WordPress Themes and Plugins FAQ’s
What is a WordPress Theme?
A WordPress Theme is the web design structure that determines how a WordPress website looks. From its layout to the colors or images, the theme is what your visitors will see in your website. There are free themes as well as other ones that are paid for. Even more, many WordPress websites have custom themes developed by web design companies to fit the needs of specific businesses or audiences.
Lastly, it is essential to point out that WordPress themes are designed to be commonly changed or tweaked whenever the necessity for website innovation emerges.
What Can Themes Do?
Beyond the website’s appearance, the theme also determines how the content displays in the browser. Through the theme, you decide where and how the content is presented in the front-end of your website. Thus, there are endless options to building and customizing your WordPress theme. For instance, when it comes to your website’s layout, you can choose to have a static or a responsive one; you can have one or two columns, or a layout designed for specific devices. Furthermore, if you want your theme to reflect your business’ brand identity, you can customize fonts, colors, and images through your theme as well.
Effective website design, functionality and user engagement all go hand in hand. Hence, themes are incredibly important in web design, development and in marketing your business.
What is a WordPress Plugin?
A plugin is a piece of code that allows you to add a feature to your website. By using a plugin, you can add an extra functionality to your WordPress Website. For example, if you already have your website all set up for your local business, and you now want to share some of its’ content in social media, you can use a plugin for this. In most cases, you only need to find the necessary plugin and install it to your website to have this extra feature. In WordPress, plugins are usually written in PHP, CSS or JavaScript, and they can be free or require purchase.
What Is The Difference Between a Theme and a Plugin?
Sometimes, there are overlaps between themes and plugins when it comes to a website’s functionality. For example, if your theme has a built-in feature, then you might think you do not need to add a plugin to have such feature. Let’s say that you have chosen a theme for your online business with a feature that allows your visitors to add items to a cart, so you don’t have to add a plugin for your website to do this action
This is where the overlap between themes and plugins occurs and when we need to refer to WordPress best practices. In the previous scenario, the best thing to do would be to choose a theme without the “add to cart” feature and to use a plugin instead. Why? Rebranding and the necessity to improve a website’s appearance are common practices. This means that changing themes is common. Thus, if you choose a theme that has an important functionality and one day you decide to change themes, you will lose access to such feature.
In conclusion, according to WordPress best practices, it is always best to assign the design portion of your website to the theme, and the functionality aspect to the plugins.
