Do you want to know what happens when you switch WordPress themes?
With so many great WordPress themes available, it can be tempting to switch to a new theme. However, there are a few things to keep in mind before you switch.
In this article, we’ll answer what happens when you switch your WordPress theme, so you know what to expect.
What Happens if You Change Themes in WordPress?
When you’re considering changing your the theme on your WordPress site, it can be hard to know what features and functions your theme is responsible for.
That’s because some WordPress themes are simple and minimalist, and don’t include many features beyond a basic design. Other WordPress themes are multipurpose, and include many different templates, customization options, and features to help you customize your website.
Depending on the features that come with your theme, you may be afraid that changing it would cause you to lose content or even delete everything on your site.
Luckily, that’s not the case. You won’t lose all your site content if you switch themes.
Still, you might lose more than you think. That’s why it’s important to understand what happens when you switch themes, and how to change WordPress themes without losing content.
With that said, let’s walk you through what will happen when you switch your WordPress theme.
Theme Menus Will Change with New WordPress Theme
WordPress has a built in navigation menu system. Each WordPress theme will have a different way of displaying and using these menus.
That’s why there will be new menu locations when you switch your WordPress theme.
If you’ve previously assigned a menu to a certain theme location, then it will need to be reassigned after your theme changes.
To change your menu locations, simply go to Appearance » Menus and select your menu from the drop down.
Then, check the box for the location where you want the menu to display.
You can select multiple locations for a single menu.
If the theme you’re using comes with its own widgets, then these will be unavailable when you switch themes.
WordPress Theme Settings Will Disappear
All WordPress themes have different customization options. Some themes will simply rely on the WordPress theme customizer, but others will be controlled with a theme options panel.
A theme options panel can control a lot of aspects of your site like:
Website logo
Favicon image
Header and footers
Background image
Font choice
And more
Here’s an example of the Astra theme options panel.
It can also include any WordPress analytics, advertising, and other tracking codes you’ve added directly to the options panel.
All of these settings done through your theme’s options panel will be gone.
If you made a list of WordPress theme changes before switching themes, then you can try to set up the same settings with your new theme. However, your new theme may have a different set of features.
In most cases, losing design settings shouldn’t impact your website speed and performance or search engine rankings.
However, if your theme bundles analytics or SEO settings in the theme options panel, then you’ll need to use a plugin to install Google Analytics and optimize your WordPress SEO.
This is usually done to display content like portfolios, books, testimonials, and more.
If your theme uses custom post types and taxonomies, then these will become inaccessible when you change themes.
They’ll still be stored in the WordPress database, but you’ll need to do additional customization to display them with your new theme.
That’s why we recommend using a WordPress plugin to add those features instead of a theme. That way, you can continue to use them easily when you switch WordPress themes.
To find a plugin for the feature you need, you can see our expert pick of the best WordPress plugins, or simply search Google and add “WPBeginner” to your search to find our tried and tested recommendations.
WordPress Theme Specific Sliders Will Disappear
A lot of WordPress themes have built-in slider settings for adding a full-screen home page slider. When you switch themes, these sliders will disappear.
If you want to add sliders anywhere on your website, we recommend using a WordPress slider plugin. For more details, take a look at our comparison of the best WordPress slider plugins.
WordPress Theme Specific Shortcodes Will Disappear
Shortcodes give you a way to add new functionality to your posts, pages, and widget areas.
Many popular WordPress themes comes with their own shortcodes to add functionality like:
Buttons
Image galleries
Sliders
Column layouts
And more
When you switch WordPress themes, these shortcodes will no longer work. As a result, the shortcode will simply appear as text inside your content areas.
If you want to future proof theme shortcodes, then you can add the code using a site-specific plugin instead. This lets you add customizations with a plugin that won’t change, even when you switch themes.
What Stays the Same When Switching WordPress Themes?
Some parts of your WordPress blog will stay the same when you switch WordPress themes. For example, your WordPress posts and pages will be unaffected by the theme switch.
However, depending on how your old theme displayed posts, images, attachments, and pages, they might look slightly different.
