Attractive design is a key element that's capable of making visitors come back to your website. If you already own a WordPress powered website then it's actually possible for you to switch to innovative site themes on a regular basis. You can easily customize your WordPress theme for a look and feel that matches the current scenario in the world of online business.
Whether it's about wishing Happy New Year to your visitors or making them familiar with the latest deals offered by you; opting for custom WordPress theme development is what'll help you do it in the right way.
Through this blog, I aim to make you aware about the importance of choosing the right approach during custom WordPress theme development.
Why customizing a WordPress theme is important for a WordPress site owner?
Before I start elaborating on the importance of following the right theme customization strategy, it's important for you to understand why actually one (company/individual) needs to customize the WordPress theme for his/her website. There's no denying of the fact that a unique web design is competent in raising many eyebrows.
In other words, if your site has a unique theme then there are greater chances for visitors getting attracted to your website. The sole aim of building a website is to convey your business message clearly and with a unique theme, you can attain this goal with ease.
Recommended WordPress ThemesIt's important to identify the structure of your WordPress site's theme
Prior to making any changes to your WordPress theme, it's crucial to understand the structure and working of the same. If you open the default theme folder (wp-content/themes/default), you can see several PHP files (also called template files) and a single style.css file. Whenever you view the front page of your website, it's WordPress that's using these template files to generate the page.
WordPress theme's core structure includes the following:
Selecting the strategy for customizing your WordPress theme
Before starting off with custom WordPress theme development, do make a note of all the website sections you want to alter. This is crucial for affirming best results for your theme customization efforts. You can choose from two techniques that are utilized for customizing the theme of a WordPress website. Here's a brief on these two techniques:
What all you need to remember while choosing WordPress theme customization approach?
Hey there, now let me put forth the points that need to be remembered while indulging in theme customization for your WordPress website. Here's a list of these points:
- Use a child theme- It's always recommended to use a child theme while customizing the core WordPress theme. Doing this prevents the loss of important changes that might have been done on your WordPress theme, previously.
- Explore the built-in functionality of your current WordPress theme- Its absolutely stupid to work on customizing CSS/PHP of your site for buttons/columns that already exist in your current WordPress theme. You must explore all the in-built functionalities available with your current website theme to avoid wastage of time and efforts.
- Customize in the right order- Whether you want to make a small change or wish to alter the WordPress theme from scratch, you need to follow a set order for the same. Here's the order that needs to be followed for customizing your WordPress theme:
Step 1- Check out for any theme options that are available for undertaking the change, you're inclined to make.
Step2- Opt for editing the site's CSS to alter the theme's design. Do this with the help of child theme that's named as style.css.file.
Step3- For performing any structural changes, use the functions.php file.
Step4- Add the new template files to the child theme, you've worked with.
Step5- Opt for downloading and installing a plugin (This is recommended only in case of major feature additions)
Look into proper validation and filtering of data that's going into and coming from the database respectively
It's advised to pay special heed to the security of your WordPress theme while performing the customization steps. You must validate the data that's entering your site's database. In addition to this, you must also filter the data that's coming from the database. Keeping these two points in mind will protect your WordPress theme from harm that's caused due to malicious code, cropped in after a number of users have been permitted to change the theme's settings.
Conclusion
So, if you're looking for an attractive, secure and well-coded WordPress theme, you can't go wrong with the customization technique. You can always seek the guidance of expert WordPress developers who'll offer you out-of-the-box tips and tricks on customizing your WordPress theme in an result-proven manner.
Hope you'd have loved reading my post. Please do share your feedback/suggestions using the comments box below.Author Bio: Jason Roiz is an innovative and experimental veteran developer, who now devote his time in advising its clients to hire WordPress Developers. He is also associated with OSSMedia an experienced and iconic Custom WordPress Development , which has delivered a wide array of web development projects in past.
Dont forget to share this article in social media! You can also Join BloggersIdeas on Facebook & Google+ for getting similar updates.