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True or False (Impact of changing theme on SERP)

by cbnet
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Is it true that when you change theme of your 10 months old running site with about +80 posts, your site's serp position falls.

I need your guidance before I change theme of my site.
#changing #false #impact #serp #theme #true
  • Profile picture of the author LloydMS
    It could rise. It could drop. It could stay the same.

    Changing the theme will no doubt change the html produced. Your on page optimization should be the same, but since the html will be different it could cause a change in rankings.

    With that said, if you think a new theme will produce a better experience for your visitors - like more time on your site, more pages visited, higher conversions, etc. than whatever minimal impact the change of html would cause will be greatly outweighed by the positive impact of a better site for your visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author FostinWD
    I once changed the theme on one of my sites and it dropped its rankings.

    :/

    I would be really careful and make sure the theme doesn't modify titles, descriptions and meta keywords. Also, some themes are built to display page titles in h1 tags others h2... it really depends on the theme..
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  • Profile picture of the author jxam69
    If the theme changes the SEO characteristics of your site, then yes this is quite possible.

    The list of potential SEO changes with a different theme is nearly endless - but here's a few to watch out for:
    - some themes contain hidden links (particularly free ones)
    - some change the URL structure - for example adding or removing TAG pages
    - some might change use of H1 and H2 tags etc

    You need to thoroughly examine the new theme in a dev environment before rolling it out live.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trent Brownrigg
    I've seen it happen. Not always, but sometimes it does. However, I wouldn't worry about it too much if the new theme is better, and I assume it is if you are wanting to switch to it.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by cbnet View Post

    Is it true that when you change theme of your 10 months old running site with about +80 posts, your site's serp position falls.

    I need your guidance before I change theme of my site.

    It's true that it's highly unlikely that both themes will have same page/link structure.

    So the answer to your question is yes it can drop a page in the SERPs.
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesbrands
    Yeh, has happened to me a couple of times, when I have changed the theme.
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