WordPress is very user-friendly when it comes to theme management. However, switching themes isn’t always easy. A simple mistake can lead to lost content, site errors, or performance issues.
Whether you’re updating your site design, improving functionality, or evolving your brand, changing your WordPress theme requires careful planning and execution.
When done correctly, theme changes can significantly improve the look of your site, but rushing the process can result in issues such as broken links, missing widgets, or a poor user experience.
Our team has built hundreds of websites and switched themes countless times over the years, so we understand the challenges that come with updating or switching themes.
In this article, we’ll explore how to safely switch WordPress themes. We’ll discuss common concerns our readers have about maintaining site functionality and traffic, and provide a step-by-step checklist to guide you through a smooth transition.
Why should you change your WordPress theme?
You may want to change the theme on your WordPress site to make it better suit your market.
For example, if you run a fashion blog, then you might want to switch to a theme that has the style of a professional fashion website.
Switching to a different theme can also give your website a fresh new look, enhance the user experience, and even improve your site’s search engine optimization (SEO) by making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content.
Additionally, some WordPress themes have features that you might need for your website built in. For example, some themes include features for e-commerce, membership sites, and portfolios.
That being said, let’s look at how to properly change WordPress themes on your website. Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll learn in this article:
- Things to do before changing your WordPress theme
- How to Install a WordPress Theme
- How to Change WordPress Theme Without Going Online
- Changing WordPress Themes on a Live Site
- Manually changing WordPress themes
- Things to do after changing themes
- Bonus: Update Your WordPress Theme Without Losing Your Customizations
Things to do before changing your WordPress theme
While you can easily change the theme with just a few clicks, you must take some precautions before starting the process.
We recommend that you go through the following checklist carefully to ensure that the process of changing your WordPress theme goes smoothly and that you don’t lose important data.
1. Copy the code snippet from the current theme
Some intermediate WordPress users like to customize their website by adding code snippets directly to their theme's functions.php file.
Because these changes once occurred, people usually forget about them.
If you or your web developer make these changes, be sure to go through your current theme's files and take note of any additional code you added previously. This way, you can later add these code snippets to your new theme's functions.php file or to a site-specific WordPress plugin.
**Pro Tip: We recommend that you always use **WPCode to add code to your website, which is the best WordPress code snippet plugin on the market. This way, when you switch to a different theme, you don’t have to worry about copying and adding code snippets.
2. Test Loading Time
Before changing your theme, you should check your website’s loading time. This can help you easily compare the difference in page loading time after your website changes.
Remember that WordPress speed is an important factor for user experience and SEO, so you want to make sure your new theme is faster than your previous one.
You can use the WordPress speed test tool to check your website speed.
Make sure to test the load time of your home page and some internal pages.
3. Don’t lose any tracking codes
Some users add the analytics tracking code directly into the theme files. Additionally, some WordPress themes allow you to add the AdSense or Analytics code within their settings panel.
One of the most common mistakes made by beginners is to ignore these code snippets.
You’ll want to make sure you copy all of the tracking code snippets so you can add them to your new site after you change themes.
To ensure future-proofing, we always recommend users to install Google Analytics using a plugin like MonsterInsights . This plugin allows you to view analytics and reports directly from your WordPress dashboard without having to add any tracking code to your theme files.[](http://127.0.0.1:85/google-analytics-user-guide.html)
At WPBeginner, we’ve been using it to track conversions, referrals, and article performance. It’s provided us with valuable insights into our site’s strengths and areas for improvement.
On the other hand, for other tracking codes like ads, we recommend using WPCode .
4. Make a full backup
It is always recommended to backup your posts, images, plugins, and database before changing the theme.
You can use a WordPress backup plugin like Duplicator to create a backup of your entire website. Make sure to download this backup to your computer before continuing with the next step.
Several of our partner brands have used it to create website backups with excellent results.
This step will ensure that you can easily restore your site if any problems arise.
For more information, you can refer to our beginner’s guide on how to backup your WordPress site .
5. Sidebar Content
The sidebar is used to add different widgets including social links, ads, subscription forms, or contact forms.
