If I change a Wordpress Theme then will it result in Performance and Page Loading Speed Improvements?

Question

My wordpress blog is running on a very advanced, powerful and e-commerce capable theme.

The issue is, this theme is packed with hundreds of DOM classes, Javascripts library and multiple CSS files.

I did a performance test and found that my blog is underperforming because of these CSS, JS files. DOM tree consists of 1000+ nodes which are quite larger for a simple wordpress blog.

I am thinking to change my blog's theme because the current theme is very powerpacked and most of their features are unnecessary for my simple blog. Each time when page loads, there are unnecessary calls to JS file, CSS files, server roundtrips and it creates DOM nodes.

So suppose if I change my blog's theme; then will that give a boost in Fast loading speed and the performance issues?

Answer 1

Always Look for Better Solutions

As a rule-of-thumb, always look to see if there are any better solutions. Themes often become dated or even abanded when the developers move on or focus on a new theme they are making. On top of this, new technologies emerge that might not be compatible with older code, such as newer and faster versions of PHP.

Google Search

A good search on Google for things like fastest WordPress themes is always good, then read through the various reviews and benchmarks to see if you can identify something that will fit your needs. StudioPress is always a favourite.

Migrating Costs vs Benefits

You might also want to take in to account the cost of migrating to a new theme and future proofing your site so that future migrations are quick and easy.

Some themes output their code as standard WordPress/HTML/CSS markup, making transitions easy, while some use their own code/shortcode, those that do are the most the difficult and costly to migrate.

But at the end of the day, the time spent migrating from an old slow theme to a new fast one is more often worth it than not.