Although customizing your WordPress theme can be seen as an easy task, you can break it and affect the overall performance of your website. Whether you are changing to a new theme or improving the appearance of the current one, it is crucial to do it safely. This article provides a brief guide on how to customize a WordPress theme without breaking it.
The process of changing WordPress themes safely involves making sure no new problems are introduced. More often than not, this involves doing more than just clicking the Activate button. The following steps can ensure that the process is a success:
To ensure that your new theme does not break and that the whole process is safe, you need to change the theme without going live. This ensures that issues that arise during the process can be resolved, and you can always revert to a previous status without affecting your live website. In this section, we look at how to change a WordPress theme without losing content:
The first thing you need to do is to set up a staging environment, which serves as a lab where you can do all the testing of the new themes and any necessary changes before your website users can see any of it. The staging environment gives you the freedom to try any changes without fear. Even if you break something, you can easily start over without any repercussions. For this step, you can use a web host that offers staging functionality, allowing your workflow to be easier.
Once your WordPress staging site is up and ready, install the new theme that you want to use. Head to the Appearance>Customize section and make changes to your WordPress site’s appearance. You can also use the preview function to see how your new theme will look. Simply click on the Change button next to the Active theme section. Then, select the theme you want to test and click Live Preview.
Once you have made the necessary changes and are satisfied with the preview of your new WordPress theme, it’s time to go live. Since you already know what your website will look like after switching themes, you can proceed with the change confidently. Close the customizer and then move to the Appearance>Themes tab. Then, click the Active button for your new theme.
Sometimes you may need to tidy up your WordPress site, depending on the features your last theme had. You will likely spend the most time in this step, especially if the switch to the new themes has affected a significant portion of your website functionality. Some of the parts of your site that may break during a new WordPress theme installation include theme-specific widgets and shortcodes, specific sections of your pages, navigation, and sidebars, and even your favicon could disappear.
Although switching themes affects how your site looks, your content will remain in place. Your focus at this point is to customize the new WordPress theme until you achieve the appearance you want for your website. Make sure that all your key functionalities are present and working as expected. Sometimes, you may need to add new plugins or replace your current ones to get the website going.
Once you have customized your new WordPress theme and ensured the website is free of bugs and that it is looking exactly the way you want, it is time to make it public. At this point, you can push the new website theme live to replace your earlier or existing theme. The copy that you were working with in the staging environment will now become live and visible to the public.
While the process of customizing a WordPress theme seems straightforward, an expert will do a better job. Get in touch with our team at WPDepend and let us handle all issues on your WordPress site, including theme customization, site maintenance, and more.
A seasoned technology writer and marketing consultant with over a decade of experience helping businesses grow online. I specialize in content marketing, SEO, web design, and e-commerce development. I am enthusiastic about using cutting-edge technology to acquire high-quality traffic, generate leads, and increase sales for my clients.
