The development of content management systems like WordPress has effectively improved web design and web development for web users.
This greatly benefits non-technical users planning to start a website that is relatively easy to manage.
Prior to blogging and the development of easy-to-use CMS tools, if you wanted a website, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This process could mean weeks, even sometimes months of waiting!
The introduction of WordPress themes helped change all this. In this post, you will learn what WP themes are, how themes save you and your business money on web development costs, and how WordPress themes let you easily customize your site.
A New Development In Website Design
More businesses will benefit from a great change in website design that started a number of years ago. If you own a small business, you will want to know about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on web development or web design costs.
Very briefly, this is how things worked in “traditional” web development before WordPress was developed:
The first step would be to meet with a web developer or website designer for a brief. Next, the “web design” itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This involved spending time with a professional web designer discussing things of the web site like the, colors, formats, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be hand-coded with your elements and codes inserted into your page content. All of the pages were then assembled into a website using links and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file required to make your site 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 site considered to be finished and ready to go live.
Then, website “templates” were introduced”. A website template allows the presentation 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 reduced costs of production. This also enabled web site development companies to service businesses and clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses adopting “template-based” web design services increased, web templates started being introduced that offered clients with expanding custom features, such as the ability to switch colours, styles, layouts
As web sites and website building applications developed, web templates also started evolving into web template ”systems”, which permitted website owners and web designers to customize the design elements of their web site.
And then, WordPress was developed 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 pushes web template systems one step further.
The WP theme system controls and unifies all of the design areas of a website. It allows you to add a “skin” over your site much like a template system does but it also also provides you with more control over the management, presentation and ability to customize the template settings.
As the official WordPress site states …
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, one of the unique and revolutionary features of the WP theme is that the way your website looks to visitors on the outside in no way affects how your content is managed.
In simple terms, what this means is that you can 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, changing the entire look of the site with a different theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your site’s web design is completed. You can get your website built simply and get started with any theme you like, and completely customize the look, feel and design of your website in mere minutes, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without needing website coding skills. Just choose a WP theme you want, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your web design and modify elements like header images, layout, style settings and more in less than a few minutes …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, web designers can design themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that thousands of great WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are normally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to access thousands of excellent WP themes at $0 cost …
(WordPress.org – WordPress Theme Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focused on creating themes for a wider range of applications.
WP themes range from bare-looking, to exciting designs that are simply stunning and could typically cost thousands of dollars to design. Surprisingly, most WP themes can be purchased quite cheaply, especially when you compare the cost to what it would have cost you if a web designer had to develop it from scratch.
You can see a number of WP theme galleries containing many examples of great premium themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits And Advantages Of Themes
Here are just some of the many benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing website building applications that require traditional web design:
Ready To Use In Minutes
WP themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload it to your Plugin folder via your administrator area and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WordPress theme directory at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of commercial web developers who, collectively, contribute thousands of excellent WP Themes available to WordPress users. Many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent design across all of your blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, layout, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This makes it possible to swap WP themes as often as you want without modifying your underlying content of your website.
- Many themes provide built-in functionality and settings that let you easily customize the site’s layout and design elements and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that enables you to update themes to newer versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically right within your site’s administration interface.
- WordPress themes helps you save hundreds of dollars on website design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally quite affordable.
About Responsive WordPress Theme Design
Many WP theme developers are now creating themes that incorporate “responsive” web design.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. computers, iPads, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for each platform. Users can scroll, read and display a site on all device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional browser elements.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site will work correctly across all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards and practices of website design and web coding.
We hope that this overview has helped you gain a clearer understanding about WP themes, what themes are, how themes help you save money on web design costs, and how WordPress themes let you easily customize your web site.
To learn where to find great WP themes for your blog, visit this post: Finding The Best Free And Premium Responsive WordPress Web Templates On The Web.
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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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