Your media library will also remain the same. However, your WordPress theme might have different image sizes for featured images and thumbnails.
If this is the case, then you may need to regenerate thumbnails to display the proper image size.
All of your general WordPress settings like permalinks, display settings, and more will remain the same.
Same with other WordPress plugins you’ve installed, although they may function differently with your new theme.
How to Prepare to Switch WordPress Themes?
Before you switch WordPress themes, there are a few things you should do to make sure it’s a smooth and error free experience.
First, it’s very important you create a complete website backup using a WordPress backup plugin. This saves a copy of your posts, pages, plugins, media, and databases.
Once your site is backed up, you should spend time reviewing your current theme. You can make note of any customizations you’ve made like custom CSS, widgets, and more that can be added to your new theme.
Before activating your new WordPress theme, you can use the built-in preview feature to see how it will look. WordPress lets you install and preview themes in real-time without activating them on the front end
Simply go to Appearance » Themes and then hover over the theme and click the ‘Live Preview’ button to see what it will look like.
When previewing your theme, take note of any visual changes that will take effect.
You can browse your website’s home page, posts, other pages, archives, and more with the menu on the left.
After that, you can determine if you can adjust the new theme settings and layout to match the features of your old site worth keeping.
Are you wondering what you should do before you change WordPress themes?
When switching your WordPress theme, there are few very important steps that you must take to ensure the process is smooth, and you don’t lose any important data.
In this WordPress checklist, we’ll share the top things you must do before you change WordPress themes.
Editor’s Note: If you’re looking for step-by-step instructions on how to switch themes, then please see our beginner’s guide on how to properly change your WordPress theme.
Switching a theme is an important decision that every website owner makes at least once every few years.
Of course you have to decide your reasoning of why you’re switching, and pick a theme that suits all your needs.
Once you have chosen the theme that you want to switch to, it’s important that you follow the checklist below to ensure that you don’t lose any content or data during the process.
1. Make Note of Any WordPress Theme Customizations
Some WordPress website owners will customize their WordPress themes by adding code snippets directly to their theme files. Code snippets can be a great way to add new features to your website that aren’t part of the stock theme.
But, if you’re adding those snippets directly to your theme files, it can be easy to lose track of them.
If you or a web developer made these changes, then make sure you go through your current theme files and note all of the additional code that’s been added.
2. Get Current WordPress Theme Performance Metrics
Before changing your theme, you should check your current website’s loading speed and performance. This lets you compare any differences in the page load time after you switch themes.
3. Make Note of Current Theme Sidebars and Widget Areas
Sidebars are used for adding different widgets to your website, like email newsletter subscription forms, social media buttons, popular posts, and more.
Since every theme has different widget areas, your widgets may unexpectedly move or disappear from your site if you switch themes.
That’s why it’s important to make a note of what widgets you’re using in your WordPress sidebars and any other widget areas of your website before you change themes. Then you can easily replicate them after switching.
If you’ve added any custom code or shortcodes, then make sure to copy this code and save it somewhere safe so that you can use it with your new theme.
4. Copy Existing WordPress Tracking Codes
Many users will add analytics tracking code directly to their theme files. Some WordPress themes also allow you to add tracking codes directly into your theme options panel.
It’s a common mistake to overlook these important tracking codes.
You need to make sure you copy all of your website tracking codes you’re using for analytics, advertising, and more, so you can add them to your new website.
It’s always a good idea to back up your website on a regular basis. Before changing your theme, you should completely back up your posts, pages, plugins, media, and databases.
This will help ensure you can easily recover your website if anything goes wrong when switching themes.
6. Put Your WordPress Site Into Maintenance Mode
When making changes to your site, it’s always a good practice to put your website into maintenance mode. Maintenance mode lets you display a user friendly notice to your visitors.
This helps prevent your visitors from seeing your website when it’s half-finished or under construction.
7. Test All Functionality and Installed WordPress Plugins
Once you have a new WordPress theme activated, you need to ensure you have the same functionality as before and that all of your old plugins work with your new theme.
