In this chapter, we learned some extra tips and tricks to make your themes even better. We learned about:
- Template files – creating them and using them to display different content in different parts of your site. We created a custom page template for pages needing full width content and no sidebar.
- Conditional tags – we looked at how to use them to display different content or hide content when certain conditions are met. We used a conditional tag to hide the page title on the home page.
- Theme Customizer – we added this functionality to our theme and gave users the option of tweaking some colors.
- SEO – we worked through an SEO checklist for theme building and optimized our theme's images, links, and meta tags for SEO.
You're now at the end of this book and have worked through the process of creating your first WordPress theme from scratch, congratulations! You've learned how to:
- Design a theme and prepare wireframes and mockups
- Write the HTML and CSS for your theme
- Convert your HTML to PHP and split that into template files
- Add template tags, menus, widgets, and more
- Debug and validate your theme
- Package your theme up for users
- Enhance your theme with advanced features
You now have an all-singing, all-dancing theme which goes beyond the basics and will enable you (and other users) to create great websites.
Being able to build WordPress themes is a core skill without which you can't really achieve very much with the platform. You now have the skills you need to design and develop great themes for your own or your client sites or for release to other WordPress users.
Now all that's left is for you to put what you've learned into practice on some more themes and enjoy being a theme developer. Good luck!