If you own a business in 2021, chances are you have a website and you rely on that website to drive your business. If you’re a small business owner there’s also a pretty good chance that your site was built with a WordPress theme (WordPress powers about 39.5% of the entire Web and 62% of CMS-built websites). The current version of WordPress is 5.2 and we have been seeing a lot of notifications recently that may be creating stress for small business owners without WordPress support.
Here is a recent notification related to WooCommerce that was sent to a few of the sites we are managing:
Howdy!
Since WordPress 5.2 there is a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site, and notifies you with this automated email.
In this case, WordPress caught an error with one of your plugins, YITH WooCommerce Affiliates.
First, visit your website (https://www.softwiredweb.com/) and check for any visible issues. Next, visit the page where the error was caught (https://www.softwiredweb.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron=1633453596.4657289981842041015625) and check for any visible issues.
Please contact your host for assistance with investigating this issue further.
If your site appears broken and you can't access your dashboard normally, WordPress now has a special "recovery mode". This lets you safely login to your dashboard and investigate further.
To keep your site safe, this link will expire in 1 day. Don't worry about that, though: a new link will be emailed to you if the error occurs again after it expires.
When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information:
WordPress version 5.8.1
Current theme: OptimizeWP Child Theme (version 1.0.0)
Current plugin: YITH WooCommerce Affiliates (version 1.9.1)
PHP version 7.4.22
WordPress 5.2
WordPress 5.2 “Jaco” was officially released on May 7, 2019. WordPress 5.2 gives users even more robust tools for identifying and fixing configuration issues and fatal errors. Since WordPress 5.2 there is a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site, and notifies you with an automated email.
If your site appears broken and you can't access your dashboard normally, WordPress now has a special "recovery mode” that lets you safely login to your dashboard and investigate further. Site owners will need to contact their host for help to further investigate and resolve the issue.
Realizing that your website has crashed or appears broken can feel like a nightmare that you want handled as quickly as possible. The good news is that with the right support and understanding of the common causes that WordPress sites crash, you can prevent most web crashes from happening in the first place. Or in the unusual event that it happens; you can get your site up and running again quickly.
Top 3 Most Common Causes WordPress Sites Crash
Here are the top 3 most common causes of WordPress issues that lead to site crashes:
- WordPress host problems
The number one most common reason for website crashes is hosting problems because of poor server resources and infrastructure. Some of the most common issues that a web host deals with that can lead to poor user experience are:
- Too many websites hosted on a shared host
- A hack or malware attack on the host’s web servers that expose all hosted sites
- Overloaded server resources caused by an unexpected boom in traffic
- Hardware problems in the server infrastructure
- Loss of vital data from data centers or malfunction
- An accidental modification or deletion of essential files or folders during server maintenance
- Hack or malware infection
The second most common reason that websites crash is because they were hacked or have a malware infection. In some cases, malware variants embed themselves and hide on a site for days or weeks while they slowly damage or infect the backend files with malicious code. If your website was hacked, you may see a message indicating that the site was hacked when you attempt to visit your site. Other signs that your site may have been compromised include:
- Your website is running excessively slowly or you have a dramatic drop in web traffic
- Your website is redirecting site visitors to a different website
- You have many untrusted plugins installed on your site
- You receive a malware notification
- You get blacklisted by search engines
- WordPress theme and plugin incompatibility issues
When WordPress websites run on old/outdated theme versions, they are at increased risk of incompatibility issues that can cause a crash. There is also an increased risk of theme incompatibility issues when plugins are outdated.
While the vast majority of plugins are supported by WordPress, there are some that are not. If you have an incompatible plugin installed on your WordPress site it may negatively impact your site's performance as it uses excessive resources. Plugin incompatibility issues are one of the most common problems we run into. If we suspect that an incompatible plugin is causing issues for your site we will deactivate recently installed or updated plugins and then check your site on the front end and test whatever feature wasn't working to see if the problem has been fixed.
Top 5 Ways to Prevent WordPress Website Crashes
- Use a cloud-based backup
Without a cloud-based backup for your website, it could take several days to get your WordPress website restored. As they say, the best defense is a good offense and when it comes to websites that means proactively investing in a cloud-based backup. This way, if your site crashes, you can quickly restore it to the latest backup.
- Make use of safety features
There are several safety features that you should be using to help protect your site from malware and hackers, including:
- Installing a security plugin
- Getting your website SSL certified
- Using a strong login password
- Setting up wide-ranging firewall protection to block unwanted requests from suspicious IP addresses
- Implementing website hardening measures recommended by WordPress
- Keep your website updated
Websites with outdated themes and plugins are much more vulnerable to crashes and hackers. Make sure your WordPress core and all installed plugins/themes are always updated to the latest version. One option is to have auto-updates setup through a WP management tool.
- Uninstall any unused and nulled plugins/themes
Plugins create functionality on websites that wouldn’t be possible without them and the wide range of available plugins is a huge plus for WordPress sites. The only thing to keep in mind is that installing or leaving a whole bunch of unused plugins can slow down your site and eventually overload your server, causing your site to crash. The best thing to do is run through your plugins and themes and uninstall any that are not being used, that are abandoned, or ones that are nulled pirated copies of premium plugins/themes.
- Choose high-performance hosting
Web hosting is an important factor for a reliable website. If you are dealing with poor website performance and incompatibility problems, it’s time to consider managed hosting or other high-performance hosting options.
Hire WordPress Support and High-Performance Hosting
Most small business owners do not know what to do when they receive WordPress notifications, let alone how to update plugins or get their site back online when it crashes. If you want to keep your WordPress site running smoothly, you need to hire an SEO expert who specializes in WordPress support and offers high-performance hosting.
The biggest benefits for our WordPress PRO plan are:
- proactive maintenance for software
- Hacker prevention and security
- High performance hosting
- Repair and enhanced security for hacked websites
If your business is relying on your website for generating business, it is critical to invest in these features to avoid downtime and lost business.
Learn more about how our WordPress Pro Support package can keep your WordPress site running smoothly: https://www.softwiredweb.com/wordpress-pro-support/
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