11 Things To Do Before You Change WordPress Theme

If you are a wordpress theme finder and got something incredible and planning to change your wordpress theme? It is not a big deal. Changing the wp theme is easy enough for a novice to do. However, lesser-known fact, especially to new WordPress bloggers, is that this mundane operation may lead to unthinkable circumstances. WordPress is not this simple CMS. You may lose important data you cannot afford to lose at any cost unless you take some precautionary steps before changing the WP theme.

Here is the reason behind this. WordPress themes differ a lot from each other in various aspects. Layout options, menus, functions can be 180 degrees opposite to one another.

In this post, we will tell you about 11 things you should do before you change wordpress theme of your blog or website. Otherwise, be ready for disaster.

 

1. Never Put Aside Your Sidebar & Widgets

Perhaps, sidebar is one of the most user-customized areas in wordpress website. May be it is so because sidebar widgets are very easy to use. Many people use it to customize sidebars. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that new theme is widget ready.

A lot of people add custom text, images, links and other widgets. One other common practice is to add advertisements in or outside the sidebar. In case your old wordpress theme was widget enabled and new is not, problems will surface. You can lose all your widgets. So take any measure to remember them. You should also remember that in case you have edited sidebar.php file. Those modifications will also completely disappear. Record them too.

2. Note Down Statistics of Current Theme

If you have been using old theme, there will be plethora of things that will be wiped out after the change. In addition, you also need to figure out if new theme works better or not. Note down the statistics.

Record every detail in it. This is essential for comparison. Very first thing you need to record is loading time.

Usually wordpress web master use Google to find out the solution of any problem they are facing. What happens in most cases is they get their solution in form of snippets or short codes. They have to add these snippets in wordpress files to solve the problem. There is zero probability of remembering these onetime changes. Therefore, you must go through all your theme files and record these changes. Perhaps, you will have to add them again after you change WP theme.

3. Ensure proper functioning of RSS

People usually use FeedBurner for their WordPress feeds. It is very important to point out your default feeds to FeedBurner, when you integrate FeedBurner into WordPress. Many WP themes enable you to integrate FeedBurner from their settings panel. It is your responsibility to make it sure that feed stays directed to .

If you do not you may end up losing track of many subscribers because they were subscribed using the /feed/ url which no longer points to FeedBurner. Read this sentence again with total attention.

You will lose track of many subscribers, not the subscribers themselves. You will only be unable to see them in your FeedBurner account.

4. Do Not Forget To Back up Your Website

This point is important enough to be on first number. This is a basic precaution, which can save you from any impending disaster. It is always better to be safe than sorry. So ensure the back up of your files, plugins, database etc.

5. Remember the Tracking Code

Never forget to copy and paste tracking code to your new theme. It does not matter that which technique you are using for analytics.

6. Test Every Functionality including Cross Browser Compatibility & Plugins

It is the something you have to do, once you are done with changing theme. Question your performance in preserving all the functionality and plugins.

The notes you have taken would come handy now. You can use them to transfer functionalities. Test your website in all browsers.

7. Do Not Compromise User Engagement

Importance of user needs no introduction. They are the ones you make website or blog for.

If user visits during the procedure of theme change, nothing but broken links would be there to welcome him. You can avoid this by turning on maintenance mode. Do not forget to turn it off later, when you are done with changing.

8. Ensure Good Looks of Third Party Items

Changing theme, in most of the cases results in changing color scheme. Thing to note her is that, third party items will not lose their color. So do adjust them with your new color scheme somehow.

9. Remove Unwanted Plugins

WordPress theme bridge has some plugin, built-in by default. Check out which one do your new theme has. If anyone of them is already installed, delete it.

10. Check For Bounce Rate

You must have the old in your record. Compare it with the new one after you change theme. In case it increments, you have to take action. Try adding related posts widgets or popular posts widgets for convenience of your readers.

11. Take Audience on Board About the Change

Right after you turn off the maintenance mode, write a quick blog post to let the users know about it. They may help you in catching bugs, by noticing things you have not noticed. It would also increase their trust.

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  • Avatar
    June 1, 2019 at 1:34 pm

    Sir thank you I always follow your tips and thank you so much.

  • Avatar
    Rahul singh
    August 12, 2019 at 1:14 pm

    How do i know that my current theme is better than previous one ? and thnx for the tips

  • Avatar
    Ns Amin
    September 1, 2019 at 11:46 am

    Thanks for share this informative tips… Love you

  • Avatar
    Rehan
    September 2, 2019 at 10:46 am

    Thanks A Lot!

  • Avatar
    Manus
    September 8, 2019 at 2:37 pm

    it’s really valuable for me, some days ago I mistake it I hope now I cleared

  • Avatar
    September 8, 2019 at 2:35 pm

    Nice Information, Thanks for share with us

  • Avatar
    Sagar
    September 12, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    Thanks for the great information about WordPress theme change! I impressed this post. This information is very useful for many web users.

  • Avatar
    movie rulz
    September 17, 2019 at 4:13 pm

    This is a very good article.

  • Avatar
    Amrit Singh
    September 20, 2019 at 6:43 am

    Thanks for the wonderful article. Very well written. I was doing it wrong all these years changing my wordpress themes.

  • Avatar
    Ranjith
    September 25, 2019 at 12:47 pm

    Really, Very useful article for me because I am a blogger. Thanks for sharing these kinds of useful articles.

  • Avatar
    September 27, 2019 at 4:29 am

    Thanks for sharing! Really valuable information, learned a lot today. #athemeart

  • Avatar
    September 27, 2019 at 2:24 pm

    this is helpful post

  • Avatar
    GBWA
    September 29, 2019 at 9:11 am

    Thanks for the great 11 tips, such a good post.

  • Avatar
    Prajakta
    October 12, 2019 at 7:43 am

    Thanks A Lot Sir.. I always follow your tips. 😉

  • Avatar
    bia
    January 23, 2020 at 11:46 pm

    I think the themes are amazing

  • Avatar
    whatsapp gb
    March 16, 2020 at 10:05 am

    nice post

  • Avatar
    atishmkv
    April 29, 2020 at 2:56 pm

    These tips really helped my site a lot.

  • Avatar
    gb plus official
    June 12, 2020 at 11:39 am

    Great Article, Keep providing such type of information.

  • Avatar
    Awais Murtaza
    October 5, 2021 at 8:11 am

    Thank you so much. very good.

  • Avatar
    October 11, 2021 at 11:21 am

    very nice. keep it up good work.

  • Avatar
    ahmad
    October 13, 2021 at 11:52 am

    The checklist of 11 things you should consider before thinking about changing your WordPress theme: data backup, shortcodes, theme functionality and so on.

  • Avatar
    crack c
    November 28, 2021 at 8:00 am

    Your website is amazing! Specifically, I like how easy it is to read and how well the data is displayed.
    If you could notify me every time a new post is published, that would be great.

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