When you revisit some WordPress sites, then you may note some change in the appearance of the site since your last visit. This change has been made by changing the WordPress theme of the site. It is very easy to change the blog design completely thorough WordPress. Before changing the design of your blog it is necessary to do some tasks so that the change works smoothly.
Here are the tasks which you must do when changing the theme of WordPress.
1. Saving sidebar codes before changing WordPress Theme:
Most of the times people make changes in the sidebars on Word Press by adding widgets, text and links. Sidebars don’t get overwritten if your WordPress theme is widget enabled but if you have made some changes yourself, then you may have to do these changes again. It is advised to save the codes of sidebars. You can easily do this by copying and pasting the codes safely at some place. And when changing the WordPress theme, you can edit the files of sidebars and apply those changes again.
2. Delete repeated and not in use plugins:
It is not necessary that you need all the plugins of previous theme when changing the theme. It is possible that some of the plugins which you used earlier may not of any use after changing the theme. So, you must delete those plugins which are not of any use.
For instance: If you are using the plugins of making payments via PayPal, then there are chances that you don’t require any plug-in for this payment as the new theme may already have this feature integrated in it. Therefore clean up all the plugins which are not of any use and is just taking the space of your site. Deleting the unnecessary plugins improves the security of the site and also improves the downloading speed of the site.
3. Changes in design and color of ads:
Many sites run advertising like Google Adsense. They use to blend these ads so that it matches and suits the design and color of the blog. When you change the WordPress theme, then you have to make the changes in color of the links as the ads in old color will not blend with the color of new theme. If you are using Text-link ads and AdsenseDeluxe then you can easily make the changes to the colors in WordPress.
4. RSS feed subscription:
RSS Feed Subscription is important for every blog owner. So you have to make sure that it is working, after changing the theme. You can easily do this by subscribing the FeedBurner link using only the URL of your blog or site. As the result of which the RSS reader must be able to find the feeds that are available. Besides this ensure that it is pulling the right feeds.
5. Backup for widgets before changing WordPress Theme:
You have to create the backup of the widgets by yourself. There is only one method which is traditional to do this, i.e. Go to WordPress Backend, access the widget settings. Copy the codes from each and every widget and paste it on the text document and save it safely.
6. Create backup for everything before changing WordPress Theme:
Create the backup of each and everything on your blog including the posts, database and pictures. Keep the backup on hard drive. Besides this you have to take the screen shots of the active plugins and paste those codes in a text document along with header and footer scripts. Also create the backup for Custom CSS and this can be in the form of social bookmark archives and styles. You must take the backup of all critical word press options. This backup will protect you, if anything goes wrong when changing the theme.
7. Testing on multiple browsers:
It is necessary to check the blog on different browsers especially Internet explorer, Safari, Firefox and Google Chrome.
Summary:
WordPress is an open source content management system which is very simple to use. Anybody can use it and can do amazing things with site, even if you have little knowledge of HTML or CSS. There is no need of webmaster for the modification of design and appearance of the blog. Yet, most of the developers ignore some of the basic steps when making the changes in the theme. The things mentioned above must be done when changing the theme of WordPress.
This article is written by Emma, a professional Content Writer, Working with SEO Rank Smart A SEO Company Emma is working hard to spread knowledge of current SEO Statics, among the reader.
