The Importance of Utilizing A Current Wordpress Theme

Earlier this week, I ran into a bit of a glitch with my "Surviving Cancer" blog. I had added AdSense to my site a few weeks ago, and while these ads were getting clicks, I was getting the feeling that Google's auto AdSense ads were a bit too spammy, so I decided to switch to utilizing the AdInserter plugin, so I could have full control over where my ads were placed.

Needless to say the removal of the auto ads created a series of events that at first, I thought were the result of the ads themselves, but in reality was the result of something else.

After watching Marion's "Easy Adsense Ads with AdInserter" training, I realized I first needed to get rid of the existing ads on my site. Needless to say was easier said than done.

I removed the widget from my sidebar that contained AdSense code, and then went to the theme HEDR and removed the same code. Yet, after removing the code from both these areas, the ads STILL remained. I had seen in the comments on Marion's training that someone else had gone through a similar issue. The fix was to toggle site speed off an on in an effort to clear the website "cache". And if that didn't work, to disable the "Insert Header and Footer" plugin.

Needless to say, the cache clearing didn't work, so my last resort was to disable the plugin, even though the AdSense plugin did not live in there. Once I disabled that plugin, the issues with my site began.

My site had developed a glitch. At first, I worried that I might have removed too much code from the HEDR file, so I checked my site on multiple browsers, and it displayed fine, so I knew that couldn't be the issue. I soon noticed that these changes only affected my Wordpress dashboard.

I reached out to SiteSupport, and after trial and error on my side, clearing my browser cache, and restarting my browser, it seemed that my issues were related to my browser, so I told Support that the issue appeared to have resolved itself, but I would reach out again if it returned.

The problem seemed to resurface yet again, right after I messaged Support, but I figured a reboot of my PC would resolve the issue. I walked away from my computer for the night, and thought no more of the issue.

I attempted to log back on to my site the following morning, and the issue had returned. Symptoms were as follows:

1. Clicking the Logon button from my WA account would result in a white screen
2. I could go directly to my website, and click dashboard, and it would appear
3. Once in my dashboard, functionality was hit or miss. Clicking on AdInserter would result in a white screen, yet I could go in and modify posts without a problem.

I had reached back out to SiteSupport, but while taking a break for lunch I popped into the WA chat to see if anyone had any ideas as to what my issue was. Thoughts could be that I made an error when deleting the code from the HEDR file, plugin incompatibility with the current WP version, and a few other things I cannot recall.

There was already a secondary theme installed on my site that I wasn't using, so I switched to it, while keeping my existing theme installed, and the issue remained. I futzed with disabling the AdInserter plugin, thinking that may be an issue, but the issue remained.

I then deleted my old theme, and while on my secondary theme, the issue seemed to go away. So thinking there may have been a glitch with my previous install, I went in search of a fresh install, and that is when I stumbled upon the potential issue. My site had been using the Sugar & Spice theme, and when I searched it on Wordpress, I found it hadn't been updated in 2 YEARS!!!! I downloaded it anyways, as a test, as it had worked prior to my playing with AdSense, and the issue returned. Unexpectedly I found myself in a position of having to find a new theme, sooner rather than later.

After much searching I landed upon the Ashe theme. I immediately installed it, and deleted Sugar & Spice, and all my issues went away. I have since updated to the Pro version of Ashe, as I had fallen in love with one of the templates that was only available in the pro version.

So, the moral of my story is simple. If your site has started to develop glitches that cannot be explained, your theme could be to blame. Just like our computers, Wordpress is constantly updated to fix bugs, as well as add new functionality, and sometimes older themes may not be compatible with the new changes.

Before you start playing with plugins, and settings on your site, check and make sure you are using a current Wordpress theme. If it's no longer available for download via your dashboard, then it may just be time to find a new one.