It is easy to find free responsive website templates and it can be done right from your WordPress dashboard in a matter of seconds, although choosing which one to use may take a little longer as the choice is big. In case you did not know a responsive theme is one that responds and changes depending on what browser or device it is being viewed on.
If you are not using a theme that responds, then your website may not load properly or be functional in different browsers or on different devices, so it is important to check your theme to see if it is responsive.
Friendly Website Themes
Although these type of themes have been around for a time now, and the use of tablets and mobiles for browsing the internet is common practice, the search engines are now taking into consideration the responsive aspect of websites when it comes to ranking. This means that if you have an old theme, unless it has been updated by the creator, it may go against you when it comes to ranking in the search engines.
Apart from the ranking factor, an old type website theme may not load properly on a tablet or mobile device, meaning your website will not function the way it should which may lead to you losing visitors because they cannot navigate your site.
Why not visit your own website on your smartphone or tablet, to see how it looks and operates, also try it in different browsers too. You can also test your site at Google to see if it passes their Mobile Friendly Test.
Like I said it is easy to make your website responsive and smartphone friendly.
Find A Great New Theme
Once you have found the theme of your choice, you then just click install and your new theme will appear under your theme page.
All you do then is click activate and you will be ready to customize it to how you want it to look.
That is all there is to it, although you will probably need to do some tweaking and customization with your new theme, but most are pretty straight forward and the theme creators do make things easy to change and move around.
The Plugin Route
If you really do not want to let your old theme go, and there is no chance of it being updating to accommodate smartphones and tablets, then there may be another way. There is a plugin called WP Touch that will make your website responsive without having to change the theme. You can find it just by going to your plug in page within your dashboard, then go to add new, then type wptouch into the search bar, tap enter and it should show up, then just install it and activate it.
I have no idea how this plugin functions or how good it is, but if you really are attached to your old theme, then may be it will be a way of keeping it. That being said, I personally would change my theme rather than use a plugin.
Which ever route you take it is worth checking your site to make sure it is responding to the different browsers and devices that are being used more and more to access the internet.