I’ve changed WordPress themes plenty of times, and I’ve broken things in the process. It’s easy to lose your sidebar, mess up your layout, or forget the one bit of custom code that makes everything work.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the exact steps I use to switch themes safely. Whether you’re activating a new theme from WordPress.org or building a custom theme with SeedProd, you’ll know what to do before, during, and after the change.
Why Should You Change Your WordPress Theme?
Changing your WordPress theme can improve how your site looks, works, and converts visitors. If your current theme feels outdated or limiting, switching themes is often the fastest way to fix it.
Many older themes are hard to customise and don’t work well with modern page builders or plugins. A newer theme can give you better layout control, faster load times, and a cleaner design without touching your content.
You might also change your theme if your business has grown or your goals have changed. What worked for a blog or hobby site often isn’t the best fit for a business website or landing pages.
Finally, switching themes can help with mobile responsiveness and accessibility. Modern themes are built to look good on all screen sizes, which improves user experience and helps with SEO.
Things to Do Before You Change WordPress Theme
Before you switch themes, take a few minutes to prep your site. These quick checks help you avoid missing code, losing widgets, or breaking layouts when the new theme goes live.
I use this checklist every time because it makes theme changes predictable. Once you’ve done these steps, you can preview and activate your new theme with far less risk.
1. Copy and Save Custom Code Snippets
If you’ve had the same WordPress theme for a while, you may have customized certain theme areas with your own code. These changes are easy to overlook after you make them.
If you’ve had to modify your WordPress theme functions.php file in the past, it’s essential that you note the changes down. That way, you can add them to your new WordPress theme later.
Not doing that means your new theme won’t have any custom changes because the new active theme replaces all the old theme files.
If you want to add code snippets to your site, I recommend creating a site-specific plugin instead of editing your WordPress theme files directly. That way, any code you add won’t be affected if you switch themes.
2. Check Your Load Times
Before changing your WordPress theme, check your website’s current loading time. This makes it easy to compare your old theme’s speed with the new one.
Your site’s speed is a major factor for SEO and the browsing experience. Switching to a slower theme could frustrate visitors and hurt your search rankings.
3. Save Your Tracking Codes
When it comes to tracking codes for analytics, some people add these directly into their WordPress theme files. Many themes also have a particular theme options area for saving tracking codes.
Before replacing your WordPress theme, copy and paste these codes into a notepad. You can add them back into your new PHP functions file when you’ve switched themes.
To save yourself the hassle of doing this every time, I recommend using a good WordPress plugin like MonsterInsights for installing Google Analytics. The header and footer plugin is another good choice for any other tracking code.
You can read our MonsterInsights review here.
The tracking code in these plugins won’t be affected if you change themes, so you won’t risk losing data.
4. Backup Your Website
It’s always a wise choice to create a full backup of your site and wp-content before changing your current theme or migrating your site. Make sure you back up your:
- Posts
- Pages
- Images
- Plugins
- Database
- Contact Forms
- WordPress Users
If your new theme causes any issues, you have a complete backup to restore your website.
An excellent way to do this is to use a WordPress backup plugin to back up your entire site.
Make sure you download your backup to your computer before installing your new theme. Your backup is then easily accessible should things go wrong.
5. Save Your Sidebar Content
Sidebars are a great place to display important information such as:
- Subscription forms
- Social media links
- Advertisements
- Giveaways
But they’re easy to overlook when switching your WordPress theme. While WordPress will save your widgets, the layout may change depending on your theme.
That’s why it’s a good idea to note your sidebar layout before you migrate, including any custom HTML, custom CSS, theme-specific shortcodes, and advertising codes. Then you can save them to your computer.
Once you’ve added your new theme, you can easily add your code back in if needed and make sure your widgets display as they were before.
6. Enable Maintenance Mode
If you’re not using a staging site, it’s always worth putting your site into maintenance mode when making changes behind the scenes. You don’t want visitors to see a site that’s clearly under construction.
I suggest using the SeedProd plugin for this purpose.
SeedProd is the best landing page builder and theme builder for WordPress. It makes it easy to create custom layouts in WordPress without any design experience.
The visual drag-and-drop page builder is super-easy to use and includes everything you need to design stunning WordPress themes in minutes.
The SeedProd page builder comes with built-in coming soon, 404, login page, and maintenance mode pages that you can turn on and off with a single click. Not to mention, it offers WooCommerce support for eCommerce websites.
To put your site into maintenance mode, get started with SeedProd here. Then install and activate the plugin. If you need help with this step, follow this tutorial for installing a WordPress plugin.
