The introduction of web site management tools like the WordPress CMS has effectively simplified web design and web development for users.
This is great for individuals or businesses thinking of running a website that is simple and easy to manage.
Before “blogging” and the development of powerful content management systems, if you needed a professional business website, you would have to wait until both the web development and website design processes were fully completed. This process could take weeks, even many months!
WordPress themes have changed all this. In this blog post, we take a look at what WP themes are, how they can help your business save money on website development costs, and how WP themes make it easy to customize your website.
Web Design Evolution
More businesses today will benefit from a tremendous change in website design that began shortly after websites were first introduced. If you own a small business, you may want to learn more about this, because it could save you a lot of time and money on web development or web design costs.
Let’s go over what typically happened before tools like WordPress were introduced:
First, you would meet with a web developer or web designer for a brief. After this, the design of your site would be decided upon. This involved time and money being spent with a professional web designer going over areas of the website like the layout, colours, formats, visual elements, content, etc.
Every page of your site then had to be hand-coded with all the elements and scripts coded around the page content. All pages were then assembled together into a website using links and navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with every other file required to make your site work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only once everything had been tested and was performing how it should (and looking how a client had wanted it to look), was the site deemed to be finished and ready to go live.
Then, website “templates” were introduced”. A web site template allows the presentation of the web site to be created separately from the page content. Having ready-made templates helped speed up the process of developing websites and resulted in reduced production costs. This also enabled web developers to work with businesses with smaller budgets …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses began adopting “template-based” websites, templates started being designed that could provide various custom features and options, such as the ability to choose different colours, styles, layouts
As websites and website editor software evolved, website templates also began to transform into web template ”systems”, letting users and web developers manage the design aspects of their site.
Then, a “blogging” application called WordPress came along and helped to start a new business 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:
WordPress Themes
A WordPress theme expands the idea of a web templating system one step further.
The WordPress theme system controls and integrates the design areas of your web site. It lets you add a “skin” over your site in a similar way that a website template system does but it also also provides you with more control over the management and customization aspects of template features.
As WordPress has explained 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 WordPress is that how your website looks to visitors in no way affects the management of your content.
In simple terms, what this means is that you can modify the appearance of your site as much and as often as you want without modifying your website’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 another theme won’t affect the content or the functionality of your website. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain unaffected, but the site will look completely different.
This is huge! Why?
Because when your website is built using WordPress, you no longer have to wait until your site’s web design is completed. You can get your business website built quickly and start with any theme you want, and then edit the entire look, feel and design of your website in a few minutes, whenever you decide … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your WP site with no website code editing knowledge necessary. Just choose any WordPress theme you like, install it on your site and activate it. WordPress allows you to change your site’s design and customize elements like header images, page layout, styling options and more with just a couple of mouse clicks …
Because WordPress is distributed as open source software, professional web designers from all over the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WordPress template system.
This means that thousands of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WordPress users. Themes are generally distributed for FREE under the terms of the GNU License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (paid) themes.
The WordPress development team maintains a FREE WordPress Theme Directory which allows WordPress users to download, access and install thousands of excellent themes at no cost …
(WordPress.org – Theme Directory)
As more businesses turn to WordPress for online publishing, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider range of uses.
Themes range from corporate-looking, to designs that are simply breathtaking and would normally cost many hundreds of dollars to design. Surprisingly, WP themes are really inexpensive to purchase.
You can see several WP theme galleries that include various examples of themes in this page:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Benefits Of Using Themes
Here are just a few of the benefits of using WordPress themes over using web development tools that require traditional website design:
Easy To Install
Themes are very easy to install on your site. Just 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 theme directory at WordPress.org) directly from within your WP site’s admin area.
Additionally,
- WordPress has a thriving online community of professional theme designers who, collectively, contribute thousands of great-looking, high quality WP Themes available to WP users. Thousands of these themes are completely free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent look across all the site’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your website’s content. This makes it possible to change the “look and feel” of your website as often as you need without disturbing your content.
- Many themes come with additional functionality and settings that allow you to easily customize your theme’s style and design elements and create a unique look to suit your preferences.
- Many WordPress themes are built using a framework that enables users to update the theme to a newer theme version without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress lets you search, upload and install WordPress Themes automatically directly from within the site’s administration interface.
- Themes allow users to save thousands of dollars on web development costs. Free WordPress themes cost nothing and most “Premium”themes are normally very inexpensive.
Responsive Themes
Many theme developers are now creating “responsive” WordPress themes.
A responsive theme enables a website to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly over different monitor sizes and screen resolutions, as well as across different devices (e.g. laptops, iPads, smart phones, etc.) …
Responsive themes are also optimized for different types of devices. Users can navigate, read and display your site on a range of device platforms without having to resize anything, or requiring website owners to install additional browser elements.
Note: When downloading WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will a responsive theme ensure that your website will display correctly on all of your visitors’ devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore probably complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design.
Hopefully, the above article has provided you with a better understanding of WordPress themes, what WordPress themes are, how WP themes help you save money, and how themes let you easily customize your web site.
In our next blog post on understanding basic WordPress features, we show you where to find the best themes for your website.
***
"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
***