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Does changing your WP theme hurt your SERPs?

by Ryan Sorensen
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I'm a day into my website's auction and this question came up "How much can changing the theme hurt rankings?"...

I've been ranking #1 for my main keyword "online jobs for students" for well over a year and have never changed my original theme. I've changed other site's theme and it didn't seem to effect anything.
#changing #hurt #serps #theme
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Yes, a year old site/theme that's been ranking can be hurt in the SERPs by changing the theme.

    If you can get the new theme setup with the same or very close on-page seo, you should be ok.

    Hint, look at your Google Cache (text version) that's what matters the most.
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    • Profile picture of the author dadamson
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      Yes, a year old site/theme that's been ranking can be hurt in the SERPs by changing the theme.

      If you can get the new theme setup with the same or very close on-page seo, you should be ok.

      Hint, look at your Google Cache (text version) that's what matters the most.
      Also, make sure your new theme is fully setup before switching it.

      You don't want to edit your theme while it's live because you will run into trouble if the bots crawl during this time.
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO Coach
        when you change your theme, you effectively change the code on your site, so this certainly could disrupt your SERP...

        i've primarily used the atahualpa theme with great results in SERP across various niches...plus they have awesome support...
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  • Profile picture of the author TZ
    If you use these two plugins you can use almost any theme with no change;

    Headspace
    Duplicate Content Cure

    Both are musts.

    If you are not using these two, you are losing traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danial09
    in my experience, a site that rank for one main KW would disappear immedaitely after changing the theme. I think it affect to your ranking
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  • Profile picture of the author t3ch
    Nah, changing theme won't effect yor ranking, in a condition of you already have optimum backlinks and good On site SEO.
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    Cara untuk kurus

    Slim Diet 2
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  • Profile picture of the author arie_ds
    My own experience tells me that changing theme had caused my site dropped. I switched back again and it took me almost two months for the site to regain back its position. Lesson learned..
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  • Profile picture of the author John Williamson
    Like Yukon said, if the on-page SEO stays about the same, it shouldn't really hurt it. Watch out for the header tags changing and various other things that themes implement.
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