Unsure what to do about theme

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15
I have two decent sized blogs. One is a year round, medium traffic (for me), and the other is a summer seasonal large traffic blog.

With google's mobile change, I changed my medium blog to a responsive theme. Unfortunately, I had to remove a few ads because the users ended up bitching. This means less money (maybe), but happier readers and happier google.

Well, now I have to make the decision for my large blog before the summer traffic hits. I have decent rankings with that site, so I'm scared about switching up themes. I'm worried about screwing up what good rankings I do have now.

So, not only do I have to worry about my desktop traffic by switching themes, but my mobile traffic by not being mobile friendly. I am currently using a free version of WPTouch, but I am not really a fan. It looks nice, but it's very generic. I doubt I'll go into the summer like that, so I need to decide .. should I use my current desktop theme, or go with the responsive theme I bought (that I'm starting to see everywhere. The Sahifa theme from Envato).

I'm lost really. How should I handle this mobile change? Should I just stay with my theme, or try something new and hope for the best? If try something new, should I go with Sahifa, or are there other good things that are less saturated with google.

Sorry for the weird rambling. As a blogger, you'd think I'd be able to express myself better, but between a movie playing in the background and my cat on my lap, it's hard to concentrate.
#search engine optimization #theme #unsure
  • Does the new site magically change all of the content you are ranking for now?

    I guess I'm at a disadvantage because I actually write and modify the html, css and javascript on my websites, so I am not familiar with using a CMS. I suppose you'd want to pay attention to <h> tags, descriptions, page title, etc.., but again, would a change in the them modify what is already existing? Not sure.

    Perhaps you should convert one page and compare the source(s) to see if things get altered.
    • [1] reply
    • Good point. I think the biggest difference would be the H-tags. Would that make a big difference in rankings? I assumed my titles of posts held a lot of weight, but it's very possible the immense amount of content I have produced is more of the reason for the rankings.

      About the theme. It's weird hearing people complain about the ads now that my site is responsive. Before the change, I had 2 left skyscrapers, a large header, and I believe two squares on my right sidebar. I also have infolinks with nearly all the options except the side wing things. Now, because the content is zoomed in more, people are complaining because they have to scroll more to reach content and the ads are "everywhere".

      It is very confusing. That is why I am so apprehensive about changing my big site theme.
  • Bumping to see if anyone knows how big of a hit my blog would take over a theme change.

    The biggest change really would be the article titles possibly going from h1 maybe to h2 (I'd have to check my themes).
    • [1] reply
    • It's really hard to say without seeing what you're doing with the old and the new theme, and even in that case it would be pure speculation. Do check that the new theme has headings, the obvious stuff in the document head, and sensible link structure without too many unnecessary links.

      Don't allow the main headings to go from h1 to h2. However, this should not be a big issue because you can edit the theme files if necessary.
      • [1] reply
  • A poorly designed theme can kill your site.

    Before I knew any better, I once used a theme that used H2 in the widgets section. :-(

    Make sure you find sites that are already using the theme you are interested in and analyze their SERPs. Perform page speed tests on them as well- don't just page speed the theme's optimized demo site. ;-)

    I use Sahifa and like it. I also just purchased NewsMag and I'm currently setting it up. Good luck!
    • [1] reply
    • I will be going to Sahifa should I decide to make the switch.

      My current theme only has one h1 per page, which is in the header. Ironically, the titles for the sidebar are also h2 (ironic since you mentioned it). In fact, my main page (which only displays 6 posts) has 12 <h2> tags. That can't be helping.

      Maybe going to Sahifa would actually improve my rankings? I have a boatload of solid content and update my site many, many times a day through the summer months. I think that is why I rank as high as I do.
  • Banned
    Obviously there's a ton of things that can go wrong when changing themes. What you need to do is look at the text version of the old themes web pages & copy the important stuff (plain text, <h> tags, etc...) over to the new theme.

    Also keep in mind things like schema tags If you're using those on the old theme (view your HTML source code).

    Each situation is unique which is why each webmaster needs to be looking at the text version of their own webpages.
  • Stevebeans,

    If your current theme uses H2 in the sidebars, moving to Sahifa should improve your SERPS because it would immediately fix your H2 problem. As I mentioned above, on Posts and Pages, H2 should be used exclusively by the author and not by the theme at all. The author should use H2 for keyword filled headings contained within the article.

    My Sahifa site ranks for some tough keywords so I don't have any reason to think it's bad for SEO.

    The only thing I don't like about Sahifa is the "narrow" width of the main content area (620px). I wish it was a little bigger. Their support is pretty good, Btw.
    • [1] reply
    • I agree about their support. I contacted them about child themes and what files I can modify, and quickly had a response.

      (btw, that main content area can likely be easily fixed by some css tweaks. Have you tested that?)
      • [1] reply
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    Unsure what to do about theme

    I have two decent sized blogs. One is a year round, medium traffic (for me), and the other is a summer seasonal large traffic blog. With google's mobile change, I changed my medium blog to a responsive theme. Unfortunately, I had to remove a few ads because the users ended up bitching. This means less money (maybe), but happier readers and happier google.