Genesis Framework – Steps to Convert Your Old WordPress Theme To Genesis

Does your current blog design look tired and outdated?
Is it optimized for the search engines?
Not converting well?

After 6 years of maintaining the old design of this blog I decided to create a new design based on the Genesis Framework. My old design was based on a free theme customized to suit my business model..web design, hosting and marketing. Over the last few years new blog designs have emerged to better cater to computer users and the search engines.

Some of these trends include:

• Wide computer screens
• Web page speed
• White Space
• Leaner, cleaner code
• Built on a solid framework
• Mobile compatible

What is the Genesis Framework and how can it benefit your business?

Professionally designed child themes can be built upon the Genesis Framework. This is great for designers because they can customize the child themes to suit their client’s or create their own child theme.

All themes contain clean code, are optimized for the search engines and include multiple layouts and widgets that contribute to the flexibility of the designs.

Steps to convert your old WordPress theme to the Genesis Framework

The purpose of following these steps is to develop the look and feel of your new blog before you replace your old blog.

1. Develop your new theme in a subfolder of your current blog
2. Add a subfolder to your current blog ie domain.com/dev/
3. Create a new installation of WordPress within your subfolder
4. Download the genesis theme framework and a child theme from Studiopress
5. Install the genesis theme to your templates folder (wp-content/themes)
6. Install your chosen child theme to the templates folder
7. Activate your new child theme from the WordPress dashboard
8. Adjust the theme settings to suit your blog
9. Set-up your widget areas e.g. I created a custom menu on the right side of the header, added social media buttons, opt-in form, categories and recent posts to the right sidebar.
10. Update the permalink structure e.g. add the custom permalink to create search engine friendly URLS for your posts.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Do I change the address in General settings before moving the template folder?
A: If all you are moving is the theme folder you don’t need to change the address in the General Settings.

Q: Will the SEO settings remain the same?
A: The SEO options will remain the same as on the existing site.

Q: Do I need to deactivate the plugins?
A: It can’t hurt but generally when turning on a new theme it’s just not necessary.

If you really want to play it safe (and you should do this regularly anyways as a best practice) make a full backup.

Related Articles
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database
http://codex.wordpress.org/Restoring_Your_Database_From_Backup
Moving WordPress to a New Server Step by Step
How to Add a Database to a Website