Powerful web site management technologies like WordPress have truly improved web design and web development for users.
This is fantastic news for individuals or businesses planning on getting a web presence that they can easily manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the development of powerful content management systems, if you needed to get a professional site built for your business, you typically would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were completely done. This could take weeks, sometimes even months!
WordPress themes helped change all this. In this article, we look at what WP themes are, how themes can help your business save money on website design costs, and how themes make it easy to customize your site.
A Revolution In Website Design
More businesses today will benefit from a revolution in web design that has been going for many years now. If you own a small business, you may want to know more about this, because it can save you thousands of dollars on website development and website design costs.
Very briefly, this is how things worked in “traditional” web development before WordPress came along:
The first step would be to discuss your requirements with a web developer or web site designer. After that, the “web design” itself would be decided upon. This involved spending time with a professional website designer discussing design elements of your website like the, colors, formats, page elements, content, etc.
Each page of your site then had to be individually created with your design elements and codes scripted into your content. All 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 required to make your site work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and was performing the way it was supposed to (and looking the way a client had imagined it to look), was the site deemed to have been completed and ready to go live.
The next step in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “web templating elements”. A web site template allows the presentation of the website to be created separately from the page content. The introduction of ready-made templates helped speed up the process of developing web sites and resulted in lowered costs of production. This also enabled web developers to service businesses with less money to spend …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As the number of businesses choosing “template-based” web design services increased, templates started being developed to provide a number of customizable options, like the ability to switch colours, styles, layouts
As websites and website editing applications developed, website templates also began to evolve into website templating “systems” that let website owners and website designers control their web site’s visual components.
Then, a “blogging” tool called WordPress was introduced 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
WordPress themes push the idea of a web templating system one step further.
A WordPress theme controls every aspect of your website design. It allows you to add a “skin” over your entire site similarly to what a web template system does but also gives you more control over the management, presentation and customization of template features.
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 above, one of the unique features of WordPress is that how your web site appears to visitors in no way affects how your content is managed.
In simple terms, what this means is that WordPress themes let you change the appearance of your website as often as you want without touching your website’s content and all the work you’ve put into it. For example, if WP website has been set up for e-commerce, changing the entire look of the site with another 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 when your website is powered by WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your website’s design is completed. You can get your website built simply and start with any WordPress theme you want, and edit the entire look, feel and design of your site in a few seconds, whenever you want … and as many times as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WordPress site without the need of website code programming skills. Just choose a theme you like, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress lets you change your site’s design and modify elements like header images, layout, styling options and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, commercial website design companies from all over the world can design themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of great WordPress themes are made available to WordPress users. Themes are normally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or sold as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team keeps a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which gives WordPress users access thousands of great themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Free Theme Directory)
As WordPress becomes more popular, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes range from professional-looking, to designs that are quite spectacular and could easily cost thousands of dollars to develop. Surprisingly, most themes are really inexpensive to purchase.
You can view a number of WP theme galleries containing stunning examples of great premium WordPress themes in this post:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits & Advantages Of Using WordPress Themes
Here are just some of the benefits of using WordPress themes over choosing web building tools that require traditional web template design:
Easy And Fast To Install
WordPress themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugins folder via your administrator section and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the WP themes repository at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving community of professional theme designers who make thousands of excellent WordPress Themes available to WP users. Many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a unified and consistent look across all of the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, layouts, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your blog’s content. This means you can change the “look and feel” of your web site as often as you want without disturbing your underlying content.
- Many themes come with built-in functionality and options that enable you to easily customize your site’s layout, style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your business.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that lets you upgrade themes to a newer theme version without losing any customizations (e.g. styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload, install and update WordPress Themes automatically directly from within the admin panel.
- Themes allow WP users to save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on web development costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WordPress themes are typically very affordable.
About Responsive WP Themes
Many theme designers are now creating “responsive” themes.
A responsive theme enables websites to automatically readjust screen size to display smoothly across different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as different devices (e.g. computers, tablets, mobile phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different platforms. Users can scroll, read and load the site on different devices without having to readjust their browser settings, or requiring website owners to install additional themes.
Note: When searching for WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website displays well across all devices, it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards and practices of website design coding.
I hope that this post has provided you with a better overview of WP themes, what themes are, how themes can help you save money, and how themes make it easy to customize a site.
To learn where to search for great WP themes for your website or blog, go here:
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)
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