Powerful web site management technologies like WordPress have effectively improved web design and web development for business users.
This is great for businesses planning on getting a web presence that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Before blogging and the development of user-friendly content management systems, if you wanted a site, you had to wait until both the website development and web design processes were completely done. This could mean weeks, sometimes even months of waiting for the work to be done!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, we take a look at what themes are, how they can help you save money, and how themes help you easily customize your website.
Evolution In Website Design
More businesses today will benefit from an evolution in web design that has been going for many years now. If you own a business, you may want to know more about this, because it could save your business a lot of time and money on web development or web design costs.
In a nutshell, here’s what typically took place before a CMS system like WordPress came along:
First, you would meet with a website developer or web designer for a brief. After that, the actual “web design” itself had to be discussed and agreed upon. This meant time being spent with a professional web designer going over design elements of the website such as the layout, colors, styles, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your web site then had to be individually created with all your design elements and scripts coded into the content. All pages were then assembled together into a web site using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files required to make your website work – script libraries, images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and worked the way it was supposed to (and looking the way a client had wanted it to look), was the web site considered as being completed and ready for delivery.
The next stage in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “web templates”. A web site template allows ”look and feel” elements of the website to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having templates helped speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled web developers to expand their services to include smaller businesses with smaller marketing budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of businesses using “template-based” websites increased, templates started being introduced that could offer expanding custom features and options, like the ability to choose different colours, styles, layouts
As websites and web editor tools developed, website templates also began evolving into web template ”systems”, letting users manage their website’s design components.
And then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress was introduced and helped to kick off a new 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:
About WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme takes website template systems further.
The WP theme system controls and integrates the design aspects of a website. It allows you to add a “skin” to your site in a similar way that a website template system does but it provides you with complete control over the management, presentation and customization aspects of your site’s template settings.
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 quote states, a unique feature of WordPress is that the way your web site appears to site visitors is managed independently of the management of your content.
In simple terms, what this means is that themes let you modify the design of your site as often as you want without modifying your site’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if you have configured WordPress website for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your website. All e-commerce features, site settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
This is important. Why?
Because with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be done. You can get your business website built simply and start with any theme you want, and then modify the entire look, feel and design of your WordPress site in mere seconds, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WP site with no website code programming knowledge required. Simply choose any WordPress theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your entire site’s web design and modify elements like header images, page layout, styling options and more with just a couple of mouse clicks …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, web designers can create themes specifically for the WP CMS platform using the WordPress templating system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes are made available to WordPress users. WP are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of excellent themes for free …
(WordPress.org – WordPress Themes Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now focusing on developing themes for a wider audience of web users.
WordPress themes range from functional-looking, to stylish designs that are simply breathtaking and would typically cost many hundreds of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most themes are really inexpensive to purchase.
You can view several theme galleries that include various examples of WordPress themes in this article:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using WordPress Themes
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of choosing WordPress themes over using traditional web design:
Quick Installation
Themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip file that contains the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WP themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a large community of commercial website developers who contribute thousands of professional WordPress Themes available to users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all of your site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This makes it possible to change WordPress themes as often as you like without deleting your content.
- Many WP themes provide additional built-in features and settings that enable you to customize your theme’s style, layout and design elements and create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables users to upgrade themes to newer versions without losing any customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically right within the site’s administration interface.
- WP themes allow users to save thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are normally quite affordable.
About Responsive Themes
Many WordPress theme developers are now developing WP themes that incorporate “responsive” design standards.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different platforms. Users can navigate, read and display your site on most if not all device platforms without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional themes.
Note: When purchasing WordPress themes, we strongly recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your web site will work correctly on all of your visitors’ devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards of web design and web coding.
Hopefully, the above article has helped you gain a clearer understanding of WP themes, what WordPress themes are, how they can help your business save money, and how WordPress themes make customizing your web design easy.
To learn where to search for the best themes for your website or blog, go here:
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum
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