Switch from thesis to genesis , lose G rankings?

by kage65
22 replies
  • SEO
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I just read that if you get a site established in google with one wordpress framework, lets say thesis, and then change to another one maybe a few years down the road, let's say genesis, that you could lose all your traffic from google ( if you have any) However this post was several years old.

truth to this? Thanks.
#genesis #lose #rankings #switch #thesis
  • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
    If you change your permalink structure without setting up redirects, you might, but just changing the way it looks, that is highly unlikely.
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    • Profile picture of the author KayaIsmail
      Originally Posted by JMichaelZ View Post

      If you change your permalink structure without setting up redirects, you might, but just changing the way it looks, that is highly unlikely.
      This. It's the permalinks which might lead to Google asking questions. The framework itself doesn't change much, it's basically the same as changing your theme.
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  • Profile picture of the author ViViD
    If you change the structure to your site it is possible to lose some ranking yes, or if there is something not set up properly on the new site. But just changing the theme by itself does not generally have an affect of making a website tank in rankings.
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  • Profile picture of the author kage65
    Thanks for this. But I believe these are frameworks, not themes. Hence my concern.
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Shook
      They are frameworks, that is just a fancy way of saying customizable theme that can make your site look exactly how you want.

      Changing up your permalink structure is going to change the url's of your posts and pages, but changing frameworks is not going to change that. And besides you are going to keep the old one just in case and keep your backup handy for restoring everything before you make a big change like that.
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  • Profile picture of the author K Meier
    This is absolute not true. Google does not take into consideration what framework, theme or content management system you use.

    Also switching frameworks will not change your permalink structure as this is a core function of wordpress.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Man people are clueless. It's way more than just permalinks.

    Anytime you change themes in Wordpress there is the potential for ranking changes. It depends on how the theme lays out your site.

    For example, one theme might be coded with a sidebar appearing after the main content. Another one, written by someone who can't code for crap, might have the code for the sidebar appear first before the main content. Google reads the code, not the final layout. So in Google's eyes, now the sidebar is appearing first, pushing everything else farther down the page.

    That could impact rankings.

    There are a ton of other little things in themes that could impact rankings. Some could be positive. Some could be negative.

    So yes, anytime you change themes, you could see a change in rankings, not necessarily always a negative one though.
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    • Profile picture of the author Pixel Theory
      But since both, Thesis and Genesis, are built using clean code the switch shouldn't have much impact, especially if the layout is preserved?

      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Man people are clueless. It's way more than just permalinks.

      Anytime you change themes in Wordpress there is the potential for ranking changes. It depends on how the theme lays out your site.

      For example, one theme might be coded with a sidebar appearing after the main content. Another one, written by someone who can't code for crap, might have the code for the sidebar appear first before the main content. Google reads the code, not the final layout. So in Google's eyes, now the sidebar is appearing first, pushing everything else farther down the page.

      That could impact rankings.

      There are a ton of other little things in themes that could impact rankings. Some could be positive. Some could be negative.

      So yes, anytime you change themes, you could see a change in rankings, not necessarily always a negative one though.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
        Originally Posted by Pixel Theory View Post

        But since both, Thesis and Genesis, are built using clean code the switch shouldn't have much impact, especially if the layout is preserved?
        How clean, white and shiney they look has nothing to do with a child theme or the code its written on. What Mike was clearly pointing out is that the Google algo reads code, not your articles.
        If you change the code to another theme, it will obviously be structured differently to the old code. If it wasn't, it would be the same theme no?

        So just as each theme is coded "differently". Googles algo will in turn,

        Read it differently
        Treat it differently
        Rank it differently

        How hard can that be to understand.
        I retreat from the thread, for the sake of my sanity.
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        • Profile picture of the author michaelra
          This is probably just coincidence but my traffic went down quite dramatically after upgrading from Thesis 1 to Thesis 2 in January

          Then it went down a bit again after changing to Genesis

          I haven't tried to go back to Thesis 1 and see, but I'm sure it's probably a coincidence with the Penguin updates and stuff
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        • Profile picture of the author Pixel Theory
          Who said anything about articles??

          Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

          How clean, white and shiney they look has nothing to do with a child theme or the code its written on. What Mike was clearly pointing out is that the Google algo reads code, not your articles.
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          • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
            Originally Posted by Pixel Theory View Post

            Who said anything about articles??
            Not you sorry, ideas above.
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    • Profile picture of the author K Meier
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Man people are clueless. It's way more than just permalinks.

      Anytime you change themes in Wordpress there is the potential for ranking changes. It depends on how the theme lays out your site.

      For example, one theme might be coded with a sidebar appearing after the main content. Another one, written by someone who can't code for crap, might have the code for the sidebar appear first before the main content. Google reads the code, not the final layout. So in Google's eyes, now the sidebar is appearing first, pushing everything else farther down the page.

      That could impact rankings.

      There are a ton of other little things in themes that could impact rankings. Some could be positive. Some could be negative.

      So yes, anytime you change themes, you could see a change in rankings, not necessarily always a negative one though.
      You do realize that the html code is usually not touched within most wordpress templates? Almost all designers follow the official wordpress structural hierarchy. Moving sidebars and content boxes is all CSS based. I've been designing wordpress templates for years, and when you usually move a sidebar from left to right or top to bottom, you do that via CSS using float:right/left and you do not actually modify the html code. This is done to provide compatibility with future wordpress updates, so themes don't break when an update is released. Of course there is always the odd one out where a designer actually touches the html code, but in general it's all CSS based.

      Especially with state of the art frameworks like genesis or thesis non of the html code is being touched.

      In general changing themes does not have an impact on your ranking at all, especially not if you are on the first page. It only has an impact if the theme removes entire content boxes (comments, sidebar, author boxes etc)
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
        Originally Posted by K Meier View Post

        You do realize that the html code is usually not touched within most wordpress templates? Almost all designers follow the official wordpress structural hierarchy. Moving sidebars and content boxes is all CSS based. I've been designing wordpress templates for years, and when you usually move a sidebar from left to right or top to bottom, you do that via CSS using float:right/left and you do not actually modify the html code. This is done to provide compatibility with future wordpress updates, so themes don't break when an update is released. Of course there is always the odd one out where a designer actually touches the html code, but in general it's all CSS based.

        Especially with state of the art frameworks like genesis or thesis non of the html code is being touched.

        In general changing themes does not have an impact on your ranking at all, especially not if you are on the first page. It only has an impact if the theme removes entire content boxes (comments, sidebar, author boxes etc)
        You're assuming most theme creators know what they are doing.

        I've seen plenty that are a total train wreck.

        The question was if changing a theme could impact rankings. The answer is that it could, and I have examples of how. That's all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Laubster
    I've heard of people losing rankings b/c of theme changes and content changes. I recommend starting off with something decent and responsive in the beginning and customizing it down the road versus making an entire change. Why risk it.
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  • Profile picture of the author online only
    To be honest, I've changed themes like 5-6 times and completely redesigned the site etc, nothing has happened. I think as long as you have somewhat same layout and same text that there was previously, nothing will change in the SERP.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by online only View Post

      To be honest, I've changed themes like 5-6 times and completely redesigned the site etc, nothing has happened. I think as long as you have somewhat same layout and same text that there was previously, nothing will change in the SERP.
      And most themes are coded fairly similarly, so making a change many times will show no negative effects.

      I was just pointing out that changing themes CAN have an impact.
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  • Profile picture of the author GyuMan82
    Generally changing themes does not impact rankings unless it does something drastic to the layout of the site.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    This isn't complicated.

    If you remove text/pages/links that ranked pages, you'll drop like a brick in the SERPs.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    I absolutely love the genesis framework.... I have a lot of great sites ranking that use it
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  • Profile picture of the author squadron
    Originally Posted by kage65 View Post

    ... and then change to another one maybe a few years down the road, let's say genesis, that you could lose all your traffic from google ( if you have any) However this post was several years old.
    Yes, I have seen that happen when "upgrading" from flat html sites to Wordpress or Drupal sites. Just changing a theme in Wordpress can make you jump up or down several spots in the search results.

    The structure of the page determines the order in which the text is indexed and the text/code ratio.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Cutts
    But dont hold back changing a theme if yyou feel you can make more money...

    A bad theme can make or break your conversions...
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