From your WordPress dashboard, click the SeedProd icon to view the SeedProd overview.
At the top of this page, you’ll see the option to set up a Maintenance Mode page. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to put your WordPress site into maintenance mode.
After that, it’s simply a case of clicking the Maintenance Mode toggle and turning it from inactive to active.
7. Choose a New WordPress Theme
After working through the above steps to prevent breaking your site, the next step is to install your new theme.
You might be considering using free themes from WordPress.org. While this is a good choice for small, personal websites, they lack many of the features you’d need. Instead, it’s a good idea to look for a premium theme.
If you’re still undecided, I highly recommend the following WordPress themes and plugins:
| WordPress Theme | Best For | Key Feature |
|---|---|---|
| SeedProd | Custom Theme Building | No-Code Drag & Drop Builder |
| Divi | Visual Design | Huge Layout Library |
| Astra | Performance | Lightweight & Fast |
| StudioPress | Minimalists | Genesis Framework |
| OceanWP | eCommerce | WooCommerce Features |
1. SeedProd
If you used SeedProd to create your maintenance page, it makes sense to use it for your new theme too.
SeedProd is a powerful WordPress theme builder. It allows you to create a custom theme without writing code or hiring a developer. It replaces your existing theme with a new custom design automatically.
You can get started quickly with a premade starter template or build from scratch. Key features include:
- Visual Drag-and-Drop Editor
- Real-time Live Previews
- Custom Headers, Footers, and Sidebars
- WooCommerce Support
It’s bloat-free and speed-optimized, ensuring your new look doesn’t slow down your site.
2. Divi
The Divi plugin is a hugely popular WordPress Theme powered by the powerful drag-and-drop Divi Builder. It easily allows you to build any website.
Divi has over 20 pre-built layouts and 46 different elements for displaying your content. You can customize each element to suit your needs and see the changes in real time.
Related:
3. Astra
Astra is a super lightweight theme optimized for speed. It works with several popular page builder plugins like SeedProd, so you can build your website in any way you prefer.
This theme is also translation and right-to-left (RTL) ready. That means your website can be in any language you’d like. You can even go multilingual if your visitors use different languages.
Astra is easy to integrate with the WooCommerce plugin, meaning you can turn your site into an online store. What’s more, you can customize many elements using the WordPress Theme Customizer.
4. StudioPress
Genesis is one of the most popular theme frameworks for WordPress and comes from the StudioPress team. Alongside their minimalist child themes, you can create stunning websites using Genesis.
StudioPress is also part of WP Engine, the most popular managed WordPress hosting company. And, if you sign up for a WP Engine web host plan, you’ll get over 35 StudioPress themes for free.
5. OceanWP
OceanWP is a WordPress theme that’s both responsive and multi-purpose. It has a large selection of demo templates built with various businesses and professions in mind.
What’s more, it’s compatible with major page builder plugins. Add a range of extensions to this, and you can take your site even further.
You can also check out this list of the best multipurpose WordPress themes for even more ideas.
How to Change WordPress Theme Without Losing Content
With your WordPress theme selected, it’s now time to switch your site to the new look.
But before you go live, you must test the new theme. This ensures it works well with your existing plugins.
Let’s look at how to test your new theme first. Then I’ll show you different ways to publish it on your live site.
Method 1. Change WordPress Theme with Preview Option
WordPress has a nifty default option to preview changes made to your site without publishing them.
To do this, go to Appearance » Themes from the left-hand sidebar of your admin panel. You’ll then see a list of your currently installed themes.
Hover your mouse cursor over the theme you want to preview, then click the Live Preview button to select the theme.
This opens your theme in the WordPress Theme Customizer.
Here you can test all areas of your site and view them as if they were live, all without breaking your site and committing to any changes.
Method 2. Change WordPress Theme with Theme Switcha Plugin
Another option for previewing and testing your WordPress theme before going live is to use the Theme Switcha Plugin. This lets you preview your new theme without going live with the changes.
First, download, install and activate the free plugin. Then go to Settings » Theme Switcha from the left-hand sidebar of your admin panel.
From the general settings page, select the Enable Theme Switching option. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.
At the bottom of the page, the plugin will now display all your installed themes. Click your new theme to preview it in a new browser tab.
Method 3. Change WordPress Theme with Staging Environment
Many WordPress hosting companies now have the option to clone a copy of your website onto a special staging environment so you can test out changes before publishing them.
Here’s an example of creating a staging environment using Bluehost. From your admin panel, select Bluehost » Staging. This will bring up a page that asks if you’d like to copy your production (live) site to a staging site.
