How To Fix Common WordPress Errors
How To Fix 5 most Common WordPress Errors.
Error 404, 500, 502, 503 … Finding your way through WordPress errors that occur on your site can easily become a real headache.
In order to avoid these headaches, we have compiled a list of the 5 most common WordPress errors for you so that you can easily identify, prevent and correct them on your website.
WordPress errors on your site can harm:
- Your SEO
- Your user experience
- Your ability to get backlinks
- Your natural referencing
Your sEO
WordPress errors signal to Google that your site is of lower quality and that the user experience you have to offer is not up to what people expect. Thus, Google will tend to penalize a site that contains a lot of errors which will adversely affect its SEO. The objective for Google: only to bring up efficient, relevant and pleasant sites for its users. Logical, right?
Your user experience and your reputation on the web
In addition to the negative impact that WordPress errors can have on your SEO, they also hamper the experience of your users and at the same time damage your online reputation.
Nowadays, smooth navigation is essential to instill confidence in your visitors and encourage them to return to your site.
A site full of errors is also less likely to get backlinks since it appears to be of lower quality. If link building is part of your web marketing strategy, it’s especially important to make sure that your site makes a good impression.
Do not undermine your chances of appearing on the first page of results and retain your visitors! In the next section, learn how to identify and fix the most common WordPress errors so that they never hurt your SEO again.
Why Defining Your Persona Improves Your SEO Content Writing
Defining your persona will allow you to:
1-Determine which keywords your persona is likely to search for on Google
2-Produce more relevant, engaging and better targeted content
3-Generate more engagement and shares on social media
4-Keep your readers on your site longer
5-Increase your conversion rate
Prevention is better than cure! Here are the 5 most common WordPress errors and our tips for preventing them on your website:
- WordPress 404 error
- Exploration error
- WordPress 500 error
- Error 502 “Bad Gateway”
- WordPress error 503
1. WordPress 404 error
What is a wordpress 404 error?
A wordpress 404 error is generally related to the internal and external mesh of your site. It comes in many forms, the most common of which is Error 404 “Not Found”. A WordPress 404 error occurs when you use dead links, that is, links directing your visitors to a page that no longer exists.
How to prevent a wordpress 404 error?
In order to prevent a wordpress 404 error from occurring, frequently check the URLs of your pages. Make sure all your links are working and remove or replace the ones that no longer work. Here are two very useful free tools for discovering dead links on your site:
Broken Link Checker: this is a WordPress plug-in that identifies for you the dead links on your site so that you can correct them or simply remove them in order to prevent the wordpress 404 error.
Check My link: if you prefer to work with a Chrome extension, this tool is a great alternative that you can use on any site to identify dead links, not just your own.
2. Indexing or exploration errors
What is an indexing error?
Crawl errors are WordPress errors that occur when Google bots are unable to crawl and index your site. They can occur on a single page on your site or on its entire site.
WordPress errors related to indexing by Google robots can be devastating for your SEO as they prevent your site from appearing on results pages.
We talk more about indexing errors as well as several other SEO errors in our article “How to improve your SEO”.
How to prevent exploration errors?
To prevent wordpress errors from occurring while Google indexes your site, periodically check the Search Console crawl errors report. This is Google’s free tool that allows you to manage the indexing of your website. You can, for example, submit your sitemap to it so that Google can more easily determine the structure of your site and navigate it more smoothly.
But it does not end there! Search Console also provides you with a crawl error report that makes it easier for you to identify and remedy problems that occurred while indexing your site.
3. WordPress Error 500
What is a wordpress 500 error?
The WordPress 500 error is a very common general error. It indicates a problem with your server, without specifying the origin or cause of the error.
How to prevent a wordpress 500 error
The 500 wordpress error is often caused, among other things, by plug-ins on your theme slowing down your server or preventing access to it. When installed on your site, wordpress plugins insert new lines of code into your source code. During this process, errors can sneak in, causing the 500 wordpress error.
We recommend that you be selective when installing new plugins on your site and remove them when they are inactive if you want to prevent the wordpress 500 error.
4. “502 Bad Gateway” error
What is a 502 error?
WordPress Error 502 “Bad Gateway” occurs when your server is down or overloaded. In some cases, it is also possible for such an error to occur when the user’s connection is faulty, preventing them from connecting to your server. A quick refresh of the page affected by the problem is usually enough to fix it.
How do I prevent a 502 "Bad Gateway?"
Since the 502 error is caused by a server problem, it is likely that your site has nothing to do with its appearance: the platform hosting your site (WordPress or other) takes care of it.
5. WordPress Error 503
What is a wordpress 503 error?
Similar to the 502 error, the 503 WordPress or “503: Gateway Timeout” error is related to a server problem. Specifically, this is a WordPress error that appears when the user takes a long time to receive a response from your server.
How to prevent a 503 wordpress error
WordPress error 503, just like error 500, is also generally preventable if you exercise caution when installing new plugins on your site.
BONUS: Prevent several other WordPress errors by frequently checking your HTML code
One sure-fire way to have a site full of WordPress errors is to publish your changes without committing the code first. Fortunately, preventing such a situation is very easy with the plethora of free HTML code checking resources available on the web.
We suggest FreeFormatter.com: all you have to do is paste your code there to identify any errors that have crept in.
What to do when your site already has WordPress errors?
You now know some good practices to prevent WordPress errors … But what if your site already contains them?
While important, correcting your site requires a high level of technical knowledge, expertise and thoroughness. If your users frequently encounter the wordpress error 500, wordpress error 503, or any other error affecting their experience, we recommend that you perform an SEO audit of your website.
Trust the experts
To do this, it is usually better to work with a WordPress expert or an agency like Digitad to ensure the quality and completeness of the audit and the corrections made. You can consult our article “How to choose the right SEO agency” to guide you in your choice.
By delegating the management and technical optimization of your site to experts, you can invest your time and energy in the management of other activities and operations of your company and sleep soundly.
If you are interested in such a service, we invite you to contact Digitad for a free evaluation. We recognize the importance of having a smooth and error-free site for your SEO as well as your customer experience and we will be happy to assist you in your task.
In the meantime, you can read our article “How to do an SEO audit in 10 steps” where we briefly explain the process.
Ready to beat WordPress errors?
Although this is a rather technical and complex subject, correcting your WordPress errors will allow you to boost your credibility, your traffic and your conversions exponentially.
To take the ultimate website creation one step further, check out our article on mobile site optimization for SEO. You can also maximize the speed of your site with our image optimization guide.
