How to safely change your WordPress Theme:-Today we are here with step by step process to safely change your WordPress theme. If you have used WordPress then you may know how easy is to change the theme but new users don’t find it straightforward. One wrong action will leads to site malfunction.
How to safely change your WordPress Theme
Step-1:- Select a Fresh WordPress theme:- this step is obvious. Getting a new theme is challenging part of this process for those candidates who don’t know how & where to get it. If you are searching for a free alternative the initial point is to check themes from WordPress official repository. For paid themes, themeforest is the best place with a vast collection of stunning WordPress themes.
Before finalizing a theme, always ensure that the theme has all the functionalities you need & compatible with your current setup.
Step-2:- Backup Your Website:- Next step is to backup your website. Never ignore this step, especially when you have website with lots of visitors. You can backup your website manually or using plugins. If you want to use plugin then we recommend BackupBuddy, which is paid plugin. For a free alternative you can use Updraftplus.
Step-3:- Clone your site:- Next step is to clone the website for testing purpose. It is known as staging site where you test all the changes before applying them to live server. If you are using GoDaddy or WpEngine, you get one click staging option. Each hosting platform have their own way to activate staging.
Step-4:- Installing & testing new theme on clone website:- Now it’s the time to install your new theme on staging site, before you do make sure logging is turn on. Here are few things you need to do for the new theme to work as intended.
WP_DEBUG:- this can assist you with the list of issues with your theme. To add this you have to implement the following code to your wp-config.php file.
Define(‘WP-DEBUG’, true);
Plugins:- check previously installed plugins are working properly. You also have to install the new plugins that you want in future. That will ensure your theme is perfect for your website.
Check on different browser:-
Website act differently on every browser so it’s a good idea to check staging website to different browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari.
Responsive/Mobile Check:- Check whether new theme is rendering fine on every sized devices. Checklist is not exhausted. In short you have to make sure that theme works fine without breaking any functionality.
Step-5:- Installing new theme on your live website:- There are two ways to install the new theme. Either you can move your staging site to live site or you can install the theme to live site. When you install the theme directly on live site don’t forget to enable maintenance mode. This will allow you to make the changes without affecting users.