Customizing WordPress Websites Using Templates and Code

WordPress stands out for its flexibility and customizability to shape the website to meet exact, unique needs.

Flexibility built in

Through pre-built themes, plugins, and custom code, the possibilities for customizing WordPress are many.

Open source: Being an open-source platform, WordPress code is freely available for anyone to download and modify. Of course, one would not attempt to change WordPress core files! Extensive customization options follow using pre-built themes and plugins or by diving into code to create something unique.

Themes and plugins: With thousands of themes and plugins, WordPress enables one to modify the website’s design and functionality pretty much without adding a single line of code. Themes control the overall appearance of the site, while plugins add key functionality such as contact forms, community tools, and server cache management.

Child themes: A child theme inherits the functionality and styling of the parent theme. By using child themes, one can customize the design of the site without losing changes when the parent theme is updated.

Custom post types and fields: WordPress allows the creation of custom post types and custom fields/metadata (in WordPress parlance, pages are also posts, just have post-type of page), giving one the ability to structure content in ways that go beyond standard posts and pages. This is particularly useful for websites with specialized content, such as portfolios or directories.

Change made easy

WordPress uses a cavalcade of template files, defined by the WordPress template hierarchy that sets the order and priority of using these template files to render a specific page. When WordPress tries to display a given page, it works its way down the template hierarchy until it finds the first available template file that fits the requested page (the final default file is index.php that WordPress falls back upon if a more specific template file is not available).

Using templates for customization: Template files (made of PHP code including WordPress conditional tags and other WordPress functions as well as regular PHP and HTML) are the basic building blocks of WordPress themes, each responsible for different parts of the site (e.g., header, footer, single posts, or archives). Template files use the WordPress loop to display content, pulling in content from the WordPress database to display each page or post. One can customize the post/page by modifying templates or creating new ones.

Modifying theme templates: By modifying the theme’s template files, it is possible to tweak the layout, design, and functionality. For example, one might adjust the width of the content area, change the way post metadata is displayed, or add a custom sidebar.

Creating custom templates: WordPress allows one to create custom page templates, which can be assigned to specific pages using WordPress’s army of conditional tags. This is useful when certain pages need to have a different layout or functionality than the rest of the site.

Leveraging custom functions: By adding code to the theme’s `functions.php` file, one can add new functionality to the site. This could include custom stylesheets, icons like font awesome, or changing default theme properties, for example.

Adding custom CSS: Visual changes can be made via custom CSS in the WordPress Customizer or through a child theme. This is a powerful way to override default styles and layouts without changing the underlying code.

Infusing custom JavaScript: For interactive elements like sliders, pop-ups, or counters, custom JavaScript comes in handy. This can be done either by enqueuing scripts through the `functions.php` file or by embedding the code directly into theme template files.

Conclusion

While the customizability of WordPress is one of its key strengths, it also comes with certain caveats.

Theme and plugin compatibility: When modifying the site, especially when changing or adding code, there’s a risk that edits could conflict with the theme or plugins. This could lead to site errors, broken layouts, or even downtime. Testing changes in a staging environment before applying them is a good idea.

Future update proofing: Customizing a theme or plugin directly is not a great strategy as theme updates to original files that are pushed by the theme or plugin author will override one’s changes. Using child themes or custom plugins helps preserve customizations during an upgrade.

Customizing one’s WordPress website using templates and code opens a world of possibilities and the creation of a unique site that meets your needs. WordPress offers a huge number of tools to make change happen.