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Website Builder (for WordPress) - How to Get Started with Website Builder Template

Nowadays, almost every single online website follows a similar structure. You'll find that all good websites have template structures that follow a "best practices" logic, making it easy for your visitors to enjoy your website.

You can build a website easily using a template for your website. Templates are like clothing for your web page. Templates are basically a wardrobe for your website but with more options! The look, feel, and placement of everything about your website pages will depend on the template you choose. There are templates you can pay for, and free website templates are available in the Bluehost Website Builder Editor.

In this article, we will learn how to access the professionally designed, easy-to-use Bluehost Website Builder templates inside the builder, covering some basic theme features for your website and the mobile version of your website.

Note: Bluehost's website builder has been replaced with Wondersuite, a WordPress Website Builder designed to better meet your online presence needs. To learn more about Wondersuite, read our article on: Introducing Bluehost WonderSuite: WordPress made WONDERful.



 

What is a Website Builder Template or Theme?

A website builder template or theme is a pre-designed framework that allows users to create a website without having to design it from scratch. Essentially, it provides a ready-to-use structure that includes a specific design, layout, color scheme, font choices, and often functionality for a website. Templates or themes are often customizable, meaning you can adjust certain elements like colors, fonts, and images to match your personal or business branding, but the core design and layout remain consistent.

These templates are typically provided by website building platforms such as WordPress, among others, to make web design accessible to users with little to no coding skills. They cover a wide range of categories and styles, including, but not limited to, e-commerce, blogs, portfolios, corporate websites, and personal websites. Each category of template is optimized for its purpose, with e-commerce templates including features for online sales, blog templates focusing on text and content presentation, etc.

The use of a template or theme can significantly speed up the website creation process, reduce development costs, and ensure a professional-looking design. However, the trade-off can sometimes be a lack of uniqueness, as other websites may use the same template. To mitigate this, many users customize their chosen templates extensively, making use of the customizable options provided and sometimes adding custom CSS or HTML code to further personalize their site.

What Type of Website Design is Commonly Used for Building Mobile Websites?

For building mobile websites, the most commonly used design approach is Responsive Web Design (RWD). Responsive design allows a website to adapt its layout and content to fit the screen size and resolution of any device, from desktop computers to tablets and smartphones. This adaptability is achieved through the use of fluid grid layouts, flexible images, and CSS3 media queries. 

Key Elements of Responsive Web Design include:

  • Fluid Grids: A fluid grid layout uses relative units like percentages, rather than fixed units like pixels, for all layout components. This makes the layout of the website flexible and fluid, allowing it to expand or contract to fit the screen size of the viewing device.

  • Flexible Images: Images in a responsive website are also sized in relative units, so they can scale up or down depending on the screen size. This ensures that images look good on all devices without causing horizontal scrolling or layout issues.

  • Media Queries: CSS3 media queries allow designers to apply different sets of CSS rules based on the characteristics of the device displaying the site, such as the width of the viewport, device orientation, and resolution. This enables precise control over how content is displayed on various devices.

  • Mobile First: Many designers adopt a "Mobile First" approach, starting with the design and layout for mobile devices and then scaling up to larger screens. This prioritizes performance and user experience on mobile devices, which is crucial as mobile internet usage continues to rise.

Advantages of Responsive Design:

  • Flexibility: Websites can adjust seamlessly to any screen size, ensuring a good user experience across all devices.

  • Cost-effectiveness: Rather than developing separate websites for desktop and mobile, a single responsive site can cater to all users, reducing development and maintenance costs.

  • Improved SEO: Google recommends responsive design as a best practice for mobile web design. Responsive websites have one URL and the same HTML, which makes it easier for Google to crawl and index content.

  • Responsive Web Design is widely regarded as an essential standard for web development, given the variety of devices used to access the internet today. It ensures that users have a consistently good experience, no matter how they choose to access a website.

Accessing  Bluehost Website Builder for WordPress Templates

A website builder template or theme is a fully customizable "theme" that empowers you to look and feel what you want without custom-coding everything from scratch. The only skills you need are drag-and-drop, copy & paste. Follow the steps below to choose your website builder template.

Need help or a refresher on how to log in? Follow this guide on how to login to your Bluehost website builder for WordPress.

  1. To begin, log in to your Account Login Links and click on the Websites tab.
  2. Hover over the website you wish to update, and click the Edit option.
  3. Once you have launched the Website Builder, navigate to the Menu & Pages tab in the left-hand corner of the main design dashboard.
  4. Click the New Pages button at the top of the Menus & Pages section.
  5. Next, you'll be automatically prompted to choose a template as your first step in building your new site or page.

Here is a quick walkthrough down below:

bh-website-builder-template-theme-new-page-walkthrough

All Bluehost themes are easy to change to a different look or style whenever you want, using basic computer skills. Whether it's changing something small like a color scheme or something major like adding new pages, replacing sections elements, etc., your Bluehost website builder does quick work out of editing pages.

If you do not like your template selection, you will have to delete this instance and start over. Remember, though, that you can customize nearly every element of the templates available, so there's nothing about one theme that can not be achieved in another theme.

Accessing Bluehost Website Builder for WordPress Mobile Themes/Templates

How to create a mobile version of a website? Our templates are all mobile-optimized, too! This means you can be confident knowing you can adjust your mobile website to look great on all browsers.

  1. To do so, look for the little Mobile icon in the top center of the main design dashboard
    bh-builder-wp-mobile-website-template-interface
  2. Once the mobile interface editor loads, you may begin editing and making changes for mobile viewing.
    bh-builder-wp-mobile-website-template-interfece-setting

Summary

To ensure you get the look and feel you want without having to custom code everything, using the Bluehost Website Builder template inside the editor provides a website theme for your website and a mobile version of your website. You can add and be creative with adding sections and elements to both versions of your website, browser, and mobile website design.

This guide will show you other features, such as editing, moving, and deleting sections for your Bluehost Website Builder. Check out our great tips for building a website with Bluehost Website Builder at our blog: Quickstart Bluehost Website Builder Tutorial: Using Mixed Mode and How To Build a Website on Bluehost.

If you need help taking your business to the next level, check out an overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and SEO Marketing Packages and Plans.

If you need further assistance, feel free to contact us via Chat or Phone:

  • Chat Support - While on our website, you should see a CHAT bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Click anywhere on the bubble to begin a chat session.
  • Phone Support -
    • US: 888-401-4678
    • International: +1 801-765-9400

You may also refer to our Knowledge Base articles to help answer common questions and guide you through various setup, configuration, and troubleshooting steps.

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