You can start by adding back the code snippets that you copied from your old WordPress theme files. For more details, see our beginner’s guide to pasting code snippets into WordPress.
Then, spend some time using the features of your site that are powered by WordPress plugins. If you’re experiencing any errors at this time, see our beginner’s guide to troubleshooting WordPress errors.
8. Test New WordPress Theme Across Browsers and Devices
Cross-browser testing will help you make sure your new website looks good on different browsers, screen sizes, operating systems, and mobile devices.
Most of your visitors will probably use Google Chrome to visit your WordPress blog. However, other web browsers like Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and more are still used by hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
If your new website doesn’t work right on one of those browsers, then you’re missing out on visitors and traffic.
Luckily, you can use all kinds of cross-browser testing tools to see how your website looks across different browsers and devices.
Some WordPress themes will pre-install plugins when you install the theme. Some of these may be useful, but other times you won’t need them.
Simply go to Plugins » Installed Plugins to see if your theme has added any new plugins.
Now is also a good time to go through your entire plugin list to see if any plugins are worth deleting.
If you’re looking for high quality plugins to use with your new theme, then see our picks of the must have WordPress plugins.
10. Let Your Users Know Your New Website is Live
Once you’re ready to make your new WordPress theme live, you can turn off maintenance mode.
You should also get in touch with your readers to tell them about your new website. This will prepare your audience so that they’re not confused by any big design changes, and it will also help to keep your subscribers engaged and returning to your site to see the new design.
Here’s an example post we shared on Facebook about our new website redesign.
We recommend notifying your audience via your email newsletter, social media, and push notifications.
11. Test Loading Speeds for Your New WordPress Theme
Once your new theme is live and you’ve gone through the steps above, it’s time to do another speed test. Ideally, your new website will be faster and get better scores in your speed test.
To do this, simply use the same website speed tool you used earlier and compare the results.
If the new theme is slower than your old theme, then make sure you run multiple tests, test from different areas, and check to see if you have any caching or firewall settings that could be causing the dip.
12. Monitor Your WordPress Website Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who land on your website and leave without continuing to a second page. A high bounce rate means that you didn’t convince your visitor to stay on your site long enough to take action.
After you switch themes, it’s important to monitor your bounce rate. Some themes are simply friendlier at helping visitors navigate around your site.
If your bounce rate has gone up since switching theme, then you’ll want to work to lower it. You can do this by improving your navigation menus, adding more internal links, adding a popular posts widget, and more.
13. Listen to Reader Feedback to Improve Your WordPress Website
Finally, it’s important you listen to reader feedback after you switch to a new theme. Some readers may love or hate certain parts of your design.
You don’t have to listen to every reader and make the changes they suggest. But, if there’s a group of readers who are experiencing the same issue, then it’s probably worth looking into.
You can collect visitor feedback by adding a contact form to your website, or running a survey asking for reader feedback on your new design.
We hope this article helped you learn exactly what you should do before switching WordPress themes. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting and our expert picks of the best AI chatbot software for your website.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
One of the best things about WordPress is the easy customization options that you get with WordPress themes and plugins.
You can also take these customizations to the next level by adding your own code snippets and CSS styles to your WordPress theme.
The problem arises when an update becomes available for your theme. If you are not careful, then there is a high chance that you’ll lose some of those changes you made to your theme.
In this article, we will show you how to easily update a WordPress theme without losing customization. We will also cover how to properly customize your themes, so you are not affected when a new theme update is released.
How Theme Updates Work in WordPress?
WordPress comes with a powerful system to install updates for not just WordPress itself but for plugins and themes as well.
Your WordPress website regularly checks for updates and display them under Dashboard » Updates page.
When a theme update becomes available, you’ll also see a notification on the Appearance » Themes page.
Updates are really important for the security and performance of your WordPress website. Aside from security and bug fixes, theme developers can also introduce new features with these updates.
You can simply click on the update button to install the new version.
WordPress will then download the theme package, unzip it, and replace the old files with the newer version.
This will overwrite all old theme files installed on your website. If you manually added custom code to your WordPress theme files, then you’ll lose those changes.
