Shopify Themes: When To Update, Retrofit, or Start From Scratch

Shopify keeps telling you a new theme version is available, but should you actually update? Leighton and Patrick break down when to update your Shopify theme, when to switch to a new one, and when leaving it alone is the smarter (and cheaper) move. Links Mentioned Shopify Theme Store: https://themes.shopify.com Ilana's JSON-LD for SEO (structured data app): https://apps.shopify.com/json-ld-for-seo Theme Updater & Backups by Out of the Sandbox: https://apps.shopify.com/theme-updater-by-out-of-the-sandbox Google PageSpeed Insights: https://pagespeed.web.dev Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:29 Adjust or start over? 2:21 Two real client examples 3:59 Cost, effort & maintainability 6:31 Where store owners should start 10:29 Custom work traps 11:58 Speed & SEO surprises 13:52 Protecting your nav & links 16:42 What if your traffic tanks? 19:21 The cost of playing it safe 20:25 How to approach the decision 21:51 The Online Store 2.0 cutoff 24:03 Finding the right theme 27:22 Testing before you commit 29:59 To update or not to update? 33:18 Wrapping Up Book a Call Book a Call with Patrick: https://calendly.com/patrickriceco/strategy-call Book a Call with Leighton: https://cal.com/leightontaylor/discovery-call?utm_source=podcast Work With Us Work with Patrick (SEO and Google Ads): https://patrickriceco.com/ Work with Leighton (Shopify Store Builds, Migrations, & Ongoing Support): https://envision.io You may notice that our content sometimes includes affiliate links or sponsored content. We may receive compensation for this type of content, which supports the work we do at no cost to you.