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WordPress is known for its versatility. It allows users to easily change their website’s theme to enhance its functionality and appearance.
However, before switching themes, it’s important to follow crucial steps to ensure a smooth transition and prevent the loss of vital website information.
1. Document critical aspects of the current theme
Changing your WordPress theme will likely change the structure and appearance of your site. If you have specific codes, colors, and links you want to keep, you should note them before making the switch.
If you made any manual changes to your current theme that affect the functionality of your website, you may need to do the same to the new theme.
2. Test the speed of your site
Before making any changes, you should test your site’s speed. A theme can affect page loading times, so it’s important to compare your current theme with the new one to ensure you’re not significantly slowing down your site. A sluggish site could end up costing you business.
3. Backup your site
Even though you shouldn’t have any issues switching between one WordPress theme and another, it’s essential to back up your site. Your new theme may not be compatible with installed plugins or the WordPress version you are using. Compatibility issues could lead to the white screen of death – which, trust us, you want to avoid!
4. Get in maintenance mode
Before doing any work on your website, you should put it into maintenance mode so your visitors don’t experience broken links or pages. Placing your website on maintenance mode tells people that you are updating your website and, therefore, gives a reason why visitors may experience downtime.
If you don’t explain, you could lose credibility.
5. Test all functionalities
After installing and activating the new theme, you should check that everything works. Things to test include checking the speed, broken links, broken images, 404 error pages, and any forms set up.
If you had manually added any code on your previous site, you would need to add that back to provide any functionalities you had in your old theme that you want to use in the new theme.
Some plugins are incompatible with certain themes, so you should check that they work correctly. If you experience any problems, you may need to deactivate plugins one at a time to identify which one is the issue.
6. Test across devices
Once you have tested for speed and functionality, you should test how the new site looks across all devices. As most visitors will access your site via a mobile phone or tablet, you must ensure that your new theme shows your website correctly on those devices.
Testing platforms and browsers are also necessary to ensure your website looks the same to all visitors regardless of device or platform.
7. Let your visitors know you are back
Once you’re happy with your new theme and satisfied it looks and works as it should, you must go off maintenance mode and let your visitors know about your new look. Posting about it on your social media channels will show transparency and reassure visitors that it is still the same site, albeit a new and improved version.
As it’s sometimes easy to miss bugs when you change the theme, ask your visitors to watch and give feedback on any issues. Again, this can be communicated via your social channels.
If you’re having trouble fixing any issues due to a change of theme, WP Tech Support can fix them. By signing up for our WordPress Maintenance Plans, you can continue to get ongoing support with any potential WordPress issues that may arise.