Gone are the days when building and hosting websites was a niche reserved for the technically well-versed. Today, almost anyone can launch a website online, irrespective of their background or technical knowledge. Usually, everything goes swimmingly. However, it can occasionally throw up errors, which can be intimidating to beginners. In this post, we will look at some of the most common problems on the platform and how you can resolve them. If you feel ill-equipped to develop your website, hiring a Dubai web design agency can help ensure a smooth and stress-free experience while launching your brand.
The White Screen of Death
“White Screen of Death” (WSoD) is a common error that occurs in WordPress. It can also be very unsettling as there is no feedback on why your site isn't displaying properly. Let us look at why this may be happening and also how you can attempt to fix this issue.
You can try enabling the WordPress Recovery Mode, which usually catches a faulty plugin or theme and sends you an email on the same. If this doesn't work, you will have to fix the error manually.
Hosting: Check to see if any other websites hosted under the same WordPress account are operational. If they are also facing the same issue, it could be an indicator that there is some trouble with your hosting partner and you need to reach out to them for further assistance.
Disable plugins: If a faulty plug-in is causing your WSoD, you can disable all your plugins to recover from this. You can do this from the WordPress admin area, by navigating to Plugins > Installed Plugins and selecting all active plugins, and deactivating them using "Deactivate" under bulk options. Or else, you can use an FTP client and rename the plugins folder to plugins-deactivated.
Theme: If you recently changed your theme, this could be the source of the problem. You can fix this by replacing it with one of WordPress' default themes.
Memory Limit: If a script's allocated memory is reached, it may simply stop running. To overcome this, you can increase the memory limit, which will allow the script to properly execute and display your site.
Internal Server Error
The internal server error is another error that provides little to no information on what the underlying reason is. Usually, it has to do with a faulty .htaccess file or the memory limit running out. Faulty plugins or themes can also cause this.
.htaccess is a distributed configuration file that dictates how your site communicates with the server and can also be used to improve site security. Rename it using FTP to .htaccess-old and try running your site. If your website displays properly, then you have fixed this issue. You have to navigate to Permalinks under Settings in the WordPress admin page and click Save, which will generate a new .htaccess file with the proper rules for your site.
Increasing your memory limit might be another possible solution if the problem is not with your .htaccess file. However, this is only a temporary fix as you need to find what is causing the memory consumption and fix it. This can be done with the help of your hosting company. A quick Google search on "web design company Dubai" can direct you to potential companies that can help design and host your websites easily.
404 Error
This is probably one of the most familiar errors to internet users everywhere. It means that the requested page was not found on the server. This usually happens due to broken links or URLs that have been changed. The fault is usually with your .htaccess file, which handles your site's hyperlink structure and may be incorrectly redirecting your URLs. To resolve this, you can either regenerate or upload a new .htaccess file. Saving your Permalinks may also help resolve this issue in some cases.
While you cannot prevent this from happening, closely monitoring your website can help catch such issues as they occur. Some of the tools that can help monitor this are Google Search Console and Google Analytics. You can also use third-party tools or WordPress plugins to find this. If you need help with resolving issues related to your site, you can reach out to a web design agency in Dubai.
Parse Error
This error usually occurs due to some mistake from the user's side while pasting some code from the web or enabling a new plugin. Fortunately, this error message comes with the type of error, exact file, and line number where the parse error occurred. You can either remove the recently added code or correct its syntax by accessing the file via FTP. After you have made the necessary changes, save the file and re-upload the corrected file if necessary. This should get your website back up and running properly.
Could Not Create Directory
This error may occur while you are uploading images or updating plugins or themes. The most common reason for this is incorrect file permissions. Navigate to wp-content >uploads and right-click on the folder and open File permissions and set the Numeric value to 755. Again, right-click on the uploads folder and open up File Permissions. Set Numeric value to 644, select recurse into subdirectories, apply to files only, and click OK.
You can now clear your cache and perform whatever action you were trying to perform. Alternatively, you can also do this from the management panel of your hosting provider if the feature is present. Search for "web design Dubai" or "web design UAE" to find experienced partners who can help design and host your websites.
Conclusion
WordPress is a great tool for those who want to build and host their own websites. While the platform is built with varying levels of user expertise in mind, errors do occur occasionally. However, these are mostly issues that someone has already faced in the past and most likely have already been resolved. Hence, there is no need to panic if you come across such errors on your site. A little bit of patience and some research on the internet should help get your site up and running in no time. If you feel you cannot handle it on your own, you can seek the assistance of a reputable web design agency in Dubai.