9 Things You Must Do Before Changing WordPress Theme

WordPress is an open source content management system which is used to create websites for free and is based on PHP and MySQL. WordPress is mostly used by bloggers but according to new scenario front end developers are using them for development purposes as well. From the development of web contains to use of mailing lists, online forms and many more are made in wordpress. WordPress can also be used for pervasive display systems to work as application domain. Here we discuss 9 things You must do before changing WordPress theme.

We can also say that wordpress is easy to use factory which have the capacity to make websites even by those who have minimal knowledge of making websites. The reason that wordpress is relatively easy to use than other is because of its plug-in and theme. With the help of customized theme and plug-in there is very less space in which the codes are used and it makes the work easy and fast. It can take around four to five hours to make simple web page with the help of wordpress. This is the main reason why wordpress is growing so fast in last 16 years.

Things You Must Do Before Changing WordPress Theme

With new theme released everyday by many developers the web pages are getting more attractive and easy to use. Some of major theme which is used during the development of wordpress is Divi, Ultra, Beaver Builder, Astra, OceanWP and many more. These entire themes are used in order to make the webpage more appealing to the users. But in some cases clients may want to use their very own theme to develop their web pages. In order to do so we must be able to follow following ideas and plans:

1. Making notes while changing

While working on wordpress there can be lot of problem which can be solved by looking it on Google. But the same or various related problems can arise in the future so to be prepared and prevent the similar problem in the future we must be able to take notes. Often the solution to our problems is in the form of functions.php files so we may have to add them manually. When we develop our very own wordpress theme all the files are added automatically which makes people not remember the changes that have been done.

If additional notes are made during the changes of the theme than we can easily update and make the process of maintenance much faster. Some of the changes to be noted are:

Load time
Which section has been changed
What is missing
Which section can be improved
What are the weak point of the website

2. Speed of Web pages

How fast can a webpage load is one thing that all the developers must take into account and if their theme is the reason for the making the webpage load slow it must be done quickly as possible. Speed is something that makes the users feel first when they open up a webpage. So it must be a huge concern to the developers if the web page is slow.

One of the major reasons why people change themes is because of the slower theme. So it is important to make the changes as soon as possible. The best way to make theme faster is to check and compare the theme with the others and make the required changes to speed up the theme. Some advantages of speeding web pages are:

Faster loading of contents
Heavy data can load a lot faster

3. Backup the changes

Backing up is one of the smartest things to while making changes on any level. When we make changes we are able to there are a lot of things that can go wrong which can lead to loosing of data and time. But if we have the ability to get all the data that we lost then we can be on the safe side and we can do the changes from that point which is restively much less than what we might have lost.

During the Backup we must be certain that we have everything we need and then we can be sure and do the work accordingly. Before any changes done we will have to make the backup of the original theme. Some of the major advantages to backup can be

Saves time
Allows to make changes freely
Changes can be Secure
In case of data loss we can extract form backup

4. Adding proper Maintenance mode

Adding maintenance mode is most in web designing and not only on wordpress. When maintenance mode is added to the web page then it will not allow the users to use the web page. Instead of seeing webpage contains they will see a big banner that will say Maintenance mod. This will prevent the users from seeing a broken webpage. But sometimes users may see the maintenance mode and then move towards other sites.

Before going to maintenance mode we must activate maintenance mode and hide our web page. Once the maintenance mode is on the job must not take more than 10 to 20 minutes. Once maintenance is over the maintenance mode must be turned off. Some of the advantages of adding proper maintenance modes are:

Hides the webpage from users
Notifies the users about maintenance

5. Making sure its suitable for all

Each and every web page must run on all the browsers whether if it is on mobile phones, Tablets or desktops/laptops. When a webpage is created and it does not run on all the devices there is a serious problem and needs to be handled. Because it is always not necessary that WebPages are handle on only one device. Let’s just say that webpage is working fine on chrome but there are problems on Firefox then that web page will not be as established as other WebPages.

There are more than 100 of web browsers on the internet if we can make them run on all of them we can finally say that we have one of the most browser friendly web pages. If we can’t make them run on all of them we must at least make them work on the major browsers.

6. Testing all the functions

When we first make changes to theme we must be able to add all the major functions such as login, news feed, Blogs and others. When all these function starts to work only then we can say that our work is complete. Once the entire themes are activated we must make sure all the functions are working. If not then go back to step 1 and then start making changes or start to fix those problems because if only one function is not working then it can lead to lot of failures in the webpage.

For example if login in is not working then the users may not be able to work and this could create a lot of problems within the clients company. Well some advantages of checking functions before running them are:

Better Feedback
Prevent errors in the future
No limited function

7. Making the changes slow and steady

As we all know from a saying slow and steady wins the race this same thing can be applied in web designing or changing the theme. If the changes are done one at a time then it gives us advantages such as easy to about the quality of the product, use of new ideas and many more. The work done on slow and steady pace will allow the developer to create more ideas and make them understand the weakness and strength of the design which can be used in the future.

If the changes are made slowly then it is easy to be more cautious while design and development. This can allow us to make theme better and help us to identify problems very easily. Some of the major advantage can be:

Easy and better design
Error detection is simple
More caution while working

8. Download custom theme from secure sources

There are so many sites from which custom themes can be found and then edited. This helps the designer to make changes in a very simple manner and allows them to do more efficient work. But this cannot always be the case. Sometimes while downloading theme there can be some malware which are attached to the custom theme that can ruin the entire project at once. This can create a lot of security issue and the quality of the theme can be compromised.

If the themes are downloaded from secure sites then it will allow the user to have more secure and also get a reliable support. There will be a lot of bug while the initial release but when those bugs are found they will be fixed as soon as possible Lets see some of the major advantages of downloading form custom theme from secure sources:

Avoid any malware as much as possible
Theme quality is always high
There will be strong response team
More updates and bugs will be fixed

9. Add feedback option

During the development of any theme there are bound to be something a developer may have missed and due to that reason feedback is most important. When the developer designs theme they think only with their opinion and not of the other users but once feedback option is added then it will allow the users to tell the developers where they went wrong or where they can add more features.

As a developer it is important to know what will secure and make the web page more efficient but when a user sees the webpage he might have a say to it. If the user feedback is taken into account then it can make the development much more efficient.

Conclusion

So if the above points say something is that all the things need to be considered. There are lot of other point that may not have been included above but mentioned one are the most. While the development takes place the entire possible angle should be measured and taken into account.

Most themes may not be as friendly or interactive as other but it is the responsibility as a designer and developer to make that no space for any limitations on the themes that has been created. This is the perfect way to get the job done in the right manner.