What is a custom WordPress website theme?
Posted on: 10 Jul 2015
Written by: Ngaire Ackerley
With a custom theme you can stand out from the crowd
WordPress, that’s the blogging platform right? Well yes and no. Nowadays it’s used more and more as the content management system behind fully functional websites.
Themes are the design and functionality behind the website. So, when you see different designed layouts and slideshows, galleries, forms etc. these are all part of the theme.
Why a Custom WordPress Theme?
These days you can do a Google search and come up with a $500 or less website pretty easy. Chances are it may not be user friendly and it could look the same as many other websites. They may offer lots of template options, but from those templates the best, user friendly and nice looking ones may be used by a lot of people. If you’re on a very tight budget and just want to get something online, then these sort of options may be just what you need.
If you’re after a website that reflects the look and feel of your business or charity then you might be after a custom designed theme to stand out from other companies and charities.
The custom designed WordPress themes that I create have a specific design that suits the clients branding and goals. It is specific and individual, with the layouts and functionality that the client’s company or charity needs. It is kept lightweight for speed and ease of use, unlike many stock-themes that have lots of extras that are unnecessary and can slow a site down.
A custom theme for a website can still contain a blog section. WordPress allows blogging to be very simple and allows you to add videos, podcasts, links, images and other content very easily. With a blog on your website you can keep your audience interested and informed as well as encouraging your site’s SEO performance.
A few examples of custom themes I created while working at LBDesign.
Why WordPress?
In a nutshell: Great performance, flexibility and ease of use.
Similar to text editing software, WordPress allows you to easily edit text, images, add videos and other media. You can have multiple users if you’re a company with a few people that write content.
WordPress is the chosen content management system (CMS) by many companies and charities all around the world, with thousands of developers and designers everywhere. I’ve been working with it for the last 5 years and I am always impressed with it.
If you would like some inspiration for a custom website design, check out my website portfolio section here »
Or, if you’re interested in starting a web project and want to know more, feel free to send me an email at ngaire@designack.com.
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