Changing WordPress Themes: Things You Must Know

change, Themes, WordPress

Changing WordPress Themes: Things You Must Know

Is your WordPress site past its best? If so, it’s time to change gaming WordPress themes!

One of the advantages of WordPress websites is the ability to change your theme whenever you desire. However, there might be a lot of adjustments to make depending on your theme.

We put together some of the most common things you need to go through when changing WordPress themes.

Because of all the different layout options, sidebars might not match, it might not automatically find your logo or it might have its own set of thumbnail sizes for the images it displays.

Adjusting thumbnail image sizes & widgets

Fortunately, there’s a an easy fix for that called Regenerate Thumbnails. It will restore all post thumbnails at the sizes required for your posts.

Tip: To get an accurate position and order in your new theme, take a screenshot of how your widgets look before you install a new WordPress theme. Also, take notes! It will help you compare the old looks to the new layout, and make any necessary adjustments.

But that’s not all…

Note your customizations, code, snippets so as to get your site back with the right sidebars, logo & colors you want. Don’t forget to add in custom codes if you need any custom features. All you have to do is copy and paste your codes in the theme options area.

Remember your custom codes!

Do you need custom features? That should be easy: you need them if you’ve been using them with the old WordPress theme. For example, a custom code might be a unique referral code or an advertising code for affiliates.

While you work on your site, a good idea is to place it on maintenance mode. That way, your site won’t appear broken while you work on it. Here are some examples of maintenance mode plugins available: WordPress Maintenance Mode, Anticipate Maintenance Mode and many more.

Change WordPress themes? Changing sidebar.php file

Want to change your sidebar.php file? Sidebars are very easy and convenient to customize. Most of WordPress users add their own images, ads, links, texts and so on. Just save the code and install it into your new theme.

404 pages

Generate a page that can be used as a 404 page. The 404 page will give your visitors suggestions. There are plenty of plugins you can use, such as: HTD 404, Custom 404 Error Page, 404 page, e.t.c.

Do you still need that shortcode?

Delete shortcodes that are no longer available! Go through every page and post and make sure you delete them. If you don’t, people might think your site is broken.

Backup your site and database

When you change WordPress themes, to avoid any trouble, make sure you backup your site and database. That way, in case something goes wrong, you can restore everything. There are backup utilities you can use to backup your site for free!

Test, test, test

Check various pages and post to ensure they work the way you want them to. Test your search box, RSS feed, images, sidebars, galleries, ads, submission forms, links, menus, etc.

Test as you go and make sure your theme works as anticipated across all major browsers, such as: Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer.

Make the BIG announcement

Don’t forget to let your readers know about the changes you’ve made. Write a post that tells about your new and improved look, features and functionality.

Changing a wordpress theme might require a lot of work. Thus, you should choose your new theme wisely and carefully. Make sure you test it to ensure it reaches your expectations.

That’s it. You’re now ready for the wordpress theme changing challenge! Are you up for it? If not the gaming themes Skywarriors team make come with support forums and help!

• What were your top WordPress theme changing challenges?
• How did you manage to solve them?
• How was the support you received in changing your WordPress theme?