What is WordPress theme? Probably you know it. But do you have any idea to choose best 1 for your site? Read on to know the super idea.
WordPress is a popular Content Management System(CMS) and power ups almost 35% websites over the internet. That means every one and half out of four websites that you visit are built on it. The reason for its popularity is that it is an open source content management system and available publicly for any kind of commercial use. So, many professional web site creators are also using this system. Furthermore, WordPress is very much scalable and easy to understand. You may require advance knowledge to build a complex website using WordPress though. As a beginner you can learn it easily and build common websites.
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When you start building a website using WordPress, you need to play with WordPress theme and plugins. WordPress theme deals with the front end design of the websites, where as plugins mostly are used for the functionalities.
What is WordPress theme ?
WordPress theme is like the skin. The theme controls how the site looks like. This is the main appearances of the website. It is the front end show of the website. The theme consists of HTML, CSS and other PHP files which controls the appearance of any WordPress website.
You can control the looks and feel of the website by changing the theme according to your requirements. This is often defined by the website owner depending on the user experiences. You can even modify these themes as you like. While making the changes according to your requirements, it is always recommended to make changes using the child theme.
What is a WordPress Child Theme ?
Like What is WordPress theme, this question is also important. If you are well aware of what is WordPress theme, you need to be familiar with child theme as well. Specially if you are a developer this is most important than anything else related to WordPress theme.
WordPress child theme is a clone theme of the main theme. The clone theme carry all the appearance and the functionality of the main theme. Child theme may also contain some additional features that can be added to a website. Then you may wonder why should you use the child theme? Wait a bit, I have tried below to answer that as well. But before that you must be clear about what is WordPress theme and what is WordPress child theme.
Lets try to clear it out with the final words.
WordPress theme is the main skin of the website. It controls the look and feel of the website. And a child theme is the clone of the WordPress theme that carry all the appearance and functionalities of the main theme plus any additional features that can be added to a site. WordPress main theme and child theme act same like a parent and a child. Thus the main theme is also called a parent theme.
Why do we need a child theme ?
A child theme carry all the appearances and the functionalities of the main theme or parent theme. Then you definitely have the question in mind what is the use of child theme.
People create Child theme when they need to add some extra features to the parent theme. however, sometime to reduce some features in the main theme has to reduce from the site. In a sense we need a child theme if we need to modify the theme either way adding some features or removing some features. You can also do the changes directly to the main or parent theme but it is not recommended specially while you are using the standard theme from any developer. The main or parent theme keep getting updates and you may loose the changes while updating theme. Thus using child theme is the good idea.
How to choose best theme for your site?
This is also a million dollar question like what is WordPress theme for many developers. You can not always use the special theme for all of your sites. I mean doing the special hand coding for each and every sites you create or manage is time consuming. I do not recommend it either. Better you go for one standard theme and do the necessary modification using the child theme.
While choosing the best theme for your site decide whether you go for free or premium theme. If you are going for a free theme I always recommend you to go to the WordPress theme repository and do the theme search.
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Once you find the theme that is identical to your idea choose and download it. Once downloaded create child theme and use it in your site. Do all the necessary modification into the child theme. In this way you can update the parent theme from the developer whenever an update is available.
If you are looking for a premium theme I usually recommend very few ones. Why? The simplest answer would be that “creating WordPress theme is not a simple task” It is not easy like knowing what is WordPress theme. Creating WordPress theme requires a lot of in depth knowledge. I believe it also requires a lot of team effort. So I always recommend three themes to start with.
- My Theme Shop
- Astra
- Generate Press
These are themes and theme developer that I rely on many websites that I create for my clients. These theme developers also come with some free themes and features you can also choose some of them.