While there are many WordPress themes available, it can be challenging to find one that looks exactly the way you want it to. You might be tempted to create your theme. However, getting into theme development can seem overwhelming, especially to a beginner.
Fortunately, creating a custom WordPress theme is a relatively straightforward process. There is no more significant need for technical knowledge or web development experience. Creating your theme can be worth it as it can make your site look and function just beautifully.
An Introduction to WordPress Theme Development
You want your site to look great, have all the features you need, and then check out the WordPress theme directory. Unfortunately, nothing you see meets all of your requirements, and you don’t want to compromise your vision.
At this point, you can start to consider creating your theme. Fortunately, developing a WordPress theme isn’t the most complicated subject you can imagine. With the inherent ease of use of the platform and the many tools available, almost anyone can create a custom theme.
We’ll walk you through the process of creating your first theme. To get started, you will need two things:
- Your WordPress website
- A quality hosting plan.
You will also gain experience with local staging environments, as you will be using one to create your theme. Having some understanding of CSS and PHP will also be helpful (if not required).
A crucial tool that you may need is the starter theme, and It is fundamental.
What Is a Starter Theme (and Why Do I Need It)
A starter theme is an underlying WordPress theme that you can use as a foundation to build your own. There is a need for the initiator to make a better framework without worrying about the complexities involved in coding a theme from scratch. It is not that complex and can help you out to understand how WordPress works by showing you the basic structure of a theme and how it works together. If you are using RAID and you have lost your data contact RAID recovery services.
There are plenty of beginner themes out there, including UnderStrap, Bones, and underscores,
We’ll use underscores for our example below. This is a reliable option for beginners because it only contains the basics. This starter theme is developed by Automattic, which makes it safer, more compatible, and has excellent long-term support.
Once the preparation is complete, you are finally ready to start creating your first theme. As we mentioned, we’ll be using a starter theme for this tutorial.
However, if you want to create everything yourself without a template, feel free to do so. Keep in mind that this will require a lot more coding skills and web development understanding.
Create an environment for local development first while from going through this step to forward. It’s a server that you install on your computer, which you can use to develop and manage local WordPress sites. A local site is a safe way to develop a theme without affecting your live site.
