How to Properly Change a WordPress Theme (Ultimate Guide)

How to Properly Change Your WordPress Theme (2024 Guide)

Changing your WordPress theme is an easy way to give your site a major facelift and upgrade it with new features. However, switching themes is not a trivial task. If done incorrectly, changing your theme can result in broken pages, missing content, plugin compatibility issues, and even temporary downtime.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll walk you through the proper process of changing a WordPress theme step-by-step. We‘ll also share some best practices and tips to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption to your site. Whether you‘re a beginner or an experienced WordPress user, this article will help you change your theme the right way.

Why Change Your WordPress Theme?

There are many reasons why you might want to switch to a new WordPress theme:

1. New design – If your current theme looks outdated, a new modern theme can instantly make your site look fresh and professional. A better design can also improve user experience and reduce bounce rates.

2. Enhanced features – Newer themes often come with useful built-in features like sliders, drag-and-drop page builders, mega menus, etc. Instead of installing additional plugins for these functions, a feature-rich theme can provide them out of the box.

3. Better performance – Is your current theme bloated, slow, and not optimized for speed? A lightweight, well-coded theme can significantly improve your site‘s load times and overall performance.

4. Mobile responsiveness – Older themes may not be fully responsive and mobile-friendly. With mobile internet usage ever increasing, switching to a responsive theme is essential to provide a good user experience across devices.

5. Layout changes – You may have outgrown your current theme and want to change your site‘s layout and structure. For example, switching from a standard blog layout to a magazine-style theme with a featured content slider.

6. Compatibility issues – A theme that hasn‘t been updated in a while may have compatibility problems with the latest versions of WordPress core, plugins or PHP. Changing to a newer, regularly updated theme can resolve such issues.

Before Changing Your Theme – Steps to Prepare

Before you swap out your old theme for a shiny new one, it‘s crucial to properly prepare. Skipping the preparation can lead to problems down the road. Here are the key steps:

1. Back up your site – Start by creating a complete backup of your WordPress site, including the database and all files. In case anything goes wrong, you can quickly restore your site from the backup.

Use a reliable WordPress backup plugin like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy to automate the backup process. Store the backup files on a remote location like Google Drive or Dropbox, or download them to your computer.

2. Test new theme on a staging site – If possible, it‘s always better to try out the new theme on a staging site before deploying the changes to your live production site. A staging site is an exact replica of your live site that is not accessible to the public.

Many web hosts, including Bluehost, SiteGround and WP Engine, provide an easy staging environment. Some plugins like WP Staging also allow you to create a staging copy of your site.

Use the staging site to check the new theme‘s design, functionality and compatibility with your content and plugins. Iron out any issues on the staging site first.

3. List your customizations – Depending on the theme, you may lose some customizations when you change themes, like custom CSS, page templates, functions, etc. Go through your current theme‘s files and make a note of any modifications you‘ve made.

If you‘ve directly edited the theme files (which is not recommended), you‘ll have to manually re-create those changes in the new theme. A better alternative is to use a tool like WPCode to store custom snippets as the changes will persist even after changing themes.

4. Check theme compatibility – Before activating a new theme, check if it is compatible with the latest version of WordPress and PHP your site is running on. The theme‘s info page or readme.txt file should clearly state the minimum required versions.

Also test if the theme plays nice with all the active plugins on your site, especially major ones like your page builder, SEO, caching and e-commerce plugins. Some themes mention a list of plugins they are compatible with.

How to Change WordPress Themes Step By Step

Once you‘ve picked a new theme and prepared your site, follow these steps to properly change your WordPress theme:

1. Install the new theme – Start by downloading the new theme‘s files, usually a .zip archive. Remember to get the theme from a trustworthy source to avoid malware and security issues.

If you‘re using a free theme from the official WordPress.org directory, you can install it directly from the admin dashboard. Go to Appearance → Themes and click the ‘Add New‘ button at the top. Search for the theme by name and click ‘Install‘, followed by ‘Activate‘.

For premium themes, go to Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme. Click ‘Choose File‘, select the theme archive and click ‘Install Now‘. After installation, click ‘Activate‘ to enable the new theme.

2. Test and troubleshoot – After activating the theme, thoroughly test your site‘s front-end and back-end. Click through different pages and posts to see if everything looks and functions as expected.

Open the theme‘s settings or options panel and customize it to your requirements. Most themes use the WordPress Customizer which you can access under Appearance → Customize.

If you notice any missing content, images or functionality, figure out what‘s causing it. Some common culprits include:

• Plugins that are incompatible with the new theme
• Hardcoded URLs in theme templates that still point to the old theme‘s files or images
• Widgets that no longer exist in the new theme
• Custom CSS that isn‘t working anymore

3. Re-add custom code and snippets – Remember the customizations you had noted down earlier? Now is the time to add them back to your new theme.