Make a note of these changes. If you added any custom code to the widget, be sure to copy and paste it to your computer so you can reuse it in your new theme.
6. Keep your website in maintenance mode
While you’re making changes to your site, it’s a good idea to put it in maintenance mode. This prevents users from seeing an incomplete site and ensures a smooth transition to a different theme.
We recommend using SeedProd for this purpose.
It is the best WordPress page builder on the market that allows you to easily create coming soon and maintenance mode pages for your website.
First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. If you need help, then follow our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin .
Note : You can enable maintenance mode with SeedProd’s free plan . However, upgrading to the premium version will unlock more features, such as pre-built templates, advanced customization capabilities, and email marketing tool integrations.
Next, go to SeedProd » Login Page screen from your WordPress dashboard and click on the ‘Set up maintenance mode page’ button.
After that, you must select a template for your maintenance mode page. You can also use a blank template and create a page from scratch.
To select a template, simply hover your mouse over the thumbnail and click the check icon.
You can now customize your page using the SeedProd drag and drop page builder. Simply drag new blocks from the left menu to add them.
SeedProd allows you to add standard blocks for text, images, buttons, and titles. It also offers advanced blocks including contact forms, giveaways, social sharing options, and more.
Don’t forget to click the “Save” button in the top right corner to save your changes.
After that, go to the Page Settings tab and switch the page status to Published.
Once you are finished, exit the drag and drop builder by clicking on the "X" icon in the upper left corner of the screen. This will open a prompt on the screen asking you to activate maintenance mode.
From here, just click on the ‘Yes, Activate’ button to display maintenance mode to users visiting your website.
![How to Correctly Change Your WordPress Theme (The Ultimate Guide)](http://127.0.0.1:85/uploads/image/202507/ac/39e499bd40a9f4c0.png "Click the "Yes, Activate" button in the prompt")
If you need more inspiration for creating a maintenance mode page, then you can check out our list of maintenance page ideas that you can use on your WordPress site.
How to Install a WordPress Theme
After following the above precautions, the next step is to install the theme you want to use on your website.
Once you’ve chosen your theme, you’ll need to install it on your WordPress site. You can install a WordPress theme using one of three methods:
- Using the WordPress Theme Search Option
- Uploading the theme from your WordPress dashboard
- Installing the Theme Using FTP
For more information, you can check out our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress theme .
There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes to choose from. The fact that you’re reading this article means you’ve probably already found a theme that suits your needs.
However, if you haven’t chosen a theme yet, then we highly recommend the following WordPress themes:
1. Sydney
Sydney is a flexible and powerful multi-purpose WordPress theme that helps you quickly build a professional-looking website without starting from scratch.
It comes with a library of 28+ beautiful starter sites that you can import with just one click.
The theme also offers tons of customization options. You can easily make adjustments using the WordPress Customizer and see your changes in real time.
Sydney offers a lot of pre-built website features, such as multiple header and footer layouts and different blog page styles. It also works perfectly with page builders like Elementor if you want to make more changes.
Additionally, Sydney has very fast speeds, which is great for your website’s performance.
2. Two
Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes on the market. It is powered by the drag-and-drop Divi Builder, which allows you to easily build any type of website.
It has over 2000 pre-built layouts and 200 different content elements. You can easily customize every element of your website and see the changes in real time.
Additionally, Divi is great for SEO and can help your website rank higher in Google and other search engines.
3. SeedProd
SeedProd is the best WordPress theme builder on the market with over 1 million active users.
We already mentioned that you can use it to create a maintenance mode page. But you can also use it to create custom WordPress themes without writing any code.
We’ve run extensive live tests on it and found it to be very user-friendly for beginners. In fact, some of our partner companies have already used it to create their website themes and come up with visually appealing designs that users love.
The plugin comes with a drag and drop builder and 300+ professionally designed templates to make it easy for you to get started. You can easily customize the theme using ready-made blocks, smart blocks, and WordPress template tags.
It also shows a live preview of all your changes on the right side of the screen, so you can see how your site will appear to your users before you publish it.
4. Astra
Astra is a lightweight and speed-optimized WordPress theme that is compatible with popular page builder plugins such as SeedProd, Beaver Builder, Divi, and Visual Composer.