That being said, let’s take a look at which theme changes are safe and which customizations will be erased.
What Type of Theme Customizations Can You Lose During an Update?
There are multiple ways you can customize a WordPress theme. Some of these theme customizations are safe because your changes are stored in the WordPress database itself.
This includes all changes made through the built-in WordPress theme customizer which you can access by visiting Appearance » Customize page.
The theme customizer allows you to modify your WordPress theme and store all changes in the WordPress database. You can change the header image, colors, layout, custom CSS, and more.
Your WordPress widgets and navigation menus are also not affected by the theme updates.
Popular WordPress themes like Astra and Ocean WP now come with companion plugins. These plugins are used to add extra features to your theme. Any theme changes made using these companion plugins are also not affected by the theme update.
If you have added any code to your theme’s functions.php file, then it will disappear. Any CSS changes that you have added directly to your theme’s stylesheet (style.css) file will also be wiped off.
Now that we know which changes will be erased, let’s talk about how to preserve and restore them after the theme update.
Once connected, go to the /wp-content/themes/ folder and download your theme folder to your computer.
This folder will be the backup of your theme, and we will use it later to copy and paste customizations after updating the theme.
Step 2. Download The Updated Theme and Move Customizations
Now we want to transfer customizations we have made to the old theme files to the updated version.
Simply visit your theme’s website and download the latest version to your computer. Locate the theme’s zip file and extract it.
You should now have both, the new version and your old customized theme on your computer.
If you remember the changes you made to your theme, then simply copy and paste the code snippets from the old theme to the new version.
On the other hand, if you do not remember the changes you made, then you will have to find them first. The easiest way to do this is by comparing your theme files.
You’ll need to use a file comparison software like WinMerge (kaleidoscope for Mac, Meld for Linux).
Open both theme folders in file comparison software. It will show files side by side allowing you to quickly compares files to locate the customizations you have added to the old theme.
You can then copy and paste the code from the old theme file to the same file in the new theme.
Step 3. Upload the New Theme Folder
After copying your changes to the new theme, you are now ready to upload the updated version to your website.
Simply connect to your website using the FTP client and go to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. Select the new theme folder and update it to your website.
Your FTP client will warn you that the files with the same name already exist. You need to choose <strongOverwrite to make sure that your old theme files are replaced by new files.
That’s all. You have successfully updated your WordPress theme. Visit your website to make sure that everything is working as expected.
How to Avoid Losing Changes During Theme Update
If you want to add code snippets or custom styles to your WordPress theme, then there are some best practices that you should follow.
The best solution is to create a child theme and add your custom code to child theme’s files.
However, many WordPress beginners may not feel comfortable creating a child theme. Luckily, there are easier solutions available.
It allows you to safely add custom code snippets without breaking your website, and your changes will not be affected by theme updates. You can even change your WordPress theme without losing those changes.
For CSS code, you can save it all under the theme customizer’s ‘Additional CSS’ tab.
Alternatively, you can also use the powerful CSS Hero plugin to easily customize the styles without even writing any CSS code.
We hope this article helped you update your WordPress theme without losing customization. If you come across any issues, then check out our guide on most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Recently, one of our readers asked us how to properly change a WordPress theme on their website without breaking anything.
WordPress makes it super easy to change and manage themes. However, you need to remember that changing the appearance of your live website is a major event. You need to keep certain things in mind before and after you change a theme so you don’t lose any data and website traffic.
In this article, we will show you how to change a WordPress theme with a step-by-step checklist.
Why Change a WordPress Theme?
You may want to change the theme on your WordPress website to make it better match your niche.
For example, if you run a fashion blog, then you might want to switch to a theme with the style of a professional fashion website.
Switching to a different theme can also give your website a fresh look, enhance the user experience, and even improve your site’s SEO by making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.
Plus, some WordPress themes come with built-in features that you may need on your site. For instance, some themes include features for eCommerce, membership sites, and portfolios.
Having said that, let’s see how to properly change a WordPress theme on your website. Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll learn in this article:
While you can easily change a theme with just a few clicks, you must take some precautionary steps before starting this process.
