subject: Tips for Wordpress Theme Development [print this page] Tips for Wordpress Theme Development Tips for Wordpress Theme Development
WordPress Themes are files that work together to create the design and functionality of a WordPress website.
Designing and developing a Theme for WordPress is very long work especially for themes with theme options, widgets, semantic code, clean interface and SEO features. Mostly this theme is used to give a unique look for your WordPress website, to provide alternate templates, to switch between two website layouts to allow site owners to change the look of your site.
It is always advisable to build your own WordPress Theme as it is very creative. It is created by using CSS, HTML and PHP. It has many benefits like
It allows customization of the website functionality.
Changes in the visual design and layout of the WordPress website can be done quickly and easily.
It separates the presentation styles and template files from the system files so that the website can be upgraded without any drastic changes to the visual presentation of the website.
There is no need to have a sound knowledge of CSS, HTML and PHP of the WordPress site owner in order to have a great looking website.
Some points should be considered while using this kind of themes for quality WordPress theme coding.
1] Theme Constants should be used: Always constants should be used so that server's resource is not wasted for creating and calling functions. So repetitive information should be defined as constants and can be used whenever needed.
2] Theme Localization: Theme localization can be done easily in WordPress and it is a good practice if you want that your theme should be widely used.
3] SEO Meta tags: SEO level of the theme can be improved by creating Meta title and Meta description tags. This would be beneficial from SEO point of view.
4] Creating Theme Options: With inclusion of option panel user can easily change many options like Google Analytics ID, header logo, background color, ads codes, etc. This will definitely bring your theme to a higher level.
5] Creating Sidebars and Widgets: Sidebars and Widgets are mostly used in professional themes. In WordPress creating sidebars and widgets is very simple and it will also give your theme a total professional look.
6] Using Theme Template File: Using theme template file is the best and fastest way to have different layouts in your blog for some web pages without getting any effects to the rest of the blog.
7] Using Theme Hierarchy: Using theme hierarchy efficiently can help to economize time to create multiple layouts for the blog. And if theme hierarchy and theme template are used combined then we can get more power to full control your blog layout.
8] Using Theme Frameworks and Child Themes: With WordPress theme framework you get many in-built features like SEO, additional hooks, more widgets and layouts. If you use child themes along with theme framework can reduce your theme development time. Many theme frameworks are available which are free and premium.
So these are some of the tips which should be considered while Theme Development for Wordprss.
