Advanced web management systems like the WordPress Content Management System (CMS) have effectively improved web design and web development for web users.
This is a great thing for non-technical users thinking about starting a digital presence that they can manage.
Prior to “blogging” and the introduction of powerful CMS technologies, if you wanted to get a professional site for your business, you typically had to wait until both the web development and web design processes were completely done. This process could mean waiting for weeks, sometimes even months!
The introduction of WordPress themes changed all this. In this blog post, you will learn what WordPress themes are, how WordPress themes can help you and your business save money, and how themes make it easy to customize your WP site.
Web Site Design Revolution
More website owners have been benefiting from a great change in web design that started several years ago. If you are a small business owner, you will want to learn about this, because it can save you a lot of time and money on web development and website design costs.
In a nutshell, here’s what happened before tool like WordPress came along:
First, you would discuss your project with a web developer or designer. After that, the actual “web design” had to be discussed and agreed upon. This involved time being spent with a professional web site designer going over design elements of your web site like the, colours, styles, graphic elements, content, etc.
Each page of your web site then had to be individually created with your elements and scripts coded into the content. All pages were then assembled together into a website using hyperlinks and custom coded navigation menus and uploaded to your server, along with all other files needed to make your site work – script libraries, images, media elements, etc.
(image source:adobe.com)
Only after everything had been tested and was working the way it was intended to (and looking the way the client had imagined it to look), was the web site considered to be finished and ready for delivery.
The next step in the evolution of website design was the introduction of “website templates”. A web site template allows design elements of the website to be created separately from content on the page. Having templates helped to make the process of site creation faster and resulted in reduced production costs. This also allowed website development firms to expand their services to include smaller business clients with less money to spend on marketing …
(image source: www.dreamweaver-templates.org)
As more small businesses started adopting “template-based” web design services, web templates were designed to provide clients with expanding customization features, like the ability to choose different colors, styles, layouts
As web sites and web editor software developed, web templates also started evolving into web template “systems” that enabled website owners to customize their website’s visual components.
And then, WordPress was introduced and helped to kick off a new 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
WordPress themes push the idea of a web template system much further.
A WordPress theme controls all of the design elements of the website. It lets you add a “skin” to your site much like a web template system does but it also also gives you complete control over the management, presentation and customization of your 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 the above quote states, a unique feature of the WordPress theme is that how your website appears to site visitors externally is kept independent of the management of your content.
In simple terms, what this means is that themes let you modify the design of your site as often as you want 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 website. All e-commerce features, settings and product information will remain intact, but your site will look completely different.
Why is this such a big deal?
Because when you use WordPress, you no longer need to wait until your site’s web design is completed. You can get your business website built quickly and get started with any theme you want, and change the entire look, feel and design of your WordPress site in minutes, whenever you choose … and as often as you like!
Even better, you can easily replace any theme on your site without the need of web coding knowledge. Simply pick a WordPress theme you like, upload it to your website and activate it. WordPress lets you change your website design and modify elements like header images, layout, typography and more in a few seconds …
Since WordPress is made available as open source software, thousands of web design companies all around the world can create themes specifically for the WordPress platform using the WP templating system.
This means that loads of high quality WordPress themes can be downloaded by WP users. Themes are generally distributed as Free Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License Definition, or they can be purchased as Premium (i.e. paid) themes.
The WordPress team keeps a FREE directory of WordPress themes which gives WordPress users access thousands of great website templates completely free of charge …
(WordPress.org – Themes Directory)
As the popularity of WordPress increases, more designers are now starting to create themes for a wider audience of web users.
Themes vary from minimal-looking, to designs that are quite impressive and would normally cost many hundreds of dollars to commission. Surprisingly, themes are quite inexpensive.
You can view several theme galleries that include many examples of great WordPress themes here:
(Browse Thousands Of FREE WordPress Themes!)
Themes – Benefits & Advantages
Here are just some of the many benefits of choosing WordPress themes over using tools that require traditional web design:
Easy Installation
Themes are quite easy to install on your site. Simply upload a zip folder containing the plugin to your Plugin folder via your dashboard and activate. Even easier still, you can install any of the themes listed in the themes directory at WordPress.org) directly from your WP admin’s “Theme” section.
Additionally …
- WordPress has a thriving online community of commercial website designers and design companies who, collectively, make thousands of high quality WP Themes available to WP users. And many of these themes are 100% free to use!
- Themes give sites a consistent look across all of the blog’s elements, like pages, headers, footers, menus, etc …
- A “theme” works independently of your site’s content. This means you can swap WP themes as often as you need without disturbing your content.
- Many themes provide additional functionality and settings that enable you to easily customize your site’s layout, style and design properties and create a unique look to suit your needs.
- Many WP themes are built using a framework that enables you to upgrade themes to newer theme versions without losing its unique customizations (e.g. CSS styles)
- WordPress allows you to search, import and install WordPress Themes automatically directly from within the site’s administration interface.
- Themes lets you save hundreds, even thousands of dollars on website design costs. Free WP themes cost nothing and most “Premium”WP themes are normally very inexpensive.
Responsive Themes
Many WP theme developers are now developing “responsive” themes for the WordPress CMS platform.
A responsive theme allows a website to automatically reconfigure the layout to display smoothly across different screen sizes and resolutions, as well as different platforms) …
A responsive theme is also optimized for each platform. Users can scroll, read and load your site on various device platforms without having to resize anything, or requiring the website owner to have installed additional display elements.
Note: When selecting, WordPress themes, it’s a good idea to choose a responsive WordPress theme. Not only will the theme ensure that your website will display correctly across all devices, but it also means that the theme is newer than non-responsive themes and therefore complies with the latest standards, practices and techniques of website design and coding.
I hope the above article has provided you with a clearer understanding of WP themes, what WordPress themes are, how themes help your business save money on website design costs, and how themes make customizing web sites easy.
In our next article on helping you understand features and functionality of WordPress, we show you where to find the best WordPress themes for your blog.
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