We recommend that you go through the following checklist to ensure that the process of changing your WordPress theme goes smoothly and that you don’t end up losing important data.
1. Copy Snippets from Your Current Theme
Some intermediate WordPress users like to customize their website by adding code snippets directly to the theme’s functions.php file.
Since these changes were made once, people usually forget about them.
If you or your web developer made these changes, then make sure to go through the files of your current theme and note all the additional code you’ve added previously. This will allow you to add these snippets later into your new theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific WordPress plugin.
Expert Tip: We recommend always adding code to your website using WPCode, which is the best WordPress code snippets plugin on the market. This way, when you switch to a different theme, you won’t have to worry about copying and adding code snippets.
Before changing your theme, you should check the load time of your website. This can help you easily compare the differences in the page load time after you make changes to your website.
Remember, WordPress speed is an important factor in user experience and SEO, so you need to make sure that the new theme is faster than your previous one.
Make sure that you test the load time of the homepage and also some of your inner pages.
3. Don’t Lose Any Tracking Code
Some users add their analytics tracking code directly to their theme files. Also, some WordPress themes allow you to add AdSense or Analytics code in their settings panels.
One of the most common mistakes beginners make is to overlook these code snippets.
You need to make sure that you copy all the tracking code so you can add it to your new site after changing the theme.
To future-proof this, we always recommend users install Google Analytics using a plugin like MonsterInsights. This plugin lets you view the analytics and reports directly from your WordPress dashboard without having to add any tracking code to the theme files.
It’s always recommended to back up your posts, images, plugins, and the database before changing your theme.
You can use a WordPress backup plugin like Duplicator to create a backup of your entire site. Make sure that you download this backup to your computer before moving forward.
This step will ensure that you can recover your website easily if anything goes wrong.
Sidebars are used for adding different widgets including social links, advertisements, subscription forms, or a contact form.
Make a note of these changes. If there is any custom code added to a widget, then make sure you copy and paste this code on your computer so that you can reuse it in your new theme.
6. Keep Your Site in Maintenance Mode
It’s a good practice to put your website in maintenance mode when you are making changes to it. This can prevent users from seeing an incomplete website and ensure a smooth transition to a different theme.
Note: You can use SeedProd’s free plan to enable maintenance mode. However, upgrading to the premium version will unlock more features like pre-built templates, advanced customization features, and email marketing tool integrations.
Next, head over to the SeedProd » Landing Pages screen from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Set up a Maintenance Mode Page’ button.
After that, you must select a template for your maintenance mode page. You can also use a blank template and create a page from scratch.
To choose a template, simply hover your mouse over a thumbnail and then click the check icon.
You can now use SeedProd drag-and-drop page builder to customize your page. Simply add new blocks by dragging them from the menu on your left.
SeedProd lets you add standard blocks for text, images, buttons, and headlines. It also offers advanced blocks, including contact forms, giveaways, social sharing options, and much more.
Don’t forget to save your changes by clicking the ‘Save’ button in the top right corner.
After that, head over to the ‘Page Settings’ tab and change the Page Status by toggling it to ‘Publish.’
Once you do that, click the ‘X’ icon at the top left corner of the screen to exit the drag-and-drop builder. This will open a prompt on the screen asking you to activate the maintenance mode.
From here, simply click the ‘Yes, Activate’ button to display the maintenance mode to the users visiting your website.
There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes available for you to pick from. The fact that you are reading this article means you’ve likely found a good theme for your needs.
However, if you haven’t already selected a theme, then we can highly recommend the following WordPress themes:
Astra is a lightweight and speed-optimized WordPress theme that is compatible with popular page builder plugins like SeedProd, Beaver Builder, Divi, and Visual Composer.
It’s a translation and RTL-ready theme. It allows you to start your website in any language and even create a multilingual website.
Astra can also be integrated with the WooCommerce plugin, so you can easily create an online store without much hassle. You can even customize the header, footer, layout, and more using the WordPress Theme Customizer.
