WordPress Themes
WordPress themes control the look and feel of a website. They give the website its visual design. Every website created with WordPress must have at least one theme. Some themes are niche specific while many are multi-purpose and are used to design many types of websites. Regardless of use, WordPress themes have things in common that are used to design a website.
WordPress Themes Control Where Things Appear
Pages of a WordPress site are often divided into areas where things appear. Headers appear at the top of each page; footers at the bottom. The page is divided into columns. For example, a menu might appear in the left column and content in the middle column. Finally, “widgets” that display events, galleries, social media, etc. might appear in the right column. The theme controls where these areas appear and the general layout of the pages.
The Theme Controls the Default Settings
The theme used on a site controls the defaults for the site. Although these defaults can be changed or overridden, using the defaults keep the look of the site matching the original theme. These defaults control things like the font size and color for the text. It also controls header sizes and colors. The background color is controlled be default as are many other sizes, placement, and colors on the site. These are often highly customizable and a flexible theme often ends up looking very different from the original. In addition, many themes come with a variety of templates that allow the website designer to choose between many looks. These templates make it easier for the user to design pages with layouts, fonts, and colors that go well together.
Many WordPress Themes Have a Responsive Design
Responsive design means a page will adjust to the size of the device’s screen that it appears on. This is important because over 50% of all page views on the Internet are on mobile devices. Responsive themes adjust automatically to the screen size. In addition, modern themes also have many customizing options and tools to configure for all types of displays. Choosing a responsive theme is important when designing a WordPress site for today’s users.
Many Themes Are Free and Easy to Obtain
Many of the best known WordPress themes are free and can be downloaded from the WordPress dashboard. While most of these themes have a premium version that adds more features when purchased, many websites are designed completely with the free version. Clicking on themes in the appearance menu of the WordPress dashboard allows a user to search and download themes or alternately WordPress.org/themes/ acts as a repository for themes and is used to download themes.
In addition, many themes are downloaded directly from websites. This is especially useful for niche specific themes. To find these themes, simply search for them using any search engine. For example, to find a theme for a cooking blog, search for “cooking WordPress theme.” Once you find a theme, go to the website or simply download it from the WordPress dashboard if it is available there. There are also premium versions of most themes available for purchase or by subscription. Some website designs need features available in the premium versions while others may not. Start with the free version when available and purchase if needed or if you would like to support the theme developers.
There Are Many Popular Multi-purpose Themes Available
There are a number of popular themes that are both multi-purpose and free. Many of the best known WordPress themes fit this category. OceanWP is one of these and is the theme this website is built on. A second popular theme for blogging is Astra. Neve is a well known theme designed to be optimized for mobile. Finally, Divi is a theme with a built in page builder. While it is not free, it does feature a free trial.
Each of these themes has a premium version but each is also very powerful and flexible using only the free version. Each contains most of these things I talked about in this article. This includes many customizing options and tools. In addition, they are easy to configure and very flexible in the type of website they are used to create. Finally, they are compatible with many popular plugins that add capabilities to a Website and its use.
The Process of Starting a WordPress Website Is Easy and Straightforward
Before installing a theme, you will need a self-hosted website. Start by getting a domain name that represents your website. Registrars sell domain names to end users like you and me. Many of these registrars are also companies who provide web hosting as a sort of one-stop shopping for setting up a website. A host provides space for storing the website content and the connection to the Internet and is the next step in the process. You will need a host that has WordPress installed and ready for installation on your website.
For example, I get paid a commission if you click a link on this page and sign up for a domain and hosting by one such company, Bluehost. This website is hosted by Bluehost who also acts as the domain registrar for websitesinten.com and other domain names that I own. There are hundreds of these registrar/hosts available on the Internet that provide comparable services. Once a domain and hosting is obtained, install WordPress with a single click and then choose a theme. The site is ready to build. To see how i built this website, check out the videos in the Building a Website Series.
Setting up a website will require a domain name and hosting which can often be handled by the same domain registrar and hosting company for a relatively low cost. Installing WordPress will complete the process and the website will be ready for themes, plugins, posts, and pages.
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