
Then you can easily replicate them after switching. 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. Since every theme has different widget areas, your widgets may unexpectedly move or disappear from your site if you switch themes. Sidebars are used for adding different widgets to your website, like email newsletter subscription forms, social media buttons, popular posts, and more. Make Note of Current Theme Sidebars and Widget Areas You can easily check your current website speed metrics using a WordPress speed testing tool such as IsItWP’s free website speed testing tool.įor more details, see our guide on how to run a website speed test. Since WordPress speed and performance plays an important role in user experience and WordPress SEO, you need to ensure the new theme is faster than what you’re using now. This lets you compare any differences in the page load time after you switch themes. Get Current WordPress Theme Performance Metricsīefore changing your theme, you should check your current website’s loading speed and performance. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on pasting snippets from the web into WordPress. This way, you can keep those snippets even if you change themes later.

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.įor adding code snippets in the future, we always recommend to use a site-specific plugin or a code snippets plugin. Code snippets can be a great way to add new features to your website that aren’t part of the stock theme.īut, if you’re adding those snippets directly to your theme files, it can be easy to lose track of them. Some WordPress website owners will customize their WordPress themes by adding code snippets directly to their theme files. Make Note of Any WordPress Theme Customizations 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. We have a list of best WordPress multi-purpose themes and best WordPress blog themes that you can check out if you’re looking for recommendations.

Of course you have to decide your reasoning of why you’re switching, and pick a theme that suits all your needs. Switching a theme is an important decision that every website owner makes at least once every few years.

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.
