Advanced content publishing technologies like the WordPress CMS have truly simplified web design and web development for website owners.
This greatly benefits non-technical users planning to start a web presence that is relatively simple and easy to manage.
Before blogging and the development of easy-to-use content management systems, if you needed to get a site for your business, you normally had to wait until both the website development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting around for many weeks, even months!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this article, we will explore what themes are, how they can help you and your business save money on website design costs, and how WP themes let you easily customize your site.
Web Site Design Evolution
Businesses, especially small businesses, will benefit from a revolutionary change in web design that has been going for several years now. If you own a business, you will want to learn about this, because it could save you thousands of dollars on web development or website design costs.
In a nutshell, this is what used to happen before WordPress was introduced:
First, you would discuss your requirements with a website developer or web designer. Then, the “web design” would be decided upon. This meant spending time and money with a professional website designer going over elements of your website such as the layout, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Each page of your website then had to be hand-coded with all the elements and scripts coded into your page content. All 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, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and worked how it was intended to (and looking how the client had imagined it to look), was the web site deemed to be completed and ready for sign off.
Then, website “templates” were developed”. A web template allows the ”look and feel” of the website to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having template elements helped speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in reduced production costs. This also allowed web site development agencies to service small business clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of businesses using “template-based” web design services increased, templates started being developed that could offer different customizable features and options, like colour palettes, the ability to select different page layouts and menu styles, etc …
As websites and web editing software evolved, web templates also began to transform into website template ”systems”, which enabled users to customize their site’s visual elements.
Then, WordPress came along and helped to start 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:
WordPress Themes
WordPress themes push web templating systems much further.
A WP theme controls every aspect of your website design. It allows you to add a “skin” to your entire site in a similar way that a template system does but it also also gives you more control over the management and customization of all template options.
As per 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 stated above, one of the unique features of WordPress is that how your site appears to visitors is a completely separate thing from your site’s functionality and content management.
In plain English terms, what this means is that a WordPress theme lets you change the appearance of your site as often as you like without touching your site’s content and all the functionality you’ve built into it. For example, if you have set up your website for e-commerce, changing the entire look of your site with another 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.
This is important. Why?
Because when your website is powered with WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your site’s web design is completed. You can get your website built quickly and get started with any theme you like, and customize the entire look, feel and design of your site in minutes, whenever you choose … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily install a theme on your site without the need of web design skills. Just choose any theme you like, install it on your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your website design and modify elements like headers, layout, style settings and more in minutes …
As WordPress is made available as open source software, website 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. WordPress are generally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU General Public License, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) WordPress themes.
The WordPress team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of excellent themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of applications.
Themes range from bare-looking, to clever designs that are breathtaking and could easily cost many hundreds of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, themes are really inexpensive to buy.
You can see several WordPress theme galleries containing stunning examples of great premium themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WordPress Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just a few of the benefits of choosing WordPress themes over using tools that require traditional web template design:
Be Up And Running In Minutes
WP themes are really easy to install on your site. Simply upload it 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 inside your WP dashboard.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving community of professional theme designers and design companies who, collectively, contribute thousands of great-looking, high quality WP Themes available to WordPress users. And many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all of the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This makes it possible to change WP themes as often as you want without changing your site’s underlying content.
- Many themes come with additional built-in functionality and options that allow you to easily customize the theme’s layout and design properties and create a unique look to suit your taste.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that allows you to upgrade themes to newer theme versions without losing any unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically inside your dashboard.
- Themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are typically quite affordable.
Responsive WP Themes
Many theme developers are now developing “responsive” themes for the WordPress platform.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically readjust the web layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. PCs, iPads, mobile phones, etc.) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for different platforms. Users can navigate, read and load your site on various device browsers without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional themes.
Note: When purchasing WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your web site works across all devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than most non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards of web design.
I hope this post has given you a clearer understanding of themes, what themes are, how themes help you save money on website development costs, and how themes make customizing your web design easy.
In our next article on basic WordPress features, we show you where to find the best themes for your blog.
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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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