Choosing a Great WordPress Theme
Of the 644 million1 active websites on the internet at the moment, over 73 million2 of them were created using WordPress. It is, by far, the most popular web design software available at the moment with as many as 22% of new active websites3 being powered by WordPress. It is being used on five times4 as many sites as its nearest rival, Joomla. The reason why WordPress is such a dominant force in the blogosphere is that it is the most intuitive, user friendly web design software on the market and it is also the most adaptable. WordPress can be used to create any sort of website imaginable, and the key to this universality is the variety of themes, plug-ins and widgets that can be used in conjunction with the software to create an individual and practical site.
The foundation of all WordPress sites is the theme that is used to determine the layout. Because WordPress is Open Source or General Public License (GPL) software, it can be modified by users, and according to WordPress there are currently 1,514 themes and there have been 48,431,038 themes downloaded5, the majority of the time for free. With so many themes it can be difficult to decide which one is right for your website and so it is important to decide what you want from your website before you start.
Generally, WordPress websites consist of pages with a header, footer, a dynamic blog style page and a sidebar or two. WordPress offers the option of having up to four columns in the dynamic feed of the site, as well as a huge variety of features such as drop down menus and tabbed sidebars. There is a full range of colors and page layout options to help foster your creativity. To make it easier for you to choose, WordPress have a Free Themes Directory where you can browse and compare them to find the one that suits your individual website.
The real power of using WordPress lies in the huge number of plug-ins that are available to be used with the site. There are currently 19, 463 plug-ins6 available through WordPress and they can be used to modify the theme to suit almost any purpose. The intended functionality of the website determines which plug-ins you will want to use, and there are commercial plug-ins that create every sort of business website imaginable, but it is also possible to download free plug-ins for any purpose from the WordPress Plug-in Directory.
Once you have decided on the color scheme, the format of the page layout, and the plug-ins that you want to use, you can go to the Free Themes Directory Tag Filter and search through the 1,514 themes available to find the right one for you. With the large number of themes that are offered it should be possible to find a free theme; however, there also a large number of privately produced themes, many available through WordPress, which come with full support for a fee.
Web design is now something that anyone with an average amount of computer knowledge can usually handle by themselves. Creating a dynamic and productive website for a business no longer needs to cost a lot of money, and because WordPress is so user friendly and the dashboard is based around a familiar word processing format which looks like Word, most people can also maintain a WordPress site for themselves very easily. Even so, if you feel that you would like some help getting started on your own WordPress website, InfintechDesigns.com can help you to put together the right site for your business.
References:
1. http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-03-08/tech/31135231_1_websites-domain-internet
2. http://en.wordpress.com/stats/
3. http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/19/wordpress-now-powers-22-percent-of-new-active-websites-in-the-us/
4. http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/comparing-the-numbers-wordpress-joomla-drupal/31988/
