Does changing Wordpress theme affect SEO and Ranking?

TheRumBaron

TheRumBaron

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Hi Guys,

Quick question as per title, does changing a wordpress theme affect current seo and page ranking? Going from free theme to premium theme.

J
 
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I really don’t know. From what I was taught I think if it affects the speed of the site, it will also affect seo
 
TheRumBarron said:
Hi Guys,

Quick question as per title, does changing a wordpress theme affect current seo and page ranking? Going from free theme to premium theme.

J
Click to expand...

Long story short : Yes

But why,
For a lots of reason, here is little list for you (there is way more thing) :

1 - It can affect loading time (or speed time) due to size of HTML / CSS / JS or server side (if it's not well coded)
2 - there can be issue too with google schema, some theme use Rich snippet, some don't
3 - Hn and general html coding standard, it's really important to organise your site, if the site use (for example) H1 for "My account" it's pretty bad for SEO

that pretty much it for the basics

Here is some good ressource for you : templatemonster.com/blog/what-is-seo-friendly-wordpress-theme/
 
In my experience: Yes, every fucking time. Even if you want to change ONE word that was mispelled? Ooops, time to go from #2 to #8 for two weeks.

I changed the theme and added content to and old site of mine that got more traffic in the latest update.. it lost about 35% of it's traffic. :D It will probably come back, but it will be a while.

I never update or change pages that already rank anymore, just leave the sites for years. Only add seperate, new blog posts if I want the blog to be updated regurarly.
 
Yes it does. I have seen minimalistic design theme works faster. You can also see some theme have better onpage seo option but that is of no relevance as you can anyway use Yoast Or all-in-one.
 
TheRumBarron said:
Hi Guys,

Quick question as per title, does changing a wordpress theme affect current seo and page ranking? Going from free theme to premium theme.

J
Click to expand...

Themes can affect the speed of your site...some themes could affect ad codes...some themes can effect google analytics because some of them must be place inside the theme and not through a plugin...
 
The new theme most probably will have a different structure, so it may/will affect SEO in some way.
 
By changing theme, you will have changed all your pages. Changing a page can change rankings.
QED
 
Thanks all for your replies!! :)

Geezo did not realise this!! May need to rethink my strategy as this new theme came with some much needed features and plugins!

Again thank you guys for the advice
 
Anyone has experience with mass changing title? Did you lose rankings temporarily? And how long did it take to recover after that?

I messed with all the titles on a site with hundreds of posts, and as expected all of my keywords tanked. But it has been near 2 weeks. Would like to know if G still figuring out things or because I over optimized or something. Thinking of rolling back.
 
What a BUMMER
and I thought antiquated domains would sustain rank.
 
I have an 8-yr old site and recently switched theme to WP Twenty Nineteen about 5 months ago.
  • I didn't really notice any significant loss of traffic maybe because the permalinks are intact
  • This is a fast-loading theme and looks especially good in mobile. Almost 85% of my traffic is mobile; hence, the need to switch
If there's not much change that's going on on your new theme, it's certainly okay to switch. People do this all the time.
 
Themes are part of your design that generally does not affect the seo and your domains ratings unless you have your same copy/content on the site with same urls
 
TheRumBarron said:
Thanks all for your replies!! :)

Geezo did not realise this!! May need to rethink my strategy as this new theme came with some much needed features and plugins!

Again thank you guys for the advice
Click to expand...

If the new theme/site has better features or features that meet your business needs, then go ahead and install it. You'll have to update sooner or later. Update it and keep working on off page seo.
 
Depends on theme quality and features (speed - seo features....etc) most of the time your ranking will dance a little before it stabilize
 
yes it does . so you have to manage everything properly in the new site before applying it.
 
If the theme you are going to change is not well optimized then yeah. Make sure the new theme is mobile friendly, not takes too much time to open your web.
 
tglr said:
Even if you want to change ONE word that was mispelled? Ooops, time to go from #2 to #8 for two weeks.

I changed the theme and added content to and old site of mine that got more traffic in the latest update.. it lost about 35% of it's traffic. :D It will probably come back, but it will be a while.
Click to expand...

That is so damn true unfortunatly. Google is super suspicious and every change to a site is seen as "manipulation" before they get around recalculating your rank. Especially with adding new content that is infuriating. Its good in the long run but can drop a site like a stone these days. Same with your site going down bc of host issue. Better make sure its running as stable as possible but if you need a new theme for whatever reason - do it and suffer through the rank drop. No way around it.
 
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