Advanced content publishing platforms like WordPress have effectively simplified web design and web development for business owners.
This is great for individuals or businesses planning on getting a website that they can easily manage themselves.
Before blogging and the development of sophisticated CMS solutions, if you needed to get a web site for your business, you normally had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could take weeks, even months!
The development of WordPress themes changed all this. In this blog post, you will learn what themes are, how themes help you save money on web design costs, and how WordPress themes let you easily customize your WordPress site.
A Revolution In Web Design
More businesses today have been benefiting from a revolution in web design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a business, you will want to know more about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on web development or web design costs.
Very briefly, this is what happened before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to meet with a web development agency or web site designer for a brief. Next, the actual design would be discussed and agreed upon. This required spending time and money with a professional website designer discussing elements of your site like the, colours, styles, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be individually created with all of the design elements and scripts coded around the content. All pages were then assembled into a web site using hyperlinks and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, together with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and functioned the way it was intended to (and looking the way the client had wanted it to look), was the web site deemed to be finished and ready for sign off.
The next stage in the evolution of web design was the introduction of “web templates”. Web templates allow the design of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. The development of templates helped to make site creation faster and resulted in reduced costs of production. This also enabled web site developers and designers to work with smaller businesses with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses started using “template-based” websites, templates were designed that provided clients with expanding customization options, such as color palettes, the ability to select different layouts and menu styles, etc …
As websites and website editor applications developed, web templates also began transforming into website templating “systems” that permit website owners and website designers to control the visual elements of their site.
Then, WordPress came along and helped to kick off a new digital 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:
The WordPress Theme
WordPress themes take website templating systems even further.
A WP theme controls every aspect of your website design. It allows you to add a “skin” to your site in a similar way that a template system does but also provides you with more control over the management, appearance and customization of all template settings.
As WordPress states in its official website …
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 features of the WP theme is that how your website appears to visitors externally in no way affects the way your website works internally to handle areas like content management and functionality.
In simple 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 touching your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if your site has been configured for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with a different theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the site. All e-commerce features, plugin settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this really great for small business owners?
Because with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your website to be done. You can get your website built simply and get started with any theme you like, and completely edit the look, feel and design of your site in a few seconds, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your WP site with no website code development knowledge required. Just choose any theme you like, upload it to your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your entire site’s web design and modify elements like header images, layout, typography and more in a few seconds …
As WordPress is open source software, hundreds of website design companies anywhere in the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP template system.
This means that thousands of great WP themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are usually distributed for FREE 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 WordPress Theme Directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of great web templates for free …
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to develop themes for a wider range of applications.
WP themes vary from bare-looking, to quirky designs that are quite stunning and would normally cost thousands of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, most premium themes can be purchased fairly inexpensively, especially when compared to what you would have been charged if a web designer had to create it from scratch.
You can view a number of theme galleries that include stunning examples of WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing traditional web design:
WP Theme Installation Is Easy, Simple And Quick
WP themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP administrator section and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WP themes directory at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional website designers and design companies who contribute thousands of great-looking, high quality WordPress Themes available to WordPress users. And many of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent design across all your blog’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your site’s content. This means you can change WP themes as often as you need without affecting your site’s data.
- Many themes come with additional features and options that let you customize the theme’s style and design properties to create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many themes are built using a framework that lets you update the theme to newer theme versions without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, import, install and update WordPress Themes automatically inside the admin panel.
- Themes lets you save thousands of dollars on website development costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically very affordable.
About Responsive Theme Design
Many WordPress theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly over different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. PCs, tablets, smart phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and load the site on various device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to have installed additional browser tools.
Note: When selecting, 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 will work correctly across your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards of web design coding.
I hope the above article has provided you with a good overview of WP themes, what WordPress themes are, how they help your business save money, and how themes make customizing web sites easy.
To learn where to find great WP themes for your website, visit this post: Where To Find Great Free And Premium WordPress Themes On The Web.
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