Not all projects are created equal, and some are more of a challenge for folks based on their existing aptitudes. If it can be done as a DIY project then power to you, and some people are genuinely good with their hands. That certainly doesn’t mean they can assemble a website, but nearly anyone can put together a pretty good business website with WordPress. That’s exactly what a lot of people have done all across Canada, because it’s simple to do. That’s why Wordpress powers more websites than any other platform and has for a long time. And it’s also why website hosting for business is something that’s needed by many thousands of businesses all across Canada. That will include Edmonton, and 4GoodHosting is always available for Wordpress hosting support in Edmonton.
So what we’ll talk about here today will be aimed towards anyone who is serving as the webmaster for their business website they’ve put together with WordPress. The simplicity of it all is impressive, but there can still sometimes be challenges with managing and making needed changes to the website’s settings. Many of the businesses we’re talking about will be on a shared hosting plan, and if that’s here with us as their Canadian web hosting provider then they’ll be handling the entirety of that through cPanel controls. Fortunately there’s lot of simplicity and intuitiveness there too.
What tends to be the case is that most of these folks encounter the same bumps in the road, and so with this blog entry we’ll look at all of that. From server issues to what you need to do if you need to be selective about which plugins stay and which ones go. We’ve been providing managed WordPress hosting or many years now. It is the best choice for anyone that has a WordPress business website and wants to be hands-off with everything and paying a little more each month to have their website optimized and updated at all times for maximum performance and maximum visibility for their Edmonton business on the web.
This entry will then be for those that are opting to stay with their current arrangement and maybe even keen to learn how to take care of issues on their own. A lot of the fixes are quite simply and entirely doable for people, and as always you won’t be doing any type of really detailed work. It is really more about knowing where to look and what too choose most of the time. Solve your WordPress hosting problems today = call our experts!
Flexible Fixes
Right from its beginnings a long time ago WordPress has been a CMS - contemned management software and it got its start as a product designed for people with web logs to be able to put their blog up on the web easily. It’s come a long way since then and of now it’s used by almost 40% of public websites. It excels with flexibility, intuitive setup, and then there’s the fact it’s the most affordable way to build a website.
However, WordPress is not perfect and no CMS is going to be. You could probably expand that to apply to all software of firmware anywhere, but that’s the nature of what’s being created with these products and the environments in which they exist. Website hosting for business is different - it’s possible to work within reliable frameworks and build your service to be reliable based on knowing those frameworks aren’t likely to change.
Software is different, and enough said about that. We’re focusing on WordPress fixes for businesses in Edmonton that have these types of sites and so we’ll get right on track to looking at the 6 specific issues where we can provide the right type of guidance for you if you’re facing any of them. Being better prepared for these challenges means launching more quickly and with fewer holdups.
Security Vulnerabilities
Having your website sustain a breach is just about the worst thing that can happen if you have a business and site that handles sensitive purchaser data online. You’ll lose customer trust, and the time and money spent on cleanup is going to have have upset, especially if data is leaked or stolen. There can be security issues with WordPress although they are pretty good about addressing them effectively with each WordPress update. You should always install an update every time one becomes available. WordPress websites are a popular target for hackers for a few reasons, and the first one is because it is open-source.
All of its core code files and plugins and theme files are available for anyone to look over and see if they can find any security loopholes. WordPress is also known to be popular for beginner webmasters who will lack an understanding of cybersecurity a lot of the time. Hackers know this and target their websites. Then there’s the fact that most WordPress add-ons are developed by 3rd parties, and there’s not always the quality control you’d like to see with them. Themes and plugins with security vulnerabilities are always possible.
Hackers tend to target websites with outdated WordPress installations or exploitable plugins and themes. These are going to be found with websites that haven’t been updated in a long time, as well as websites with poorly coded themes or plugins installed. Wordpress hosting support Edmonton will always advise you to keep your WordPress installation up to date plus to only install well-vetted plugins and themes from reputable sources. Check to see if there are any known security issues before activating them on your site.
We like WordPress security plugins like Wordfence or Sucuri, and it is always best to have SSL/TLS encryption enabled on your website.
Slow Performance
Slow page load times can also be a problem with new WordPress sites that aren’t optimized in the way they need to be. In rare instances it may be that the shared web hosting isn’t making the needed bandwidth available, but that happens next to never nowadays and all Canadian web hosting providers tend to be really good about providing the resources a website needs to have pages load quickly. If users need to wait longer than three to five seconds for their content to load, they’ll become frustrated and quite possible ‘bounce’ from the site. If that means they end up on your competitor’s website and end up taking their business there then that’s a big problem for you.
