Do you want to know what happens when you switch your WordPress theme?
As we all know there are thousands of themes you can use on your WordPress site which are lovely, touching, unique and SEO which makes beginners change their themes. Do you know that changing of themes really do much harm than you think but there are things that you need to do to make sure that your site works properly after the switch.
What happens when you switch Themes
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These are the things that happens when you switch themes;
Your themes settings vanish
It like resetting your website, each themes comes with different settings, like favicon, logo, header, background image, etc. All of these settings will disappear when you switch to your new WordPress theme. It is possible that your new theme may not have all the features that your previous theme had OR that it may have more features than your previous theme. In most cases, these settings do not affect your site’s performance on search engines.
Specific Theme Sliders automatically Disappear
These theme sliders will disappear when you switch the theme. This is why we recommend our users to use a reliable plugin to add sliders to their WordPress site. So all this theme slider will be gone for real.
Specific Theme Post Types & Taxonomies Will vanish
Some WordPress themes (Not the ones in official WordPress theme directory), cross their intended functionality and jump into the plugin domain. This means that these themes start offering functionality that is not related to the appearance of your site. Functionality like creating custom post types, custom taxonomies that can be used to display content like portfolio, testimonials, etc.
Widget Settings Will be Changed automatically
Widgets allow you to easily place different elements in your WordPress theme’s sidebars. When you change your WordPress theme, similar to menus those sidebars are replaced by the new theme’s sidebars. This will automatically deactivate your active widgets. Some themes will automatically show default WordPress widgets, but any widgets with customizations will be placed under the inactive widgets section. You can still use those widgets and add them back to your sidebars.
Menus Will Most Likely Disappear in New Theme
WordPress comes with a built-in navigation menu system. Each WordPress theme defines theme locations where menus are displayed. When you switch your WordPress theme, there will be new menu locations.
The menu you previously assigned to a theme location will need to be reassigned. Just go to Appearance » Menus. Next, select the menu you want to use and then check the theme location where you want menu to be displayed.
Theme Specific Shortcodes Will Disappear
Shortcodes provide an easier way to bring functionality into WordPress posts and widgets. Many WordPress themes come with an extensive set of shortcodes to add buttons, galleries, sliders, column layouts, etc.
When you switch themes, all theme specific shortcodes will be disabled. This will result in your shortcode code appearing as text inside your posts. Unfortunately there is no easy way to just click a button and import shortcodes from your old theme into your new WordPress theme.
Things That Will Not be Affected by a Theme Switch
- WordPress posts and pages
- All your media uploads will be unaffected
- Your plugins settings will not be affected
There are lots of themes you can install as a beginner but you can read our guide on the best and most populous themes.If you have any issue on this, you can use our comment session or join our delegate on facebook to solve any issues related to WordPress and subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials.