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Dealing with issues in WordPress can be frustrating, especially when they’re happening behind the scenes and are beyond your control.
As we’ve mentioned, your server is crucial in determining whether your site runs smoothly or experiences issues like slowness, unresponsiveness, or security breaches. Even a short downtime can impact how your customers perceive your business. Therefore, it’s important to understand the potential server-related problems and how to address them.
Server issues can be challenging, and you can’t always rely on your web hosting provider to fix them. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of common problems that may affect your WordPress site and provided steps to help you resolve them.
1. Slow-loading pages
Several factors could make your site sluggish. If you’ve done everything to speed up your site and are still having problems, your server could be to blame.
Start by checking your web hosting company’s server status. If anything is wrong with the servers, you’ll find information there.
If this becomes a regular issue, you should speak with a support representative to see if they can explain what is affecting your site. You might need to upgrade to cloud hosting or increase bandwidth.
If your site is experiencing a surge in traffic, bandwidth limitations may be the issue. Within your hosting account, you can check for bandwidth overages to see if that’s slowing your site down.
2. Not receiving emails
Most businesses create email addresses branded to their web domain. If you’ve created a personalized email address but your inbox is empty, it’s time to start troubleshooting.
Start simple: Send yourself an email (or get somebody else to) to check that there isn’t an issue with maxed-out server space. If nobody gets a notification that the inbox is full, verify that the problem isn’t with how you configured the forwarding.
In your email app’s settings, check your hosting email is listed there. If that’s been set up correctly, you can look at the email management tool in your hosting account to see if emails are coming through.
If they’re not, you should ask your web host provider to look into it, as it will likely be a configuration issue.
3. Updates not reflected on the site
If you’re not seeing the updates you’ve made in the backend, caching your website is the first step.
If you’ve already cleared your cache, cleared your browser, and tried viewing it on a different device,
then your cache_temp folder may not be working properly. If so, you’ll need to contact hosting support for assistance.
4. “Server does not exist”
If you see a blank page with a message that says “server does not exist,” it usually means your account has been suspended.
This can happen due to missed payments or if you regularly exceed the plan’s bandwidth and storage limitations. To get your site back up, immediately contact your hosting provider to find out why it’s been suspended and take the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again.
5. Memory exhausted error
This error can be scary, as it usually displays the ‘white screen of death’—yikes. It often happens if you try installing a WordPress plugin or theme file that exceeds the allowable limit or isn’t compatible with the plugins you already use.
The easiest way to fix it is to revert your site to how it was before you tried to upload the plugin or theme. Increase the default PHP memory limit by logging into your control panel and navigating to your file manager. Open the wp-config.php file and add the following code to increase the memory limit:
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’);
Now you’ve increased the memory limit, you can try to upload the theme or plugin again.
As you can see, there are many variables when using WordPress. Like with all types of technology, errors can occur and are not always straightforward. However, we hope this blog has given you a better idea of where to start if things go wrong.
If you need emergency WordPress help to get your website back up and running, you can always contact WP Tech Support. Our team of WordPress developers is available 24/7 and will quickly diagnose the problem and figure out the best way to get your website back on track. We also offer WordPress Maintenance plans to keep your website in tip-top shape so that you don’t have to worry about carrying out regular maintenance yourself.