Keep in mind as well that faster websites with pages that load quickly are going to be ranking higher on Google or Bing, and that means the site comes up higher in search results when people search ‘Edmonton *business type*’. Unfortunately WordPress is notorious for being slow, and most of the time that slowness is the result of poorly coded plugins, an excessive number of installed plugins, or a content database bloated with unused files. All of these factors reduce a site’s ability to handle traffic, and especially if the visitor is coming in over a slower internet connection.
Here’s what you can do - run your site through a free website speed checker, and you can find one quickly with a quick search of that exact term. It will tell you if your site is fast enough to retain visitors and offer some more tips on how to improve. You can get immediate improvement by installing a caching plugin, which will save copies of your pages and posts so that they can be loaded more quickly.
Do-It-Yourself Product
It’s standard for website builders allow you to simply sign up, change some visuals, add content, and launch your site, and then from there the platform handles the rest. However, that’s not the case with WordPress. You like it for the affordability and ease of use, but there are limitations that come with those advantages. It’s on the webmaster to add content and design their website, but also see that the site’s back-end functionality is as it should be. This will have them adding plugins for marketing, analytics, SEO, security, and page builders, plus having to decide on the best workable WordPress theme.
Go with managed hosting as your best website hosting for business choice and all of that will be taken care of for you. The alternative is to accept that there’s a good amount of work involved if you want anything beyond a basic publishing site. If you want a quality WordPress website for cheap, you’ll need to invest more of your time to get it. The good news is much of it can be automated if you know where to look and what to use, and there are powerful marketing tools and security features that you can get for a reasonable cost. Free options exists as well, but as always there’s going to be a reason the paid products aren’t free. They’re usually better quality and have added functionality built into them.
Plugin Over-Reliance
60,000 is a large number, and that’s the ballpark figure given for how many WordPress plugins there are for users to choose from. Including free and premium WordPress plugins. What happens is some people can’t stop themselves from install dozens of plugins to handle every possible function on your site. In reality it’s better to be selective about which ones you use, and here’s some guidelines about how to do that. Remember that the majority of security vulnerabilities are connected to plugins added to the site and the more plugins you have installed, the greater the chance one of those plugins makes you susceptible to a cyber attack.
Too many plugins can slow down the website too, since every one of them means a little more work for the server where the WordPress site is hosted. Even if a plugin appears to do one simple task, if it is poorly designed it can drain server resources. It may also be an excess of plugins may cause compatibility issues. When you install a new plugin, you may find it breaks your site because it conflicts with your theme, WordPress version, or another plugin.
Only use plugins that are absolutely necessary to run your site and then review your plugins from time to time and uninstall any that you no longer need.
Confusing Errors
Error messages are usually also a big part of the frustrations that these owners have when starting out with a WordPress website for their Edmonton business. Unless you pay for premium Wordpress hosting support in Edmonton being able to speak to someone to help get your problem fixed quickly may be unlikely, and that will stress you out even more. Having whited-out screens is one of the ones that people get often, and if there is downtime for the site then that can have downstream effects on conversions and sales. This error can be caused by many things, including a plugin or theme conflict, an issue with your hosting server, or a corrupt database.
Look out for memory limits, internal server errors, and connection timeouts too. Be ready to encounter at least a couple of errors when setting up your website. There are also plenty of WordPress troubleshooting guides you can find online and download for your reference.
Unexpected Costs
Yes, WordPress itself is free but there are costs attached to using the platform and for some people it may be more than they were envisioning to pay for a website builder platform.
For most the entirety of their costs for setting up a website will be covered by domain name registration, web hosting in Canada, and then any added designer or developer costs plus what you’ll pay to have security protections if your site is going to be an eCommerce website in Edmonton. And if it is a WordPress business website then you will probably be paying for at least some of the premium themes and plugins.
The amount you’ll be paying for WordPress site will vary based on what you’re willing to pay for premium features. And then there’s your choice of website hosting for business. If your business is well established and you’re likely to have lots of people coming to the website at the same time and right away then you will probably want to move up to VPS web hosting so that you can have the ability to handle website traffic spikes, but talk to us about managed WP hosting and see if you can be accommodated as needed there instead. Solve your WordPress hosting problems today - Call our Experts!