Click Create Staging Site to begin making the clone.
After a short while, you’ll see a page with a success message telling you your staging environment is ready to work on.
Click Go to Staging Site to go to this version of your website.
You can now test that your theme works properly without any changes affecting your site’s original version.
I’ll discuss how to publish the changes next.
Note: Some hosting plans don’t offer staging sites unless you use an advanced plan.
Method 4. Change WordPress Theme on Live Website
Now that you’ve tested your new theme, you’re ready to make it live. First, you need to add the new theme files to your site.
Go to Appearance » Themes and click Add New. Upload your theme’s zip file and click Install.
Once installed, hover your mouse cursor over your chosen theme. Then click the Activate button.
If you head to your homepage, you’ll see your new WordPress theme in action.
To publish your new theme from a staging environment, follow these steps.
Go to Bluehost » Staging Site” and scroll down the page from your staging environment. You’ll see 3 options for copying your test site to your original, live site.
- Deploy files only.
- Deploy files and database.
- Deploy database only.
In most cases, you should choose the Deploy Files and Database option since it will include any changes to your site.
It may take a minute or 2 for the information to copy over. You’ll see a success message when the process is complete.
After doing that, navigate back to your main (production) site, where your new theme will be in action.
Some people prefer using an older method of changing their WordPress theme using File Transfer Protocol (FTP client) to upload files to WordPress. Others prefer to configure themes via their WordPress host’s cPanel.
Check this beginner’s guide on using FTP to learn how to upload themes on your web hosting with FTP.
Method 5. Change WordPress Theme via FTP
Warning: This method is for advanced users. Please ensure you have a full backup of your site before proceeding.
If you can’t access your WordPress dashboard, you can install a theme manually. You can use an FTP client like FileZilla for this.
First, connect to your hosting account using FTP. Navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder.
Next, unzip your theme folder on your computer. Upload the entire unzipped folder to the themes directory on your server.
This installs the theme files safely. If you were locked out of your site, you can now rename your old theme folder to force WordPress to switch to a default theme. Then you can log in and activate the new one you just uploaded.
What to Do After Replacing Your WordPress Theme
It’s easy to think that the work is over after changing your WordPress theme. However, there are still a few things to handle to get the best experience for your site visitors.
Use the following checklist to ensure a smooth experience after changing your theme.
1. Check Your Website Works Properly
Even though you’ve tested your new WordPress theme, glitches can still happen.
Take some time to thoroughly check your:
- Plugins
- Widgets
- Navigation Menus
- Posts
- Comment sections, and
- Forms
Ensure they’re working as they should to prevent vital elements of your site from breaking.
2. Check Your Website in All Browsers
Next, check your website in different web browsers. Some browsers tend to display things differently than others.
Checking your site for cross-browser compatibility is essential for consistency. An inconsistent experience for your site visitors can seem unprofessional.
3. Add Tracking Codes and Snippets
Remember the tracking codes and code snippets you saved before changing your WordPress theme? Now it’s time to add them back to your new theme.
MonsterInsights is an excellent choice for adding your Google Analytics tracking code. It lets you properly set up analytics and allows you to view essential statistics from within your WordPress dashboard.
Additionally, if your pages have schema markup, you’ll need to configure your new theme to load it properly so search engines can continue to display rich snippets in search results.
But if you’re using a WordPress plugin, like All in One SEO, to handle schema markup instead of adding it manually, you should be able to skip this task.
4. Disable Maintenance Mode
To allow your site visitors to see your new theme, you can disable maintenance mode.
If you’re using the SeedProd plugin, click the SeedProd icon from your WordPress dashboard to view your landing page overview.
Then turn the Maintenance Mode toggle from the active position to inactive.
5. Test Your Page Loading Times
Lastly, check the page loading times of your homepage after the theme change. Head back to the WordPress speed test tool and test the same pages as before.
Compare your old theme’s page speeds to those of your new one.
If you don’t see any improvements in your site speed, you can follow this simple guide to improve WordPress speed.
Great work! You now have a site that looks much better than it used to. You’ve also learned how to change your WordPress theme without breaking your site!
FAQs on Changing Your WordPress Theme
You now know how to change your WordPress theme without losing your content, which makes redesigning your site far less stressful.
For more helpful WordPress guides, see these posts next:
- How to Add or Remove Space Between Blocks in WordPress
- How to Add a Different Sidebar for Different Pages in WordPress
- How to Add Custom CSS in WordPress (Beginner Friendly)
- How to Add a Box Shadow in WordPress: 4 Easy Ways
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