Our favorite thing about Astra is all the starter website templates it comes with. It has more than 250 options for all kinds of niches, including business websites, online stores, and personal blogs.
Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes on the market. It’s powered by the drag-and-drop Divi Builder, which allows you to easily build any kind of website.
It comes with over 2000 pre-built layouts and 200 different content elements. You can easily customize each element of your site and see the changes in real time.
Plus, Divi is also super SEO-friendly and can help your site rank higher in Google and other search engines.
We already mentioned you can use it to create a maintenance mode page. But you can also use it to create a custom WordPress theme without writing any code.
SeedProd comes with a drag-and-drop builder and 300+ professionally designed templates to get you started. You can easily customize your theme with ready-made blocks, smart sections, and WordPress template tags.
It also shows a real-time preview of all the changes on the right side of the screen, so you can see how your website will appear to users before it’s even published.
Genesis is the most popular WordPress theme framework built by the StudioPress team. You can create amazing websites using the Genesis framework and other StudioPress themes.
OceanWP is a responsive and multi-purpose WordPress theme. It offers multiple demo templates that have been built with different professions and businesses in mind.
It is compatible with the major page builder plugins. You can also use different extensions to take your site to the next level.
How to Change WordPress Theme Without Going Live
Once you’ve installed your new theme, you are ready to switch themes.
However, it’s always recommended to test a theme before switching to it on your live website.
This way, you’ll be able to check the compatibility of the new theme with your existing plugins and make sure that everything is working properly.
There are three ways that you can change your WordPress theme without going live.
1. Live Preview Option
By default, WordPress allows you to preview a theme on your website without changing it.
To do that, head over to the Appearance » Themes page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
On this page, you’ll see all the installed themes on your site. Go ahead and hover your mouse over the theme you want to preview and click on the ‘Live Preview’ button.
This will open your new theme in the WordPress Theme Customizer.
You can now test your new theme and make sure that everything is working properly.
2. Theme Switcha Plugin
Another option is to use the Theme Switcha plugin. It allows you to preview your new theme without activating it.
First, you need to install and activate this free plugin. For detailed instructions, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, visit the Settings » Theme Switcha page from the WordPress dashboard and check the box next to the ‘Enable theme switching’ option.
Once you do that, scroll to the bottom of the page to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
This plugin will now display all your installed themes at the bottom of this page.
From here, simply click on your new theme to preview it in a new web browser tab.
3. Test Your Theme on a Staging Site
You can also test your WordPress theme without making it live by creating a staging site. This website is a clone of your live website and is used for testing any kind of changes.
You can easily do this by using your hosting provider’s built-in staging site feature. For this tutorial, we will be using Bluehost.
First, you must visit your Bluehost cPanel and click the ‘My Sites’ button. Once you do that, switch to the ‘Plugins’ tab and activate the The Bluehost Plugin.
Next, visit your WordPress dashboard and head to the Bluehost » Staging page.
From here, click on the ‘Create Staging Site’ button to continue.
Bluehost will now prepare the staging environment for you.
After that, it will display the ‘Staging Site’ section where you must check the ‘Not currently editing’ box.
This will open a prompt on the screen asking you to switch to your staging site.
From here, click the ‘Switch’ button.
Once you do that, you can head to the Appearance » Themes page from the dashboard and activate any theme that you want to test without worrying about it affecting your live site.
Then, once you’re happy with the theme, you can just push the changes live.
However, if you don’t have a backup, then you can change the theme manually with the help of phpMyAdmin.
This method allows you to tell WordPress which theme to use by changing the information in the database.
First, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client and go to the /wp-content/themes/ folder.
Here, you’ll be able to see all the themes that are currently installed on your website. You can also install a WordPress theme via FTP if you don’t see it.
Next, you want to write down the folder name of the theme you want to use because you will need it later.
After that, head over to the cPanel of your WordPress hosting account. For this tutorial, we will be using Bluehost. However, your cPanel may look different depending on the hosting service that you use.
On this page, scroll down to the phpMyAdmin section and click the ‘Manage’ button next to it.
