Google Says Changing WordPress Themes Can Impact Rankings

Google’s John Mueller said in one of his #AskGooglebot short video answers that changing your WordPress theme can directly impact your rankings in Google Search. It obviously depends on what is changing with the website when you change the theme, but in general, it can impact your Google rankings.

Here is the video:

John first said that often when it comes to site themes, it is often more than just a splash of color on your web site. Often, the theme can impact how:

• Content is displayed including, headings, text and images
• Internal linking and the site navigation
• Page load time and speed
• Content options
• Structured data use

John Mueller said a good theme can make it easier for Google and other search engines to understand your website. So changing your theme can impact your rankings.

John then gave some tips on how to see if changing a theme impact your rankings at a high level, so watch the video.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Yom Kippur.