Powerful website publishing systems like WordPress have truly improved web design and web development for users.
This is a great thing for individuals or businesses planning to start a digital presence that is relatively easy to manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the introduction of sophisticated CMS technologies, if you wanted a professional business website, you had to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could mean waiting for many weeks, sometimes even months!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this blog post, you will learn what themes are, how WP themes save you money on website design costs, and how themes allow you to easily customize your website.
The Evolution Of Web Site Design
More businesses are benefiting from a revolution in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you are a small business owner, you may want to learn about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on website development and website design costs.
Let’s briefly go over how things used to work in “traditional” web design before software like WordPress came along:
First, you would discuss your project with a website developer or designer. After this, the design of the web site itself would be discussed and agreed upon. This involved time being spent with a professional web designer going over design elements of the site like the, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Every page of your website then had to be individually created with all the design elements and scripts coded around your content. The pages were then assembled together into a web site using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your website work – script libraries, graphic images, media, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything passed testing and functioned how it was supposed to (and looking how a client had wanted it to look), was the site considered as being completed and ready to go live.
The next stage in the evolution of business website design was the introduction of “web templates”. Web templates allow the ”look and feel” of the web site to be worked on separately from content on the page. Having template elements helped to make building websites faster and resulted in reduced production costs. This also allowed web development firms to expand their services to include business clients and clients with smaller marketing budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of small businesses using “template-based” web design services increased, web templates started being developed that could provide clients with expanding customization features and options, such as colour palettes, the ability to specify different styles or header, footer and navigation elements, and so on.
As web sites and website editor tools developed, website templates also began evolving into website template “systems” that allow users to manage their website’s visual elements.
And then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress was developed and helped to kick off a new web 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
WordPress themes drive the idea of a website template system further.
The WP theme system controls and unifies all of the design areas of the web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your entire site much like a website template system does but also gives you complete control over the management, appearance and customization of template settings.
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 stated in the quote above, one of the unique features of WordPress is that the way your website looks to site visitors in no way affects how your content is managed.
Basically, what this means is that a theme lets you change the design of your site as much and as often as you like without touching your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if your site has been configured for e-commerce, replacing the theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of the web site. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this such a big deal?
Because with WordPress, you no longer need to spend weeks or months waiting for your web design to be done. You can get your website built quickly and start with any WordPress theme you want, and then completely change the look, feel and design of your website in mere seconds, whenever you choose … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site with no web code editing skills necessary. Just pick a 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, style settings and more in less than a few minutes …
Because WordPress is open source software, web design companies can create themes specifically for the WordPress CMS platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that loads of great WP themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. Themes are normally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) WP themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE theme directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of great website templates for free …
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
As more users turn to WordPress for online publishing, more designers are now focusing on creating themes for a wider range of users.
Themes vary from bare-looking, to designs that are simply breathtaking and would typically cost many hundreds of dollars to create. Surprisingly, themes are really inexpensive to purchase.
You can view several WP theme galleries that include many examples of WP themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
WP Themes – Benefits And Advantages
Here are just a few of the benefits and advantages of using WordPress themes over using applications that require traditional web design:
Very Easy To Install
WordPress themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WordPress dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the free theme directory at WordPress.org) directly inside your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional web designers and design companies who contribute thousands of quality WordPress Themes available to WP users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent design across all the site’s elements, i.e. pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your digital content. This makes it possible to replace the “look and feel” of your site as often as you need without modifying the website’s information.
- Many WP themes provide built-in features and options that allow you to customize your site’s layout, style and design properties 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 theme versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically from your admin panel.
- WordPress themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web design costs. Free themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally very inexpensive.
Responsive Theme Design
Many theme developers are now developing “responsive” themes.
A responsive theme allows websites to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as across different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can navigate, read and load the site on different devices without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring the website owner to install additional browser tools.
Note: When purchasing WordPress themes, we recommend choosing a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the 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 should comply with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design and coding.
I hope this post has helped you gain a better understanding of themes, what themes are, how WP themes help you and your business save money on web development costs, and how WP themes make it easy to customize a WordPress site.
To learn where to find great WP themes for your blog, visit this page: Where To Get The Best Premium And Free WordPress Themes For Your WordPress Web Site Or 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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