Is your WordPress site down for everyone, or just you?
Find out first by opening the site on your phone using mobile data rather than your office Wi-Fi: if it loads there, the website is fine and the problem is your network, your browser cache or a firewall rule. If it fails everywhere, check your inbox for messages from your host, domain registrar or certificate provider. A suspended hosting account, an expired domain and an expired SSL certificate all look like a broken website, and all three are fixed by renewing something rather than by a developer.
Why is my WordPress website not loading?
A WordPress website that is not loading almost always comes down to one of six causes. A plugin or theme update that conflicts with something else on the site. A PHP version change made by the host. A database that has filled up, been corrupted or lost its connection details. A hosting account out of disk space or memory, or suspended over an unpaid invoice. An expired domain or SSL certificate. And occasionally a hack. Each has a recognisable symptom, which is why describing exactly what you see, word for word, saves time.
How do you fix "There has been a critical error on this website"?
The WordPress critical error fix is to find the plugin or theme that caused a fatal PHP error, disable or roll it back, and then correct the incompatibility properly. The message means PHP hit an error it could not recover from and WordPress stopped rather than show broken output, very often straight after an update or after the host upgraded PHP. WordPress usually emails the site administrator a recovery-mode link naming the plugin at fault, so search your inbox for it. Leaving the plugin switched off forever is not a fix; it usually did something the site needs.
What does "Error establishing a database connection" mean?
It means WordPress cannot reach its database. Either the database server is down or overloaded, the login details in the site configuration no longer match, the database has hit its size limit, or tables have been corrupted. It is worth acting on quickly but calmly: the content is usually all still there. Restoring a backup over it is the wrong first move, because it can lose every order, enquiry and post made since that backup was taken.
What causes a white screen or a 500 error?
A blank page or "500 Internal Server Error" means something failed before WordPress could show a message. Common causes are a fatal PHP error with error display switched off, a memory limit too low for the site, a broken .htaccess file after a plugin rewrote it, or file permissions changed during a migration. The server error log almost always names the cause in one line, which is the first thing we read.
What should you avoid doing while the site is down?
Avoid anything that destroys evidence or newer data. Do not restore last month's backup before someone has looked, because it overwrites every order and enquiry since. Do not delete plugins from the server to see what happens; renaming a plugin folder disables it just as well and can be undone. Do not reinstall WordPress over the top, update every remaining plugin in the hope one fixes it, or move hosts in the middle of an outage. Each of those can turn a one-line fix into a day of work.
What happens when you contact us for emergency WordPress support?
We confirm access to hosting and the WordPress admin, take a copy of the site exactly as it is before changing anything, read the error logs to find the actual cause, fix it, and test the pages that matter: home, contact form, checkout if there is one. Then we tell you in plain words what broke, why, and what would stop it happening again. We are Melbourne based, so it does not matter whether you are in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide.
How much does it cost to fix a WordPress site that is down?
A callout costs $100, $449 or $649 depending on the priority you book. A business-hours callout with a fix by the next business day is $100 for the first hour, then $100 an hour. Same-day work is $449 for the first 2 hours, then $225 an hour. After hours, weekends and public holidays is $649, then $295 an hour. Our support hours are open all week, 9 to 5 AET. You are told the price before work starts, and if it turns out to be a renewal you can do yourself, we say so. Full figures are on the pricing page.
How do you stop your WordPress site going down again?
Most outages are avoidable with four habits: updates tested on a copy of the site before they reach the live one, uptime monitoring that alerts someone before customers notice, daily backups stored away from the server, and a PHP version kept current on purpose rather than by surprise. That is what a WordPress care plan does, from $159/mo.
