Error 404 - page not found

This error means that a page is missing on a WordPress website if it occurs only on one web page. It can happen if you've renamed, moved, or deleted a page.

If you're receiving an error 404 on all web pages, and your website has recently been migrated, this could be an issue with your permalinks. To fix this, go to the permalinks setting and click on save changes.  

The white screen of death

This can be caused by various reasons, including non-payment of hosting, a hosting error, PHP issues (PHP is the scripting and programming language that most of the WordPress core uses), or plugin and theme conflicts.  

Either contact your website support person or your hosting company. Your hosting company can tell you if anything is wrong with their hosting. However, if it's a plugin or theme conflict, they are unlikely to help you with that unless they are a smaller hosting company that deals a lot with WordPress websites.   

What happens if you haven't paid your hosting invoice? 

Hosting is like having a filing cabinet in your office full of files for a customer. If that customer is no longer paying you, the hosting company will delete the files even after several reminders. Depending on their processes, they may keep your website files for a few months, but after that, they will delete them.  

If your hosting company deletes your website and doesn't have a website backup AWAY FROM YOUR HOSTING, you have lost your website. 

This is why I keep saying to people, "Please, pretty please, back up your website and send it away from your hosting." 

Domain issues

If you do not pay for your domain and lose it, you have just lost your website because your domain is no longer connected to your hosting. Again, this can be resolved, but you'll have to buy another or your original domain back. 

Error 503 

Errors like 503 errors mean that your hosting is overwhelmed. Some activity is running over its capacity. Usually, this is a short-term error; however, if this happens frequently, then investigation is required. 

The hosting company often tells you to increase your hosting capacity so you'll pay more for your hosting. In some cases, that may be required; however, underlying issues with a plugin or theme may be causing errors and overloading your hosting. The only way to check this is by checking error logs. Again, you can go to your hosting company and ask them to check this out for you. Some hosting companies will do this, and some won't. If they check the error logs, they may find an issue and let you know a specific plugin or theme is causing the problem. It may be a plugin/theme that needs to be updated or replaced if it's been abandoned.

Let's look at this another way. Imagine that your website crashes at some point for some reason. What will you do when that happens?  

A simple contingency plan 

Let's plan for the worst now when everything is working fine.  

Perform regular technical updates

For my webcare plan clients, I perform technical updates every week. This can be more frequent if security updates are required. If you're unsure what technical updates should be performed, use my Basic WordPress Website Maintenance Checklist.    

While some updates will be adding functionality, others will be tightening security.  

Perform regular website backups

Ensure that you have backups of your website sent away to the cloud, away from your hosting. The frequency of the backup depends on how often you update the content of your website or how often you take orders if you have an online shop. The more orders you take or how frequently you change the content, the more often you want the website backups to occur. A website that doesn't change very often may have weekly backups, whereas an online shop may want daily or more frequent backups, depending on how busy it is. 

My website is down. Should I panic now?

If your website is down, check that it's down for everyone and not just you by using an online checker such as  https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/. It could be that you are blocked from your website and that everyone else still has access.

If only you are blocked, you can contact your hosting or web support person to see why you are blocked and to unblock you.    

My website is down for everyone. Now, can I panic?  

If you really want to panic, you can, or you can turn to this handy list that you have in your phone or password manager (or even written in a notebook)

• Login details for your WordPress website because anyone you ask for support will want these if they don't have them already
• Details of where your WordPress website backup is kept because your website may need to be restored from a backup
• Contact and login details for your hosting company because either you or a web support person may need to call them or log into your hosting account
• Contact and login details for your domain, although hopefully this won't be needed
• Contact details for a support person like myself if you don't feel that you are knowledgeable enough to deal with this yourself or you have other priorities   

If you create this simple contingency plan for yourself, you know what to do if your WordPress website fails.  

If you're unclear whether you have a backup installed or your website is up to date, book a WordPress Health and Safety Session. I can check for you and show you some other checks that you can do yourself to keep your WordPress website healthy and safe.