How to Change a WordPress Theme (Without Breaking Your Website)
How to Change a WordPress Theme (Without Breaking Your Website)
The process of changing themes without changing your website’s core functionalities can take a bit longer than just clicking on the Activate button. 🅰️ This tutorial will show you how to do it safely, step-by-step. 👇 👉Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/Kinsta?sub_…
Choosing the perfect WordPress theme can take some time. As websites grow and expand, owners might feel the need to change their WordPress themes so they can accommodate their site’s new necessities.
Changing your WordPress theme only takes a few moments. However, if you want to do it safely, switching themes can be a little more time consuming. That is because your website’s features are closely tied to the theme you are currently using. Therefore, changing themes abruptly, might cause a loss of useful functionalities, and potentially break your site.
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0:00 How to Change Your WordPress Theme Safely 1:03 Set Up a Staging Copy of Your Website 2:26 Install Your New Theme and Preview It 3:23 Activate Your New Theme 3:46 Resolve Errors and Replace Missing Elements 5:01 Push Your Staging Website Live
🔇This video has captions (translated by real humans!) in English, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Japanese, Danish and Swedish. Click on the CC to set your preferred language.
#SwitchThemes #ChangeWordPressTheme #NewTheme
Content
0.18 -> - Hello, I'm Mike and
today we will go over
2.58 -> changing your WordPress theme
without breaking your website.
5.913 -> (upbeat music)
11.73 -> Changing your WordPress theme
only takes a few moments.
14.56 -> However, if you want to do it safely,
16.44 -> switching themes becomes more involved.
19.02 -> After all, your active
theme is so ingrained
21.22 -> into your site's functionality
22.78 -> that the change has the
potential to break it.
25 -> Therefore the process of changing themes
27.2 -> without introducing any new
problems can take a bit longer
30.63 -> than just clicking on the activate button.
32.48 -> However, if you follow
five basic procedures,
35.49 -> you can ensure that
your site works smoothly
37.77 -> after the switch.
39.28 -> But before we get started,
I wanna remind you
41.26 -> to click the subscribe
button, click the bell above
44.09 -> to get the notifications
45.69 -> and check out the video description below
48.18 -> for more resources.
49.75 -> Now this is the perfect
moment to create a full backup
52.74 -> of your WordPress website.
54.44 -> Changing themes is a big deal
56.12 -> so you want to be fully prepared
57.71 -> in case you need to revert for any reason.
60.17 -> Now let's get started.
61.92 -> Step one, set up a staging
copy of your website.
66.14 -> You can think about a
staging environment as a lab
68.84 -> where you get to do all of your testing
70.73 -> and important changes to your site
72.45 -> before the public gets to see any of it.
74.99 -> With a staging copy of your website,
76.74 -> you can make any changes
you want without fear.
79.63 -> If you break something,
you can easily start over
81.97 -> without any repercussions.
83.61 -> These days a lot of
WordPress web host offer you
86.23 -> staging functionality as
a part of their packages.
88.74 -> Here at Kinsta, for example,
90.49 -> you can set up a staging environment
91.96 -> with just a couple of clicks.
93.46 -> Since changing WordPress themes
is such a delicate process,
96.41 -> it doesn't make sense to rush
into it within your live site.
100.11 -> With a staging website,
you'll be able to see
101.99 -> what happens to your content
after you switch themes,
104.78 -> fix any mistakes and
then push the result live
107.57 -> when you're ready.
108.81 -> If your web host doesn't
offer staging functionality,
111.48 -> you have other options you can try.
113.36 -> For example, you can set up
a local WordPress environment
116.45 -> and create a copy of your website
using one of your backups.
119.72 -> This approach isn't
quite as straightforward
121.78 -> because you can't deploy
your local website online
124.56 -> as easily as you can
through your web host.
127.43 -> In that case, you need to
create another copy of the site
130.24 -> when you're done making
changes and upload it
132.59 -> to your server afterward.
134.6 -> If possible, we recommend using a web host
137.27 -> that offers staging functionality.
139.24 -> It can make your workflow much
easier in a lot of situations
142.52 -> so it's a feature worth prioritizing.
144.75 -> Step two, install your
new theme and preview it.
148.57 -> At this point, your staging website
150.2 -> should be up and ready to go.
151.82 -> It's now time to access it
153.26 -> and install the new WordPress
theme you want to use.
155.95 -> Before you activate the theme,
157.53 -> head to appearance, then
customize within your dashboard.
162.19 -> There you can make changes
163.53 -> to your WordPress site's appearance
165.43 -> and you can also use it to preview
167.61 -> what your new theme will look like.
169.44 -> To do that, click on the change button
171.8 -> next to the active theme section
in the left-hand sidebar.
176.4 -> Then select the theme you want to test
178.7 -> and click on the live preview
button under its name.
182.17 -> Afterward WordPress will display
184.3 -> what your homepage will look like
185.89 -> once you activate the new theme.