This is a translation and RTL ready theme. It allows you to launch your website in any language or even create a multilingual website.
Astra can also be integrated with the WooCommerce plugin, so you can easily create an online store without much hassle. You can even customize your header, footer, layout, and more using the WordPress theme customizer.
What we like most about Astra is all the starter website templates it comes with. There are over 250 options suitable for a variety of niches, including business websites, online stores, and personal blogs.
5. OceanWP
OceanWP is a responsive, multi-purpose WordPress theme that provides multiple demo templates designed for different professions and businesses.
It is compatible with major page builder plugins. You can also use different extensions to take your website to the next level.
How to Change WordPress Theme Without Going Online
Once you've installed your new theme, you can switch themes.
However, it is always recommended to test your theme before switching it to your live site.
This way, you will be able to check the compatibility of your new theme with your existing plugins and make sure everything is working properly.
There are three ways to change your WordPress theme without going online.
1. Live preview option
By default, WordPress allows you to preview your theme on your website without making changes.
To do this, go to Appearance » Themes page from the WordPress admin sidebar .
On this page, you will see all the installed themes on your site. Please hover over the theme you want to preview and click the “Live Preview” button.
This will open your new theme in the WordPress theme customizer.
You can now test your new theme and make sure everything is working properly.
2. Theme Switcher Plugin
Another option is to use the Theme Switch plugin. It allows you to preview your new theme without activating it.
First, you need to install and activate this free plugin. For detailed instructions, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin .
Upon activation, visit Settings » Theme Switching page from your WordPress dashboard and check the box next to ‘Enable theme switching’ option.
Once you are finished, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Save Changes” button.
The plugin will now display all the themes you installed at the bottom of this page.
From here, just click on your new theme to preview it in a new web browser tab.
3. Test your theme on a staging site
You can also test your WordPress theme without putting it online by creating a staging site. This site is a clone of your live site and is used to test any changes.
You can do this easily by using your hosting provider’s built-in staging site features. For this tutorial, we’ll be using Bluehost .
First, you have to visit your Bluehost cPanel and click on the ‘My Websites’ button. Once done, switch to the ‘Plugins’ tab and activate the Bluehost plugin.
Next, visit your WordPress dashboard and go to Bluehost » Staging page.
From here, click on the “Create Staging Site” button to continue.
Bluehost will now prepare the staging environment for you.
After that, it will show you the Staging Site section where you have to check the box that says “Not currently editing”.
This will open a prompt on your screen asking you to switch to your staging site.
From here, click the “Switch” button.
Once you’re done, you can head to Appearance » Themes page from your dashboard and activate any theme you want to test without having to worry about it affecting your live site.
Then, once you are happy with your theme, you can push the changes to live.
Changing WordPress Themes on a Live Site
Once you’ve tested your new theme, you can start switching themes on your WordPress site.
To do this, visit Appearance » Themes page in the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once there, simply hover your mouse cursor over the theme you want to use and click on the “Activate” button to change your WordPress theme.
You can now visit your website’s homepage to see your new theme in action.
Manually changing WordPress themes
Sometimes, errors may render your WordPress admin area inaccessible. In this case, you won’t be able to change the theme using the above method.
To recover your website, you will need to restore it from a backup or troubleshoot the WordPress error that is causing the problem.
However, if you don’t have a backup, then you can change the theme manually with the help of phpMyAdmin.
This method allows you to tell WordPress which theme to use by changing information in the database.
First, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client and go to the /wp-content/themes/folder.
Here you can see all the themes currently installed on your site. If you don’t see it, you can also install WordPress themes via FTP.
Next, you need to write down the folder name of the theme you want to use, as you will need it later.
After that, go to the cPanel of your WordPress hosting account. For this tutorial, we will be using Bluehost. However, your cPanel may be different depending on the hosting service you use.
On this page, scroll down to the phpMyAdmin section and click the “Manage” button next to it.
Once in phpMyAdmin, you will see a list of databases on the left side of the screen. From here, click on the database you are using for your WordPress site.
This will open all the database tables on the right side of the screen. Now, go ahead and click on wp_optionsthe table to open it.
