5 Tips to Troubleshoot WordPress Like a Pro

Diagnosing a problem can be painful, time-consuming and just annoying. And often, that's when many abandon ship on WordPress. But 9 times out of 10, it's solvable when you know some first steps to start investigating the problem.

You'll always see me go through these first few steps:

1. Clear website cache.

Why: You might have caching plugin or it's part of your web hosting platform. Look for the plugin and clear your cache.

What to do: Usually, the shortcut to it is located in your WP admin bar at the top. The option will likely say 'Clear cache' or 'Purge cache'.

2. Test your page on different browsers.

This includes testing in incognito/private browser as well as trying it on your phone, on and off wi-fi.

Why: This eliminates the most common culprit – browser caching or browser issues or settings on your own computer.

What to do: If this is the case, then it's not your website, it's your browser or computer settings and you'll need to make some adjustments. If it's the same issue on all browsers, try the next step.

3. Try it on another page.

Why: If it works on another page, but not the one you're working on, then there is an issue with that page specifically and potentially, the builder you're working with (ie. Thrive Architect, Divi Visual Builder or Elementor) could be stuck especially if you've been working on the page for a while.

What to do: If the changes you're applying aren't showing when you know they should (and seriously, you're likely doing it right!):

1. Reset. Save what you have, close the tab then try it again. Sometimes, just opening the page and saving it again forces the site cache to update itself and voila! Changes magically show up! But if this doesn't work...
2. Start again. Save what you have and refresh the entire editing page and build it again. This can be a pain, but that's why saving and previewing more often can save you the headache of needing to go back too far.

4. Check your plugins.

And if none of the above work, and/or it's more than display – you're actually getting an error message. Then there's probably a larger problem and more digging to do so ask yourself these questions:

• Have I added a new plugin lately? If so, what was it?
• Have I made any changes to a plugin's setting lately? If so, what was it?
• When did WordPress and/or plugins last update? (This is a least likely scenario where a WordPress version update causes an issue. If you think this could be the problem, message me!)

Why: Well, because... plugins, plugins, plugins. 

What do to: Take a look at your plugins and start with the most recent one installed.

• Deactivate the plugin and refresh the page.
• Do this one by one until you find the offending plugin. Once you've found it, check its settings, or, most likely, find an alternative.
• The most common types of plugins that cause issues are ones that have to do with script loading, cookies and caching. These are the ones to start off with first.

⚡️ Pro Tip: Always have a test page in Draft mode so you can test elements that are broken on a page. This will help you to diagnose without messing with a Live/Published page.

5. Look for patterns.

This is what I mean by patterns.

I had a client once that had an issue that looked like one thing but not another. She was testing her button that, when pressed, would reveal a pop-up box. But when she tested, the pop-up box took 2 to 3 click before it even showed.

So she was first concerned about the button, but then concerned about the pop-up box. We looked at the button, we looked at her pop-up box — nothing seemed out of the ordinary and really should've just worked.

After taking a moment to sit back and think, I kept repeating what was said: 'I have to click the button 2-3 times before the pop-up appears".

This is a pattern. 

So I cleared the cache on the site, opened an incognito window and was able to reproduce the problem. I had to click the button 2-3 times before the pop-up appeared. Then I thought I would try waiting 3-5 seconds after the page loaded and the button appeared before I clicked on it. And voilà! It appeared on the first click.

Each time we loaded, waited 3-5 seconds, then clicked on the button, the pop-up box would appear. But of course we can't ask a user to do that! It's also not normal behaviour for a site. So the problem is actually different from what we initially thought.

Now we have a direction.

Usually, when this happens, it means that the page hasn't finished loading. It may look like it's finished loading, but there are actually other things happening in the background that are loading last that make the button and the pop-up work.

So we have to look at why the page loading is so slow.

This is a potential rabbit hole, but it's good that we know that it's happening because visitors are definitely experiencing it.

Slow-loading pages mean the site needs to be optimized. Here are a few things you can do.

1. Use an optimization plugin.

Some of the following are ones I recommend and am currently using or have used before for clients: LiteSpeed Cache, WP Fastest Cache, WP Optimize, a3 Lazy Load, and Asset CleanUp: Page Speed Booster.

These plugins help you to speed up your pages so that your pages only load what is essential and/or load things in priority so the things you need to work first, will work! This will need some testing and monitoring over time. Your patience will pay off!

⚡️ Pro Tip: You can try different ones to find one that's right for you. Every site has a unique stack but my tried and trues are LiteSpeed Cache or WP Fastest Cache. Once you've activated it, be active over the next few days to check in on your site, make changes and see how it behaves.

2. If you're a Thrive Themes user, use Project Lightspeed.

Thrive Themes comes with its own optimizer. Go to Thrive Dashboard > Project Lightspeed then click on 'Analyze this site'. It will tell you what assets and pages need optimizing. Let Thrive do its thing and you should notice your site loading faster!

3. Use Cloudflare for faster loading.

Cloudflare gives you a free account and you can use it to load your site from Cloudflare instead of directly from your host provider. Oftentimes, host providers can be slow (even if they say they're not!) and that's why optimizing plugins and Cloudflare can really help.

Just think of Cloudflare keeping a virtual copy of your site and any time someone loads, it loads from Cloudflare's many servers/virtual copies. It's completely seamless and requires a little more tech know-how to set up, but once setup, you'll never have to do it again!