded with all the design elements and scripts coded into your content. All the pages were then assembled into a website using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with every other file needed to make your website work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and functioned the way it was intended to (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the web site considered as being finished and ready to go live.
Then, web design “templates” came along”. A web site template allows design elements of the web site to be created separately from content on the page. The development of template elements helped speed up the web site development process and resulted in lowered production costs. This also allowed website development firms to work with business clients and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of businesses using “template-based” web design services increased, web templates were developed that provided expanding custom features and options, such as colour palettes, the ability to pick different content styles and layouts, and so on.
As websites and website building software evolved, website templates also started to evolve into web template “systems” that permit website owners to customize their web site’s visual elements.
Then, WordPress came along and helped to kick off a new online 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:
WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme takes web templating systems even further.
A WP theme controls every aspect of your web design. It lets you add a “skin” to your site in a similar way that a template system does but also gives you more control over the management and customization aspects of template features.
As the official WordPress site explains …
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 quote states, one of the unique and revolutionary features of the WordPress theme is that how your web site looks to visitors externally is a different thing from the way your content is managed.
In simple terms, what this means is that you can modify the appearance of your website as often as you want without touching your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WP website has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when your website is built with WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your site’s web design is completed. You can get your website built quickly and start with any theme you want, and then modify the entire look, feel and design of your WordPress site in a few minutes, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without having website code editing knowledge. Just choose a theme you like, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your site’s design and modify elements like header images, page layout, typography and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is open source software, hundreds of web design companies can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes are made available to WP users. WP are usually distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE directory of WordPress themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent themes completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – WP Themes Directory)
As more businesses turn to WordPress for online publishing, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of applications.
WordPress themes range from simple-looking, to jaw-dropping designs that are quite impressive and would typically cost many hundreds of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, most WordPress themes can be purchased quite cheaply, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to create it from scratch.
You can view several theme galleries containing many examples of great premium WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing website development tools that require traditional web template design:
Be Up And Running In No Time
Themes are quite easy to install on your site. Just upload the plugin file to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WordPress themes repository at WordPress.org) directly inside your WordPress admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a growing online community of commercial web designers and design companies who, collectively, make thousands of great WordPress Themes available to WP users. Thousands of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent “look and feel” across all of the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This allows you change the “look and feel” of your website as often as you like without deleting your blog settings.
- Many WordPress themes come with additional built-in functionality and options that allow you to customize your site’s style, layout and design properties to create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows users to update themes to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically from the admin panel.
- WordPress themes helps you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically quite affordable.
Responsive WordPress Themes
Many theme developers are now creating WordPress themes that incorporate “responsive” functionality.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. PCs, iPads, cell phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each device type. Users can navigate, read and load your site on all device platforms without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional themes.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site works across your visitors’ devices, 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.
Hopefully, the above overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding about WordPress themes, what themes are, how themes can help you and your business save money on web development costs, and how WP themes make it easy to customize a WordPress site.
In the next blog post on understanding basic features and functionality of WordPress, we show you where to search for the best themes for your website.
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