WordPress Child Themes: Why You Should Use Them

By Hazel Burgess on 11.24.17   /   WordPress   /   Leave a comment

Before I go into why you should used WordPress child themes for your small business website, let’s first talk about what a WordPress child theme is. All WordPress websites are built using a theme which controls how your website will look.

What is a WordPress Child Theme?

A WordPress child theme is basically a minified version of the main theme, known as the parent theme. WordPress child themes inherit the code, features, and functionality of the parent theme. You can use a child theme to customize, style, and extend the parent theme without having to touch the parent theme.

Why it’s Important to use a Child Theme

The parent theme must be kept up-to-date. The developer of a theme may may update it for several reasons. These reasons can include better compatibility with browsers, compatibility with WordPress core versions, adding new features to the theme, etc. So, when these updates are made to the parent theme, and you’re using a child theme, your website remains intact and is not affected by these updates.

To create a WordPress web design for your small business; to save you time and money, we can choose a theme that is appropriate for your industry and then completely customize it to fit your brand. The finished product looks nothing like the theme we start with and is completely reflective of your brand. By doing all of the styling and custom functions in a child theme, you don’t have to fear that your website will be changed when the parent theme is updated.

Choosing a WordPress Theme

Many small businesses are on a tight budget, and some B2B companies may be experiencing drops in revenue, thereby needing a quality website without breaking the bank. A existing WordPress theme would be an ideal solution. A specialist B2B companiesWordPress web design agency such as ourselves work with many types of WordPress themes on a daily basis and is in the best position to assist in recommending the most suitable theme for your business.

Trying to find a theme yourself is not recommended as it requires some expertise to discern the well-coded ones from the ones that look good on the surface but have issues under the hood. Selecting the right theme is important as it affects the performance of your website.

Wrapping up

If you’re wanting to know how we make websites, or you’re needing to update your site but you have questions about child themes, please don’t hesitate to contact us here at Envisager Studio or give us a call at 858-874-6528. We’d love to help you.