Title: Conversion from Custom Theme to Default Theme
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Conversion from Custom Theme to Default Theme

 *  [samsnb](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samsnb/)
 * (@samsnb)
 * [13 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/conversion-from-custom-theme-to-default-theme/)
 * Hi
 * I currently have a site running on a theme custom built for it as per specifications.
   The theme was built on a tight budget and has limited flexibility. The site is
   regarding [What to Take to University ](http://www.what2take.net) and can be 
   found at [http://www.what2take.net](http://www.what2take.net)
 * I now want to move this them to CStarDesign a premium theme on themeforest. However
   my issue is I will be reformatting my whole site and losing pages and merging
   pages so it is more user friendly.
 * I have done a large amount of SEO on the homepage and a few subpages, however
   the homepage is now going to be a landing page for the whole site and the homepage
   now will effectively be moving to /university. How can I retain the SEO already
   performed on the site and the pages or will I need to start from scratch again?(
   around 4-5 months work).
 * Also there is a large amount of custom html formatting in the site pages (due
   to the inflexibility of the custom theme) is there a way of running the site 
   on the new theme offline to test it and edit it without bringing the whole thing
   down? Or will it be a case of backing up the whole site and importing the new
   theme and if it falls apart reinstalling the backup (Would I just download all
   the files on the FTP?).
 * I appreciate this is a long winded and more complex request than most the threads
   on the forum, however, thank you for taking the time to read it. Any advice would
   be greatly appreciated.
 * Kind regards
 * Sam
 * _[ Please do not bump, that’s [not permitted here](http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome#No_Bumping).]_

The topic ‘Conversion from Custom Theme to Default Theme’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom html](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-html/)
 * [custom theme](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom-theme/)
 * [installation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/installation/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [samsnb](https://wordpress.org/support/users/samsnb/)
 * Last activity: [13 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/conversion-from-custom-theme-to-default-theme/)
 * Status: not resolved

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