This question arises many times in user’s mind, does changing wordpress theme affect SEO & Traffic?
You can often see the ranking differentiate when you change the wordpress theme, it is not only because you have changed the wordpress theme, there may be much more reasons behind this which we will discuss in this article. There are some points which you should be taken care of while changing the wordpress theme:
- Using of HTML: All the search engines read the HTML source code in a linear manner. The reading criteria are not as same as it is displayed on the screen. You should be more careful with your content, as usually spiders view the sidebar content whether it is right side or left side. So if someone views your page source then your main text should appear first in the HTML section before the sidebar content. Algorithms pay more attention to the text which is outside the table and specifically to the keywords which are in the main paragraph. So in short, if your new theme changes the way of HTML then it will definitely affect your ranking in the search engines.
- Meta Data: The very important factor which can affect your ranking is the Metadata. If you have used some SEO plugins with your original theme, then you should use the same plugins with your new theme as well. It is because if you are using the same plugins or widgets which you have used before then your ranking position would not get affected. Also, make sure that the description and tags which you have used before should be same in the new theme in the head section of the HTML.
- Changes in Permalinks: Basically permalinks are the URLs or links which redirect you to your blog posts. If your permalinks are changed when you have changed the wordpress theme then it will definitely affect your ranking position. So make sure that if you change the wordpress theme then you should have the same permalinks which you have used before in the original theme.
- All the Existing links: It is not because of the permalinks as the Google and other search engines also take care of the links which you have used before in the previous theme like tags links, graphic links, and post links. All these should be same in the new WordPress theme as well.
- Select a SEO friendly Theme: There are many themes which are SEO friendly and doesn’t worry if you have changed the WordPress theme which is not SEO friendly then you can use tools like SEMRUSH or SEO spider. These tools simply crawl your website and generate errors if there is any, and if you have the errors then you can easily make the changes in your new theme, this will make your website SEO friendly without having any bugs.
If you any query or questions related to the same, please feel free to share with us. You can mention your comments below.
