Frequent changes to a website's theme template
website SEOhave a certain impact. What can be done to
reduce the impact of changing theme templates on SEO? Naiba shares some of his own experiences. As for whether the experiences are correct, you can verify them together with Naiba. [caption id="attachment_1842" align="alignnone" width="321"]
June 7 Baidu Index Volume[/caption]
The impact of changing website theme templates on SEO
If you only change the website theme template, without modifying the website program, website domain name, or permalinks (pseudo-static format), then the impact on website SEO is generally not significant. However, if you are not careful with details, it is still possible to cause a search engine ranking penalty. For example, reduced indexing, decreased crawl frequency, or a drop in rankings for articles that previously ranked.
Precautions when changing website theme templates
When changing a website theme, the main thing is to pay attention to adjustments in details. These details do not refer to appearance and style. Search engines crawl CSS files, but they will not penalize you for changes in CSS styles. They will only check if your CSS and JS files contain content that deceives search engines and penalize you for that. So, if it's a legitimate theme template, don't worry about changes in CSS files.
What you need to worry about when changing theme templates are changes in the theme template's title, description, and similar content.Due to differences in habits and skill levels among website theme template authors, the code of the new template you switch to will certainly differ from the previous one.
Pay attention to changes in Title and Description
If you were using an SEO plugin and the new theme you switch to also includes SEO option settings, you might disable the previously used SEO plugin. In this case, you need to check whether the display effects of both on the webpage are the same. For example:
NaibabijiThe website title with the previous theme was
奶爸建站笔记 | 记录WordPress建网站教程跟WordPress主题插件推荐
After switching to the new theme template, the title might change to something like the following
奶爸建站笔记 | 又一个WordPress站点
The new theme might directly use your subtitle as the webpage title content. In such a case, search engines will place your new homepage under an observation period. When you discover this issue and correct it, the search engines become confused again—why did it change once more? Thus, the observation period may be extended. Another aspect is the description, typically the website's description. For instance, the current description content of Naiba's notes is:
奶爸建站笔记记录的内容有：Wordpress教程、VPS教程、宝塔面板教程、零基础搭建网站教程、奇技赢巧、软件分享、带娃经验、奶爸日记等内容。
If you only pay attention to the front-end changes of the new theme template but fail to check the changes in the Description from the source code, it could also impact your website. Currently, Baidu's behavior is unpredictable, so it's best to try to ensure your website doesn't change too drastically.
Pay attention to changes in keywords
Regarding keywords, it is generally advised not to set them on the website homepage nowadays, and article pages are rarely set with them either. There have been online reports suggesting that Baidu no longer references keywords. Moreover, based on Naiba's years of experience in website development, it seems unnecessary to write keywords unless your website's positioning is extremely clear. For personal blogs, it's completely unnecessary; it's better to let Google decide (I haven't fully figured out Baidu yet, so I still avoid writing them).
Pay attention to changes in H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 tags
Naiba believes that changes in H tags likely have the greatest impact on SEO when switching website theme templates. For example,
The left side of the image above shows the default H tags after installing the theme, where you can see two H1 tags. The right side shows the normal display effect after Naiba modified the theme. From H1 to H6 tags, the weight decreases progressively. The common view in the SEO community is that a page should have only one H1 tag, but this theme results in a page having two H1 tags. Although you might see some SEO experts' sites also having two H1 tags, a new website cannot compare to an established one, especially one belonging to an SEO expert. Moreover, all the theme templates Naiba previously used had only one H1 tag per page. If a newly switched theme template suddenly introduces two H1 tags, wouldn't that create additional trouble for search engines?
Changes in other theme details
For instance, some features added by your previous theme, especially those integrated into articles, should remain consistent with the previous theme template for both search engines and users. Maintaining the same functionality is also excellent for user experience, which is a crucial aspect of website SEO.
What to do if the new theme template involves URL changes
In website development, changing URLs is most inadvisable. Naiba has considered modifying the website's permalink structure, but due to the uncontrollable factors with Baidu, decided against it. (If Google were normally accessible in China, Naiba would have already made the change; Google responds very quickly to WordPress permalink changes, essentially without harm.) By default, if you are using
WordPress to build a website, then after you modify the permalinks, previous articles will automatically 301 redirect to the new links, and Google will update quickly. As for Baidu, there is a website revision feature in the Webmaster Tools where you can submit the changes—if Baidu responds, I'll be surprised (that said, you should still submit it; after all, Baidu is the boss). Then, URLs used in website articles, widgets, menus, etc., that are based on the old links must all be updated to the new ones. Of course, the best approach is to modify the theme template to keep URLs consistent with the previous ones. The above are Naiba's views on the impact of switching theme templates on SEO. Check back in a week to see if there are any changes in the indexing of Naibabiji's notes and whether this theme switch has affected Baidu.
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