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Design Elements of a WordPress Theme

WordPress is a great tool to help companies reach a large targeted audience. It is completely customizable and can be designed to match your company’s exact look, feel and branding needs, and it all starts with the WordPress theme you use. Previously we talked about WordPress themes, so you should know that there are many free WordPress themes available to you or you can have your own WordPress theme designed by a professional design service. While you will have some ability to change design elements in a free WordPress theme, in one created just for you, you will have much more design control. Here are the design elements in WordPress themes:

  • Background: some WordPress themes have background graphics, and others don’t. The background is an image or string of images that are just that, in the background, which your information will cover part of. A good example is a background of polka dots or stripes.
  • Header: every WordPress theme has a header and even if you have your own WordPress theme designed it will need a header. This is typically the title of your blog. In a theme designed just for you, it can be designed in the exact way that you want it with images, fonts, colors and more.
  • Columns: columns range from one to usually three or four. In a professionally designed WordPress theme the number of columns will be up to you, while in a free WordPress theme you will need to stick with the number of columns that your selected theme has. Columns break up your information. For example, a newspaper theme provides multiple columns giving different information in each column, while a single column will only display your information in one large column.
  • Sidebar Menu: every WordPress theme will need some type of menu to help visitors navigate your site. The sidebar menu typically includes pages, categories, archives and more. All free WordPress themes come with a sidebar menu, however the amount of design changes you can make to it is limited. In a WordPress theme created just for you, the sidebar menu can be designed to your needs with the use of colors, fonts, shape, images and more, plus the sidebar location can be customized.
  • Footer: similar to the header, but usually smaller and simpler, the footer will usually just contain contact information or copyright information. It too can be completely customized with color, images, and fonts.
  • Color Scheme: you can create any color scheme you want in a WordPress theme designed just for you. It can be your company colors, or something completely different, it’s up to you. On the other hand, in some free WordPress themes you must use the assigned color scheme throughout the whole theme.

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