Curious about what you should do before changing WordPress themes?
If you change the theme of WordPress, you need to take some very important steps to ensure that the process runs smoothly and that important information isn’t lost.
We share three main things you need to do before changing WordPress themes in this WordPress checklist.
Changing the theme is an important decision that every website owner makes at least once in a few years. Of course, you have to decide why you are changing and choose a theme that suits all your needs.
Why it’s important to be careful
It is easy to change a WordPress theme. You have to add a new theme to your site and get started. This process may take a few minutes to have the key files ready.
The problem is that the change of theme does not always go smoothly. In our experience, the longer you use the same theme, the more likely you are to make a mistake when switching to something new. For instance:
Some elements of your site may no longer work. Your new theme may not match the compatibility of your essential plugins like WooCommerce request a quote. Any widget you create about your subject will disappear.
Of course, these issues don’t mean you shouldn’t change the theme – you have to be careful. First, you need to choose the right theme to replace your current choice. Once you know the right theme you want to change, you must focus on changing it thoughtfully and carefully.
3 Things You Must Do Before Changing WordPress Themes
When changing your theme in just a few clicks, you need to take some careful steps before starting the process.
#1. Test the new theme from every aspect
Before changing a WordPress theme, make sure that the theme includes demo information or not. If so, try changing the theme and ensuring your site is up to date. If that doesn’t work, take a blank topic without a description and try changing the themes. When I tried to replace a WordPress theme with demo content, I was faced with the corruption of various elements.
Getting a new theme from a trusted source is always recommended because free themes are not always reliable. In particular, free themes can pose security risks and threats in the future.
Always choose themes that have been recently updated, have good examples and reviews, and should have a lot of plugins. Look for topics that still have technical support. Look for any security issues and issues that may be reported to the target.
Test the look of the new theme on different devices such as laptops, desktops, iPad, different types and formats (iPhone/Android), and make sure that the look and feel of your website fit the needs.
If your current WordPress theme has a sidebar with widgets, make sure the new theme has the same functionality. Otherwise, you may lose information from your websites. If you’ve customized or added an extra feature in Sidebar, make sure everything works smoothly with the new theme.
#2. Back up your current WordPress website
It is usually a good idea to maintain your website at all times. Before changing the theme, you need to completely save your posts, pages, plugins, media, and data.
The easiest way to do this is to use the WordPress backup plugin to create a database of your entire website. This ensures that you can easily restore your site if something goes wrong when you change the theme.
The use of analytics helps web admins satisfy their websites for their audience. This information can be used to understand where it is coming from, which pages visitors are most interested in, how long they have interacted with your website and more.
This information will continue to help us add relevant web content to our readers. To continue accessing this information, be sure to copy the encoding details into a new theme.
Understanding the behaviour of visitors on the website provides valuable information on how to increase interest, how to retain visitors, and how to improve your website in the future.
The PHP snippets used in each main project file uses a programming language to provide different functions in one place. Following the rules may make it easier to correct these changes.
Stop the installation code snippet to easily install the new theme to perform the same functions as the old theme. If you have a problem with losing data on your website, accessing this information can save you a lot of time by cutting and pasting snippets into a new theme.
#3. Keep Plugins to a Minimum
New themes combine plugins, and using some features can help speed up time. The new theme often replaces many old plugins. Keeping these plugins to a minimum can always help improve your website’s performance. Slow load times make some people feel like visiting a certain website.
Some WordPress themes have pre-install plugins when they install the theme. Some of those can be useful, but sometimes they are not necessary. It’s also a good time to check the full plugin list to see if any plugins can be removed.
If you change the basic elements of WordPress one by one, you can easily see that everything is going well when you switch to a new theme. It can also help identify a problem when it occurs.
It takes a long time to become familiar with a new topic, so making slow changes can help avoid new mistakes. If all the changes are made simultaneously, it can be more difficult to identify specific problems. Slowly changing themes can save webmasters time.
Conclusion
Changing the theme of WordPress can be a daunting task for people making such changes for the first time, but doing the three steps above will help streamline the process.
Using a new theme can completely redesign your website with a few issues. Ensure everything is up to date, running smoothly, and monitoring to help your newly redesigned website succeed.