The development of content management platforms like the WordPress CMS platform has truly improved web design and web development for web users.
This is terrific news for businesses thinking of running a digital presence that is relatively simple, easy and inexpensive to manage.
Before blogging and the introduction of user-friendly CMS solutions, if you wanted a professional website, you typically would have to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, sometimes even months of waiting for the work to be done!
WordPress themes changed all this. In this post, we take a look at what WordPress themes are, how they save you money on website design costs, and how WordPress themes let you easily customize your WordPress site.
Website Design Revolution
More businesses have benefited from a tremendous revolution in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you may want to know about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on website development or web design costs.
Let’s briefly go over what normally happened before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a website development company or designer. After that, the design of the web site itself would be decided upon. This required time being spent with someone with web design skills going over areas of the site such as the, colors, styles, page elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be individually created with all the design elements and scripts coded around the page content. All of the pages were then assembled into a web site 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 elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and functioned the way it should (and looking how the client had imagined it to look), was the site considered to be finished and ready for sign off.
The next stage in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “web templates”. A website template allows design elements of the website to be worked on separately from the page content. The development of templates helped make developing web sites faster and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled web site development firms to work with small businesses with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses adopting “template-based” web design services increased, templates were designed that could offer various custom features, such as colour palettes, the ability to select different styles, formats, elements, layouts, etc …
As web sites and web building software developed, web templates also began to transform into website templating “systems” that enabled users and website designers to control the visual elements of a web site.
And then, WordPress was developed and helped to kick off a new business 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 web templating systems one step further.
The WP theme system controls all of the design areas of the web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your entire site similarly to what a template system does but it also also gives you more control over the management and customization of the template settings.
As WordPress has stated in its official 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 quote states, a unique and revolutionary feature of WordPress is that how your website displays to site visitors is kept independent of the management of your content.
In plain English terms, what this means is that a WordPress theme lets you change the look and feel of your website as much and as often as you like without modifying your site’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 web site. All e-commerce features, site and plugin settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer have to spend weeks or months waiting for your website to be done. You can get your business website built quickly and get started with any theme you like, and completely customize the look, feel and design of your WordPress site in a few minutes, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without having web code programming skills. Just pick a WP theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your site’s design and modify elements like header images, layout, style settings and more with just a few mouse clicks …
Because WordPress is made available as open source software, website designers anywhere in the world can create themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of great WP themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are normally distributed freely under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE directory of WordPress themes which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of excellent website templates completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – 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 bare-looking, to quirky designs that are spectacular and would normally cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, most premium WordPress themes can be bought very cheaply, especially when compared to what you would have been charged if a website designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can view several WordPress theme galleries containing many examples of themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just a few of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over choosing traditional web template design:
Easy, Fast & Simple To Install
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugin 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 WP dashboard.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional web designers and design companies who make thousands of high quality WordPress Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent design across all of the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This makes it possible to change WordPress themes as often as you need without changing your settings.
- Many WP themes come with additional features and settings that allow you to customize the site’s layout, style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that lets users update the theme to newer versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically from the site’s administration interface.
- WP themes helps you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically quite affordable.
Responsive Themes
Many WP theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes for the WordPress CMS platform.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically resize to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can navigate, read and display your site on a range of device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to install additional display elements.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that the content and layout of your site works on all 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 and coding.
I hope this article has given you a better understanding of themes, what WP themes are, how WP themes help your business save money on web design costs, and how themes make customizing sites easy.
In our next blog post on understanding basic WordPress features, we show you where to search for the best WP themes for your website.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)
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