The development of website management tools like the WordPress CMS platform has truly improved web design and web development for website owners.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses planning to build a website that they can fully manage themselves.
Before “blogging” and the introduction of sophisticated content management systems, if you needed a professional business website, you would have to wait until both the website development and web design processes were fully completed. This process could mean weeks, sometimes even many months of waiting for the work to be done!
The introduction of WordPress themes changed all this. In this article, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how they save you and your business money on web design costs, and how themes let you easily customize your WordPress site.
Web Design Revolution
Businesses have been benefiting from a tremendous change in website design that started many years ago. If you own a small business, you may want to learn about this, because it can save you thousands of dollars on website development and website design costs.
In a nutshell, this is what happened before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to meet with a web developer or web designer for a brief. After this, the actual design would be discussed and agreed upon. This involved time and money being spent with someone with website design skills going over design elements of your web site such as the, colors, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Each page of your web site then had to be individually created with all of the elements and scripts coded into your content. All pages were then assembled into a web site using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file needed to make your site work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and worked how it should (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the site deemed to be finished and ready for sign off.
Then, website “templates” came along”. Web templates allow design elements of the web site to be worked on separately from the page content. The introduction of ready-made templates helped speed up the process of developing websites and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled website designers to expand their services to include small businesses and clients with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more businesses started adopting “template-based” websites, templates were developed to offer different customization features, such as the ability to switch colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and web building software developed, website templates also started to transform into website template ”systems”, letting users control their website’s design elements.
Then, WordPress was introduced and helped to start a new content management 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
WordPress themes take web templating systems further.
A WP theme controls every aspect of your web design. It allows you to add a “skin” to your site in a similar way that a template system does but it provides users with more control over the management and customization of all template options.
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, a unique feature of WordPress is that how your website displays to visitors externally is a completely different system from your site’s functional aspects (e.g. content management and functionality).
Basically, what this means is that you can modify the appearance 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 WP site has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your site. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the 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 done. You can get your website built quickly and get started with any theme you like, and then modify the entire look, feel and design of your WordPress site in mere minutes, whenever you decide … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WordPress site with no website design knowledge required. Simply choose any theme you like, upload it to your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your website design and customize elements like header images, layout, styling options and more in minutes …
Because WordPress is distributed as open source software, website design companies from all over the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes are made available to WP users. Themes are generally distributed for Free under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent WordPress themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As more users turn to WordPress for publishing and managing their content online, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes vary from minimal-looking, to designs that are quite spectacular and would typically cost hundreds to many thousands of dollars to create. Surprisingly, themes can be purchased quite cheaply, especially when compared to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to build it from scratch.
You can see several theme galleries that include many examples of WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just some of the many benefits of choosing WordPress themes over choosing traditional web template design:
Ready To Go To Work In Minutes
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator account and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving community of professional theme designers who make thousands of professional WordPress Themes available to users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This makes it possible to change the “look and feel” of your web site or blog as often as you like without changing the website’s content.
- Many WordPress themes provide additional features and options that let you easily customize your theme’s layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows users to upgrade themes to newer versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside your admin panel.
- Themes lets you save thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are typically quite inexpensive.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many WordPress theme designers are now developing themes that incorporate “responsive” web design.
A responsive theme enables a website 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 types of devices. Users can navigate, read and load a site on different device platforms without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to have installed additional browser tools.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your web site works on your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design.
I hope the above overview has helped you gain a better understanding about themes, what themes are, how they can help your business save money on website development costs, and how WordPress themes make customizing sites easy.
To learn where to search for great WordPress themes for your website or blog, visit this page: Finding Great Premium And Free WordPress Themes For Your Business Website Or Blog.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group
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