Lynn Morancie

What is a WordPress Child Theme

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A WordPress child theme is a theme that inherits its functionality from another theme, known as the parent theme. Child themes are often used when you want to make customizations to your website but don't want to lose those changes when the parent theme is updated.

By creating a child theme and making your customizations in the child theme, you can ensure that your changes are preserved even if the parent theme is updated. This can be especially useful if you are using a premium theme that receives regular updates, as you can continue to receive those updates while still maintaining your customizations.

To create a child theme, you will need to create a new folder in the wp-content/themes directory and include a style.css file and a functions.php file. In the style.css file, you will need to include a reference to the parent theme and any custom styles that you want to add. In the functions.php file, you can add any custom functions that you want to use in your child theme.

To include a reference to the parent theme in a WordPress child theme, you will need to include a special comment at the top of the child theme's style.css file. This comment should include the following information:

/*

  Theme Name: My Child Theme

  Template: parent-theme-name

*/

Replace parent-theme-name with the name of the parent theme that you want to use. This will tell WordPress to use the parent theme's styles as a starting point for the child theme, and will allow you to override those styles as needed.

You can then include any custom styles that you want to add to the child theme below this comment. These styles will be applied after the styles from the parent theme, so they will take precedence and allow you to customize the look and feel of your website.

For example, if you want to change the color of all links in the child theme to red, you could include the following in the child theme's style.css file:

a {

  color: red;

}

This would override the default link color set in the parent theme, and apply a red color to all links in the child theme.

Overall, including a reference to the parent theme in a WordPress child theme allows you to customize the look and feel of your website while still taking advantage of the functionality and features provided by the parent theme.

Using a child theme can be a great way to customize your WordPress website without losing those customizations when the parent theme is updated.

Optimize your WordPress site for search engines and improve its performance

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There are a number of strategies that you can use to optimize your WordPress site for search engines and improve its performance. Some of these include:

Use a lightweight and well-coded theme: A lightweight theme will load faster and be easier for search engines to crawl, which can improve your site's performance and SEO.

Optimize images and other media: Large, unoptimized images can slow down your site and negatively impact your SEO. Use tools like WP Smush or Kraken.io to optimize images and other media before uploading them to your site.

Use a caching plugin: Caching plugins create static HTML versions of your site's pages and store them on the server, so they can be served to visitors more quickly. This can improve your site's performance and reduce the load on your server.

Enable Gzip compression: Gzip compression reduces the size of your site's files, allowing them to be served to visitors more quickly. Most caching plugins include this feature, or you can use a plugin like W3 Total Cache to enable it.

Use a CDN: A content delivery network (CDN) stores copies of your site's static files on servers around the world, so they can be served to visitors from the location nearest to them. This can improve your site's performance for visitors located far from your server.

Optimize your site's code: Ensure that your site's HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are clean and well-written, and minify them to reduce their size. This can improve your site's performance and help search engines better understand your content.

Use descriptive, keyword-rich URLs: Search engines use the words in your URLs to understand what your site is about. Use descriptive, keyword-rich URLs to improve your site's SEO.

By following these strategies, you can optimize your WordPress site for search engines and improve its performance, leading to a better user experience for your visitors and improved search rankings for your site.