What are WordPress Templates?

WordPress Templates

Website management without coding

WordPress is a content management system (CMS) created in 2003 by Mike Little and Matt Mullenweg as an offshoot of a blogging site (b2/cafelog). A CMS is software that allows users with little to no programming knowledge to manage different website components conveniently. This gives users more freedom and control over their sites and streamlines publishing workflows by reducing dependency on web developers. Consider, for example, the importance of quickly correcting a price on an eCommerce site or posting a blog entry about some trending news during the weekend.

While WordPress continued to be used for blogging in its early days, nowadays, it powers over 43% of the Internet’s websites covering all sorts of website categories: business websites, eCommerce stores, membership sites, blogs, social networks, forums, portfolios, non-profit and government sites, etc. Its notable market share and website diversity show that WordPress has been successful in achieving its mission to democratize publishing.

What are WordPress Templates?

Besides being free and open-source software, WordPress is licensed under the GPLv2 (General Public License). This gives programmers access to the software’s source code and allows them to make changes and redistribute modified versions. In these conditions, a massive ecosystem of website customization options has emerged: thousands of plug-ins and website themes allow non-programmers to tailor their websites to their needs.

Plug-ins are software components that add custom functions and features to websites created with WordPress, like integrating social media or search engine optimization (SEO). On the other hand, themes are complete website designs covering overall functionality and appearance and include aspects like color palette, font, and page layout.

WordPress Templates are files found within themes that determine the layout of a single page or a group of pages. They define, for example, how your home page looks and if its content layout differs from the other pages in your WordPress website. Themes can include different types of templates for pages, posts, calendars, media files, and more. Some are standard templates found in most themes, like the archive template that displays a list of all posts on a website, and others are special templates that deliver special features like a special sidebar or contact page template.

The vast ecosystem of WordPress themes and templates can make the web design process more efficient and inspire design ideas so you end up with a beautiful and functional website you can manage. Talk to your Web Designer in Syracuse, NY, for more information.