What is a Theme?
A Theme is basically like the clothes you wear. You can look different everyday by wearing a different outfit (Theme) each day but your body underneath (your web content) never changes.
Another example would be like a car (your website and content). A theme is like the colour of your car. You can change the colour of your car by painting a new coat on it – so a theme works the same way. It’s just a design that lies on top of your underlying web structure, so you can change your design anytime you wish without having to rebuild your website from scratch.
What is a Framework?
A WordPress framework is basically a Theme that extends the features and functionality of a basic WordPress installation. It also makes use of Child Themes (which we talk about below) to create and modify any kind of design for your WordPress installation.
A framework is like the underlying structure of a house. All the beams and planks that make up the structure of your house is the framework. How you divide up the rooms (the layout) and what colours you paint the walls and exterior is the child theme.
What is a Child Theme?
A child theme is similar to how we described what a Theme is above. In this case, a child theme only works with the presence of a Framework or also known as a Parent Theme (such as the Genesis framework).
The child theme makes use of the underlying framework and the functions and features it provides but has a modified design and look.
While we recommend the full value pack of Child themes that come with the Genesis Theme Framework, there is one particular Child theme that we’ll focus on for future tutorials, it’s the Prose child theme.
How Does Using the Genesis Theme Framework Benefit You?
- Built-In search engine optimization (SEO) features – which allows your content to be easily found by search engines such as Google and get you free traffic
- Easy to update – it’s important to always keep your WordPress installation and themes up-to-date. With Genesis, it’s as easy as clicking one button and you’re updated to the latest version.
- Large selection of turnkey, ready-to-go designs – with the Genesis Framework, you have the option to access all their existing child design themes as well as all FUTURE themes with their Pro Plus All Themes Package – this is the package we recommend as it is the best value (it’s the same one we purchased) – so, if you wanted to change the design of your website without needing a designer, you just upload and activate your favourite child theme and voila! Your website has a new design (no designer required)! Also, your content is still in the same place.
- It makes building and managing a website easier. Even for technical web developers, using a framework such as Genesis saves us a lot of time and tedious work in building a website turning a lot of tweaking of code into just clicks of a button.
Tools Mentioned in This Tutorial:
- Genesis Theme Framework by Studiopress
- Prose Child theme for Genesis
- Free Genesis for Beginners Guide
- Genesis Pro Plus All Theme Package (get unlimited updates, child themes, support, websites)
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