What theme is behind door number one?
I have recently been looking into web design. This post may be a bit technical, but I’ll try to keep it as simple as possible. A theme has to do with the underlying mechanics of a website.
What foundation?
It is the foundation that a website is built upon. Different themes have different capabilities and some allow for beautiful headers and some not so good headers. Some look great on the web and some not so good. I am currently using the theme called 2016. It is a WordPress theme, and is good for blogging, which is most of what I do.
Cool websites
I look at other websites and I see all the cool things that they can do, and I wonder, why not my website? They say how simple it is to change your website theme. Gee, why can’t I do this?
Why I can’t change themes
I’ll tell you why I can’t do this. It is because it is not so easy to change themes. Sure, it is not such a problem when you have little or no content on your website. However, as your website grows, it becomes much more difficult to transport things to your new website theme.
WordPress
WordPress seems to be the control panel behind the website and the theme is the frame upon which you built your website. I am not a web designer by trade and mostly, I do not know what I am doing with a theme.
Ascent
When I was just starting out, I changed my theme from Ascent to 2016. I did this mostly because I had no idea what I was doing on the web. I had very little content on my website, and I foolishly and fearlessly changed the theme.
Why change?
Mostly, I changed the theme because I did not understand the Ascent theme, and I was clueless about it. So I changed the theme to something I could understand. The theme 2016 was a theme I understood. It was an older blogger type theme and since I was going to write a blog, it made sense to me.
Shiny objects
Sure I might one day be taken by the shiny objects in the web, but here was a theme I understood and could work with. Well the shiny objects of the web have gotten to me again and I started looking for a new website theme.
Fan club
I am a fan of Suzi Whitford who has startamomblog. I think the world of her and she is super smart. Look, when you’re disabled and you are looking to go viral on the web, there really isn’t much help out there for a handicapped blogger. A special thank you to Kyle and Carson at Wealthy Affiliate, without whom I would never been able to do anything on the web. Also, a big thank you to Allison Lindstrom with Blogging to Win, without whom I never would have been able to monetize the site.
Here comes Astra
Anyway, Suzi said that she was considering changing her recommended web theme to Astra, because a previous theme she was using was no longer supported. Doing this is easy if you’re starting your website with a new theme, but not so easy if you have a more established website with a ton of content.
Change themes
Anyway, I decided to change my theme to Astra. I downloaded Astra, activated it, and it was instant catastrophe! I really need to know what I am doing.
What happened?
My header was gone. Letters were all crushed together and my website was horrible. I took one look at this and I decided it was time to go back to 2016. At least, I understood 2016.
Back to the Future
I reinstalled 2016, and to my relief my website was back.
It’s all about the Metadata
But, was my metadata back? Now, metadata is something I only vaguely comprehend. It is apparently the underlying web infrastructure information of my website.
Rank on Google
I figured if I ranked on Google, my metadata was probably alright. On Friday, I received an email from Wealthy Affiliate saying a prior post had ranked on Google. If I ranked on Google, my metadata was probably alright.
Someday not so soon
I may someday change my theme, but not today, and probably not for awhile, because I’m going to need much more training.