If you are comfortable with editing theme files, you can create a child theme and add the custom code there. This will ensure your changes are preserved even when you update the parent theme.

However, we recommend using a plugin like WPCode to store custom snippets instead. It is much easier and safer than directly editing theme files. WPCode even detects if your snippets have errors and allows you to safely deactivate them.

4. Set up navigation menus – Your new theme may have different menu locations and structures than your old one. Go to Appearance → Menus and set up the navigation menus for the new theme.

If you‘re using a custom menu plugin like Max Mega Menu, you‘ll have to reconfigure it for the new theme. Most menu plugins have their own settings page where you can assign menus to different theme locations.

5. Re-create homepage and key pages – Some themes use page templates for key pages like the homepage, archives, contact page, etc. You may have to re-assign the desired template to these pages.

If your homepage is set to display latest posts, but you want a static page for the homepage, go to Settings → Reading. Under "Your homepage displays", select "A static page" and choose the page you want as the homepage.

6. Update permalinks – In some cases, especially if your old and new theme use different permalink structures, you may have to update your permalinks.

Go to Settings → Permalinks and click ‘Save Changes‘ to flush the rewrite rules and update permalinks. This will ensure all your page and post links work correctly with the new theme.

7. Customize theme options – Most WordPress themes, particularly premium ones, come with many customization options. Take your time to go through all the settings and tailor the theme to your liking.

Common theme settings include:

• Upload logo and favicon
• Customize colors and fonts
• Select default page layouts
• Configure archive and single post views
• Set up theme widgets and sidebars
• Integrate social media and analytics

Do not forget to click ‘Publish‘ or ‘Save‘ after making changes in the theme settings. Some themes auto-save the changes while others require a manual save action.

8. Optimize for speed – After setting up the new theme, test your website speed and performance. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyze the speed and get optimization recommendations.

Some tips to speed up your site with the new theme:

• Optimize images and use correct sizes for different devices
• Minify and concatenate CSS and JavaScript files
• Use a caching plugin like WP Rocket or WP Super Cache
• Enable Gzip compression on your web server
• Move to a faster web host if needed

9. Update XML sitemap – Finally, if you‘re using an SEO plugin that generates XML sitemaps, update the sitemap to reflect any URL changes after switching themes.

Re-submit the updated sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. This will help search engine bots quickly discover and index your new theme structure and URLs.

Best Practices for Changing WordPress Themes

Here are some best practices and recommendations to keep in mind when changing WordPress themes:

1. Avoid changing themes frequently – Constantly switching themes can confuse your regular visitors and affect your branding. Ideally, pick a flexible theme you can stick with for at least 1-2 years before considering a redesign.

2. Choose your theme wisely – Not all themes are created equal. Before picking a theme, research the theme developer‘s reputation. Stick to themes from the official WordPress directory or reputable theme shops like StudioPress, Elegant Themes and Astra.

When selecting a theme, prioritize clean code, speed and simplicity over fancy looks and animations. Look for themes that offer extensive documentation and reliable support.

3. Keep the theme updated – WordPress and plugins are regularly updated with new features, performance improvements and security fixes. Your theme should not be an exception.

Always run the theme on the latest version compatible with your WordPress install. Avoid themes that haven‘t received updates in over a year.

4. Use child themes for modifications – If you plan to heavily customize your theme, create a child theme instead of modifying the parent theme files directly. This will make it much easier to upgrade the theme without losing your customizations.

If creating a child theme is overwhelming, consider using a plugin like WPCode to add custom CSS and functions. This is a beginner-friendly alternative to child themes.

5. Take performance seriously – With a new theme, your site‘s performance can change for the better or worse. Don‘t ignore warning signs like slow page loads, heavy layout shifts and unoptimized image delivery.

Continuously monitor your website speed and optimize it using caching, image compression and code minification. A faster website leads to better user experience and improved search engine rankings.

Conclusion

Changing a WordPress theme can be a smooth process if you follow the right steps and best practices. Always start by thoroughly testing the new theme and ensuring compatibility with your plugins and content.

Use staging sites or local tools to test the new theme before deploying it on the live site. Take the time to properly configure the theme settings and customize it to your requirements.

If you run into any issues during or after the theme change, don‘t panic. Troubleshoot the problem or consider reverting back to the old theme until you find a permanent fix.

Remember, your WordPress theme is only one part of your website‘s design. Combine it with quality content, captivating images and visitor-friendly navigation to create a website that stands out from the crowd.