Changing WordPress Theme and SEO effects

I decided to buy the theme called "The X theme". It seems really good to me. Has anyone got it? Is it good? I currenly have Enfold installed on my WP, but this theme has a lot of bugs ( like theme short codes not working etc. not compatible with other plugins. , also w3c validation shows errors ) . Will it hurt my rankings after my theme change? Has anyone done it?

anybody has any info on this?

It shouldnt impact your rankings just changing the theme once.

I don't see any reason for your rankings to change because of this. However, I have heard google likes good results from w3c validation on your website so it could give you the tiniest of advantages.

If the SEO components remain intact then i see no reason why your ranking should change.

Obviously some of the markup will be different, and you might see a slight change in rankings, if your previous theme had auto "SEO Titles" for example. Although I doubt changing the theme will have a huge impact. It might even do you some good.

Changing your theme is just like changing your web design.... and fortunately design is not a ranking factor.

If you keep all your SEO elements in place there is no risk. Make sure the meta title and description are not affected and everything should be fine. Websites change their design, this is just normal. G can't punish for that

I have to disagree with most of you. I have done this.

Your raking will change, almost guaranteed. The theme you have now will have completely different page content in the code, the text to html ratio will change, the headings will change.

It may be better, or worse, but I bet the ranking changes. If you have a really crappy theme, it will undoubtedly help.

Here's the deal, if you are going to switch, do it and get it over with, and do damage control if needed. Waiting is only going to make it worse because there will be more pages affected.

And by the way, very few WP themes will pass validation 100%.

Techxan said:

I have to disagree with most of you. I have done this.

Your raking will change, almost guaranteed. The theme you have now will have completely different page content in the code, the text to html ratio will change, the headings will change.

It may be better, or worse, but I bet the ranking changes. If you have a really crappy theme, it will undoubtedly help.

Here's the deal, if you are going to switch, do it and get it over with, and do damage control if needed. Waiting is only going to make it worse because there will be more pages affected.

And by the way, very few WP themes will pass validation 100%.

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Interesting, are the ranking back to original in week ? for me when i do small tweaks i do see them dropping and back in a week so i think there is no danger changing theme.

you can search for similar sites with the same template, and check their ranking.

Changing theme will ofcourse affect your site.

The search engines work on the HTML code of your site. As the theme is changed the source code is changed.

The metadata is also important at the same time, as it helps you to rank your site. If your site doesn't have Yoast plugin installed, it can hit your site.

The permalinks will get changed as a theme is changed and this thing is going to badly hit your site. You have got backlink juice from the other sites and changing the links will hurt you badly.

Maintaining the old links is also quite important. Your site's ad blocks will be changed. It can even affect the page speed and bounce rate.

You need to be too much careful while doing this, mate. You can ruin everything in a single moment of activating a theme. Better, you plan a backup for it and then take a step.