187.92 -> Take a moment now to go
over your entire website
190.24 -> within the customizer and
make a note of any obvious
193.02 -> problem areas or bugs.
194.97 -> If you find any issues,
you don't need to worry
196.81 -> about addressing them just yet.
198.42 -> First, you'll need to
activate the new theme
200.71 -> on your staging site.
201.96 -> Step three, activate your new theme.
203.95 -> You already know what your
website will look like
205.59 -> once you switch themes so
it's time to get to work.
208.49 -> Close the customizer
and move to appearance,
211.93 -> then the themes tab.
213.86 -> Click on the activate
button for your new theme.
216.61 -> Then you'll see that your new theme
218.44 -> is activated and ready to go.
220.86 -> It's now live on your staging site
222.3 -> which means it's time to ensure
223.64 -> that everything is working properly.
225.54 -> Step four, resolve errors
and replace missing elements.
229.95 -> Depending on what features
your last theme had,
232.2 -> you'll probably need to do
some tidying up at this point.
235.03 -> In our experience, this is the step
236.76 -> that takes the longest amount of time.
238.84 -> How intensive it ends up being
240.2 -> will wholly depend on how the
switch affected your website.
243.22 -> As we mentioned before, changing themes
245.42 -> often breaks part of your site
247.34 -> including theme-specific
widgets and shortcodes,
251.36 -> your navigation bar and sidebar,
253.94 -> specific sections within your pages,
255.96 -> usually due to formatting
issues or missing elements.
259.05 -> Your content should all still be in place.
261.61 -> Switching themes won't affect
that part of your site.
264.32 -> What you need to do now
265.45 -> is get to work on customizing
your new WordPress theme
268.34 -> until your website looks
just the way you want it to.
270.917 -> And while you're at it,
you'll also want to make sure
273.62 -> that you're not missing
any key functionality.
276.2 -> If your new theme doesn't include
277.69 -> some of the features
your last one offered,
279.88 -> you can always look for plugins
281.64 -> that will help you replace them.
283.65 -> If you've added schema
markup to your pages
286.1 -> which you should,
287.15 -> remember that you'll also need
to configure your new theme
290.03 -> to load it properly.
291.47 -> However, if you're using a plugin approach
293.7 -> to handle schema markup instead
of adding the data manually,
297.36 -> you should be able to skip that task.
299.32 -> Step five, push your staging website live.
303.02 -> Once you've made sure that
your website is free of bugs
305.7 -> and is looking just the way you want,
307.75 -> it's time to make it public.
309.53 -> If you played it safe
310.47 -> by using a staging
website as we suggested,
312.89 -> that means you'll need to
push your staging site live.
315.94 -> In other words, you'll be replacing
317.56 -> your existing live website
319.27 -> with the new and improved staging copy.
321.75 -> Keep in mind though, if
you've been publishing
323.94 -> new content on your live website
325.96 -> while tweaking your new
theme on its staging copy,
328.66 -> that content will be overwritten
330.8 -> so before you push your
staging website live,
333.24 -> make sure you move all of the new content
335.66 -> over to the staging site.
337.41 -> If you tested out your new theme
338.98 -> on a local WordPress installation instead,
341.69 -> this process will take a bit longer.
344.47 -> You'll need to do a manual
backup of your website
346.9 -> and then upload it to your new server.
349.7 -> It can be a bit of a hassle to do this,
351.64 -> but not nearly as much as
dealing with a broken website
354.58 -> if you decide not to use a staging copy.
357.25 -> When you're done, your live
site will be ready to go
359.79 -> with its new theme in place.
361.62 -> It's a good idea to do one more pass
363.29 -> of its important pages and content
365.21 -> to make sure that each element
made the transition smoothly.
368.89 -> Remember to go through these steps
370.34 -> in order to avoid breaking your site.
372.77 -> Set up a staging copy of your website.
375.57 -> Install your new theme and preview it.
378.22 -> Activate your new theme.
379.95 -> Resolve errors and
replace missing elements.
383.11 -> Push your staging website live.
385.47 -> A theme is very important
and most users tend to stick
388.3 -> with the same WordPress
theme for a long time.
391 -> Little things such as
breadcrumbs and schema markup
393.7 -> are things you don't wanna forget about
395.37 -> because they can drastically change
396.92 -> your site's user experience and rankings
399.12 -> if you suddenly change things around.
402.69 -> Kinsta's WordPress hosting
can speed up your website
405.16 -> by up to 200% and you'll get 24/7 support
408.2 -> from our expert WordPress engineers.
410.37 -> Let us show you the Kinsta difference.
412.45 -> Try a free demo of our MyKinsta dashboard
415.2 -> at demo.kinsta.com.
417.44 -> Thanks for watching.
418.46 -> Don't forget to subscribe
for more tutorials,
420.69 -> explainers and helpful content like this.