Note : WordPress uses wp_ as the prefix for table names by default. However, you can use other database prefixes as shown.
This will open a list of other files stored in the table wp_options.
From here, you have to find the and rows in the right panel template.stylesheet
When you are finished, click the Edit link in the row templateto open the editor.
Here you need to change the value in the field option_valueto the name of the theme you want to use.
/wp-content/themes/It will usually be the same name as the folder in the folder you copied earlier.
Once you are done, click on the “Go” button to save the changes. Next, continue stylesheetrepeating the same process for that row.
After making changes to both lines, you can visit your website to see the new theme in action.
Things to do after changing themes
Once you’ve changed your site’s theme, there are certain things you’ll need to take care of before turning off maintenance mode.
You can check out the following checklist of things to do after changing your WordPress theme.
1. Test your website
First, you need to make sure that all the features, plugins, and widgets on your website are working properly.
You should spend some time testing your website and checking different things including posts, comment sections, images, and contact forms.
Once you are happy with how your website looks and functions, you can move to the next step.
2. Cross-browser compatibility
Browsers tend to display certain things in different ways.
To ensure that your website looks good in every major browser, you should test your website in different web browsers, including Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
3. Add tracking code
Once you've tested for functionality and cross-browser compatibility, you should add the analytics and AdSense tracking code to your website.
You can use the MonsterInsights plugin to add the Google Analytics tracking code. This will allow you to properly set up analytics and see detailed website stats right within your WordPress dashboard.
For more details, see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress .
To add the Google AdSense tracking code, you can read our guide on how to properly add Google AdSense to your WordPress site .
4. Turn off maintenance mode
You can now disable maintenance mode on your website to take it live.
If you are using the SeedProd plugin, simply visit the SeedProd » Login Page screen from your WordPress dashboard and click Switch to Inactive to turn off maintenance mode.
5. Test Loading Times
After changing your theme, we recommend using the IsItWP website speed test tool again to test your homepage’s loading time.
Next, compare it to the loading time when your old theme was installed. If you notice any significant differences, then you can follow our guide to speeding up WordPress .
6. Monitor your bounce rate
After switching themes, you should monitor your site’s bounce rate.
If your new theme is not user-friendly and difficult to navigate, then it can increase the bounce rate and drive visitors away from your website.
You can add related posts, popular posts widgets, and breadcrumbs to reduce bounce rate and increase page views.
7. Ask for feedback
You can also ask users for feedback and suggestions on how to improve the design of your website. You can use surveys or online polls to collect user opinions.
For example, you can add a two-question survey to your website based on user feedback.
You can use an email marketing service to share the new design with your subscribers and ask for their suggestions. This will help you understand what they would like to see improved.
Bonus: Update Your WordPress Theme Without Losing Your Customizations
Once you switch to a different theme and customize it to your liking, you will want to update that theme to a newer version regularly.
However, you may lose some of your customizations when you update your theme. For example, you will lose any code you added to your theme's functions.php file, stylesheets, or templates.
However, you can easily update your WordPress theme without losing all your customizations by creating a child theme.
This theme will inherit the functionality, features, and styling of the parent theme. You can customize the child theme without making any changes to the original theme.
Next, you must identify all the changes you made to the theme and copy them to the child theme. The easiest way to do this is to compare the old and new theme files using software such as WinMerge or Kaleidoscope .
Once you’re done making changes, simply export the Customizer settings from your parent theme and import them into your child theme.
Once you are done, you can preview your changes in the Customizer and click on the Save and Publish button for those changes to take effect.
Another way to update your theme without losing any of your customizations is to always add your custom code using WPCode . It’s the best WordPress code snippet plugin on the market and makes it super easy and safe to add custom code to your website.
When using this plugin, you don’t have to worry about losing your custom code in your functions.php files, stylesheets, or templates when you update your theme.
This is because the code will be saved in WPCode and will automatically execute on your website.
We hope this step by step guide helped you change your WordPress theme correctly. You may also want to check out:
- How to Choose a WordPress Theme
- How to upload and install a WordPress theme
- How to Enable Automatic Updates for WordPress Plugins and Themes
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