Once you are in phpMyAdmin, you’ll see a list of databases on the left side of the screen. From here, click on the database that you are using for your WordPress site.
This will open all the database tables in the right column of the screen. Now, go ahead and click on the wp_options table to open it up.
Note: By default, WordPress uses wp_ as the prefix for the table names. However, it’s possible to have a different database prefix, as shown in the image.
This will open a list of other files that were stored in the wp_options table.
From here, you must locate the template and stylesheet rows in the right panel.
Once you do that, click on the ‘Edit’ link in the template row to open the editor.
Here, you need to change the value in the option_value field to the theme name that you want to use.
It’s usually the same as the folder name in the /wp-content/themes/ folder that you copied earlier.
Once you are done, click on the ‘Go’ button to save the changes. Next, go ahead and repeat the same process for the stylesheet row.
After making changes to both rows, you can go to your website to see the new theme in action.
Things to Do After Changing Your Theme
Once you’ve changed the theme on your website, you need to take care of certain things before turning off maintenance mode.
You can check out the following checklist of things to do after changing your WordPress theme.
1. Test Your Website
First, you need to make sure that all the functionalities, plugins, and widgets are working properly on your site.
You should invest some time to test your website and check out different things including the posts, comment section, images, and contact form.
Once you are satisfied with how your website looks and works, you can move to the next step.
2. Cross Browser Compatibility
Browsers have a tendency to show certain things differently.
To make sure that your website looks good in every major browser, you should test your site in different web browsers, including Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
3. Add Tracking Code
After you’ve tested the features and the cross-browser compatibility, you should add your analytics and AdSense tracking code to your site.
You can use the MonsterInsights plugin to add the Google Analytics tracking code. This will allow you to properly set up analytics and view detailed website stats right inside your WordPress dashboard.
You can now disable maintenance mode on your site to make it go live.
If you are using the SeedProd plugin, simply visit the SeedProd » Landing Pages screen from your WordPress dashboard and click the toggle to ‘Inactive’ to turn off the maintenance mode.
5. Test Loading Time
Upon changing your theme, we recommend using the IsItWP Website SpeedTest Tool again to test the loading time of your homepage.
Next, compare it to the load time when your old theme was installed. If you see any major differences, then you can follow our guide to improve WordPress speed.
6. Monitor Bounce Rate
After switching themes, you should monitor the bounce rate of your site.
If your new theme is not user-friendly and difficult to navigate, then it may increase the bounce rate and drive visitors away from your website.
You can also ask your users for feedback and suggestions on how to improve your site design. You can use survey forms or online polls to gather user input.
For example, you might use user feedback to add a two-question survey prompt on your website. For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to create a survey in WordPress.
You can share the new design with your subscribers using an email marketing service and ask them for their suggestions. This will help you to get ideas for what they would like to see improved.
Bonus: Update a WordPress Theme Without Losing Customization
Once you have switched to a different theme and customized it according to your liking, you will want to keep that theme regularly updated to the newer versions.
However, when you update a theme, you can lose some of the customization settings. For example, you will lose all the code that you have added to the theme’s functions.php file, stylesheet, or templates.
However, you can easily update a WordPress theme without losing all your customization by creating a child theme.
This theme will inherit the parent theme’s functionality, features, and style. You can then customize the child theme without making any changes to the original one.
Next, you must identify all of the changes you made to your theme and copy them over to the child theme. The easiest way to do this is by comparing your old and new theme files using software like WinMerge or Kaleidoscope.
Once you make the changes, simply export the customizer settings from the parent theme and import them to the child theme.
Upon doing that, you can preview your changes in the customizer and click the ‘Save & Publish’ button to make those changes live.
Another way to update your theme without losing any customization is to always add your custom code with WPCode. It is the best WordPress code snippet plugin on the market that makes it super easy and safe to add custom code to your website.
When using this plugin, you won’t have to worry about losing the custom code in your functions.php file, stylesheets, or templates when you update your theme.
This is because the code will be saved in WPCode and will automatically be executed on your site. For details, see our complete WPCode review.
