WordPress is the most used content management system on the planet and it is used by businesses small and large. Seota is an Expert Level WordPress design and development shop.
In this article we will help explain WordPress Themes and WordPress Page Templates. WordPress Themes 101 for end users.
A WordPress Theme is a collection of page templates, styles, plugins, and scripts that work together to present your website to visitors. Each page on your website can use a different template or every page in your theme can use the same template.
At Seota we design each unique WordPress Page Template in Photoshop before we write a line of code. All of the page templates taken as a whole make up the Theme of the website.
Most of the WordPress Developers on this list, make custom themes.
A WordPress Theme uses Style Sheets (CSS) on each page to allow for consistent font and styling. The CSS allows each template to use a centralized set of styles (your theme style).
Free Themes, Paid Themes and Custom WordPress Themes
The three main approaches to creating a WordPress website are;
- Using a free theme
- Buying a paid theme
- Getting an agency to build you a custom theme.
(Buyer Beware: Too many agencies actually don’t know how to build custom themes so they cheat and buy themes, stuff your content in them and pass the theme off as their own work.)
Free Themes
There are millions of Free WordPress Themes on the market, you can install them and try to make your own website. If you are a small business person with time on your hands, a website created from a Free WordPress Theme may hold you over to get started. Some of the free themes are quite sophisticated and offer a number of great features
Paid Themes
Paid theme, at least the good ones, are typically creating by a strong WordPress agency and made for sale from various resellers. The Paid Themes are made to account for a number of different business models and they can be bloated with things you will never use. A lot of small ‘agencies’ buy these themes and then use them to create client websites. This can work well until the client needs something the theme does not support. Always ask your agency if they are using paid themes or if they are custom designing. (We call agencies that use this approach theme stuffers, they often charge as much or more as custom WordPress theme designers)
Seota has offices in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, TX & Phoenix, AZ
Custom WordPress Themes
The real web agencies (like Seota) that create Custom WordPress Themes are head and shoulders better than the agencies that stuff paid themes.
Custom Theme designers start with drawings, typically in Adobe XD or Adobe Photoshop. They get your input on the design concepts before they doing any coding. This lets you, the client, see exactly what you are getting and make adjustments early in the design process.
WordPress agencies that create custom themes typically have a much higher level of expertise and they need to have real programmers on staff. This eliminates most or all the issues that occur during a WordPress project.
What Theme is Right for Your Business?
We recommend one of two approaches. If you can’t afford a real website then you should hire someone to customize a paid or free theme. Pay minimum dollars for this – do not pay agency type fees for this service.
Approach two, if you have the budget, hire an agency that does custom WordPress themes to design a theme and series of templates based on your brand. A real website, that is customized to your business can be as little as $2,500 and go up to six figures. In a given month we do 2-3 websites that cost under $5k.
