Hello, I started my site a year ago, with Siteground hosting and using a Kadence theme. I’ve got long covid, had a some difficult life stuff happen (mum died, daughter seriously unwell etc), and it took me forever to get the site set up and work out what I was doing.  So I had a slow start, lost confidence on it and only got 3 posts out last year. I’m on more of a roll now.. have got 2 more posts out and think I can get at least one a week, probably 2. I have been building up my Pinterest account for it and that is all going well. According to Siteground’s statistics I’ve had about 1.8K page views so far this month on the blog. (I’ve not been on it a lot but maybe 50-100 of those are me?)

Now that I’m confident I can stick with it, I’m wondering about switching to Feast. My questions are:

1) For people who have switched to Feast are they glad they did?

2) How is the process of switching and what the support is like? Currently I get excellent free support from my theme provider and don’t want to switch and find I have no clue what I’m doing!

3) If I switch, will I lose my links for Pinterest pins? Sorry if this is a silly question!  There are only currently 5 posts to move but I’ve been working hard with Pinterest pins and building traffic there and don’t want to leave people with links which don’t work.

Or maybe I don’t need to switch at all and I’d be better carrying on as I am for now. I don’t want to find I want to change and make it harder to do it later though.

I would be so grateful of any thoughts on this!

Thank you.

Catherine.

Jus to add, sorry that was long.. I can’t see how to edit it!

I think I may be best just getting more posts out at this point, I’m not sure what would be involved in switching when I’m further down the line.

1) I switched maybe 1.5yrs into blogging, and I’ve been happy with the switch. Between Feast and WPRocket, my page speed and core web vitals all shot up immensely and I like having a more modernized and up to date on best practices site.

2) I’ve never personally used their support, but I’ve never heard anything bad from people that have needed to contact them. I have a background with web design, so I didn’t really need help, but their website is full of good info and tutorials as well. Just be sure to use a staging site when making a large change like this.

3) Switching shouldn’t affect Pinterest, or any links at all. Feast isn’t exactly a theme, but it’s basically a theme update. If you switch from a raincoat to a leather jacket, what you’re wearing underneath doesn’t change. That’s basically how it is with themes as well. Most of your site structure remains the same, you’re just adding a new coat of paint on the outside.

As for switching right now, I’d agree with your follow up post. If you have that small amount of content right now, focus on content for awhile instead. Feast isn’t cheap, and I wouldn’t worry about many paid plugins at all until you’re further along. As for what would be involved in switching later? Almost nothing different. You might need to do a bit more work on the homepage and making sure your categories are structured correctly but switching themes with 5 posts or 500 posts is basically the same at the end of the day.

Hi Chris,

Thank you very much for such a detailed and helpful reply.

Yes, I’m concerned about the expense of Feast, so knowing more about the switch has put my mind at rest on that. I’ll get into a rhythm with the content and focus on getting more onto the site first. That’s so useful to know about Pinterest too.

Thank you again,

Catherine.

Hi Catherine!

First of all, I am so sorry to hear about your year…I got COVID on Christmas Day (talk about a lump of coal for a gift!) and I was miserable for days.  I hope you are feeling better, and that your daughter is too.  And condolences about your mum.  You are clearly so strong in getting your site up and going with all that.

So as for Feast.  My blog is about 15 years old, and I’ve been through a bunch of themes (including a custom one) and I am now on Feast.  I made this switch because of a site audit I did with SEO expert Casey Markee (he’s awesome) and my traffic (which was strong but wasn’t growing) has doubled over the year I’ve been on Feast.  Casey explained that Feast is a straightforward theme that keeps up with the many behind the scenes SEO needs that I have no idea are going on, and he strongly advised that I switch from my custom theme.  Because of this, my site has been optimized for speed, security and other technical issues that my custom theme (even though it was prettier) couldn’t handle.

I work with iMarkinteractive for all my technical support, and they were the ones that converted me over to Feast, and they have handled the very few issues that have come up, so I can’t speak to Feast’s tech support, but I’m guessing it is solid, since Casey recommended them.  They will do one time services like migrating from one theme to another, and if you can swing it I highly recommend it – they will make sure it is done perfectly, and they are super speedy at answering questions.  And once your blog is big enough, I can’t say enough good things about having them handle your WordPress support in general.

So to answer your question, I am SUPER happy with Feast.  I don’t know the answer for sure to your Pinterest question  – I haven’t had any Pinterest issues so I’m guessing they will be fine.

As for when to switch, I think you are okay either way.  The advantage of switching now is that you will get used to Feast as your blog grows.  But it is expensive, so you may want to wait until you work your way up to having more posts. As Chris says, it’s pretty much the same migrating 5 posts or 500 (my site had 1400 posts when I switched and it went very smoothly with my tech team’s help).

Happy to answer any other questions as you get rolling – I am so grateful for all the advice I got from seasoned bloggers when I was getting started!

Cheers,

Kate