New Year, New Theme. I thought it was about time I looked into new Themes for my website. It has been on my to do list for a while, but chocolate consumption got in the way…
Right now, the website uses one of three themes that Word Press provided as an option. It’s the Twenty Seventeen option that looks like this:
I want to explore what other FREE options are available out there, and what impact they’ll have on my website, if any.
Here are some websites I took a peek at:
- https://justfreethemes.com/themes/gallery/ – this site comes up with some pretty aggressive pop up boxes! On first glance, I like the look of the AcmePhoto theme. The website allows you to view a live demo of each of the themes. This actually helped me decide I didn’t like AcmePhoto due to the light background, and the Powerpoint-eque style clapper board effect header.
- https://colorlib.com/wp/free-gallery-wordpress-theme/ Again, this website offers a demo for each theme. I initally liked Coral Parallax, but the white backdrop looked a bit stark for my liking. I’m actually likely the Comley theme. Seems to showcase the photographs and makes a statement out of theme.
- https://justfreethemes.com/
But what should I think about before changing the theme? Will it break my website? I need to explore more. It looks like this website has already got it covered, with a 15 point checklist of things to do BEFORE changing the WordPress theme. https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/checklist-15-things-you-must-do-before-changing-wordpress-themes/
I’ll go through their 15 suggested points next. Wow, can’t get a life more rock n’roll than that…And so it begins. Step:
- Take notes on your current theme. Hmm. I have written a few blogs on changes I’ve made, such as font changes, and adding in widgets. However, I’m pretty sure I didn’t do this for every little thing. A lesson learned for the future.
- Be cautious of sidebars – I know I’ve done a lot of tinkering here, as it is easy for a novice like me to feel like a genius when I’m customising my own website…adding in widgets to show Tags and recent blog posts.
- Don’t lose tracking – had to Google this. Tracking the action of users helps determine how they use your website. Not something my site utilises yet with it’s one other reader!
- RSS feeds – another one for Google…https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/what-is-rss-how-to-use-rss-in-wordpress/ state an RSS feed is “a type of web feed that allows users and applications to receive regular updates from a website or blog of their choice“. I think RSS is something for me to explore in the future, particularly if I want subscribers, or achieve actual unrelated people reading my blog. But for now, it isn’t something I use in this blog. *
- Backup. Obvious, but to date, not something I have done or know how to do. I just watched this video on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5kRgBzg61Q about migrating websites, which is useful to know. But it also briefly covered doing back-ups. It recommends using All In One WP Migration plug-in, which is free and mostly positive reviews. I’ll give it a go now. That took forever. Somehow, the site has almost 3500 files and after half an hour, only 75% of the site had exported. However, I now have a backup.
- Activating maintenance mode while changing your website theme. It essentially looks like another plug-in will be required to do this. A good idea if you have a high volume of visitors to your site, and you don’t want them to think your site is broken. Again, not a concern for this site!
- Test all functionality and plug-ins – this is going to be the challenging step. Check widgets, formatting, displays and just that everything functions as plans. I have already noticed just by updating to the latest version of WordPress that some font formatting tools that I had previously installed have disappeared. I can easily imagine how changing a theme can do some damage if not careful.
- Test all the browsers you have access to, helping to ensure the new theme behaves consistently across all of them.
- Make third party items still look alright after a theme change, as they’re highly customisable. Way above my novice website, so not something I’ve activated yet.
- Let users know once your site is up and running again, so they can alert you to any problems, and hopefully have a bit more patience with any issues. I’m sure my husband will be keen to spot any faults.
- Make plugin choices wisely. Every progressive plug-in has more capability than its predecessor. Don’t clutter or confuse yourself with too many plug ins.
- Take small steps while making changes, as it’ll be easier to identify problems. That said, I’m not sure there is an option to change a small amount of a theme. I think it’s all or nothing…
- Test the loading time of the new theme. I have clocked the Gallery section of my website takes a while to load using the current theme, and is particularly slow when using my mobile. If a new theme can improve this, that’s a winner.
- Monitor bounce rates. So, if you notice more people navigate away from your site since the new theme, after viewing just one page, maybe the theme needs second thoughts.
- Listen to improvements and suggestions for changes in the future.
Flip…that felt like 400 steps!
*Typical. My one other reader uses RSS…