If you have a WordPress.com website you should go to WordPress.com for support. If you have a self-hosted website you have a WordPress.org site. That means in some ways you are on your own unless you have a WordPress Maintenance Plan. WPTechGuru only deals with Wordpress.org websites.
First, Who are you? Business Owner? Coder? Webmaster? Designer? Teacher? If you are a business owner and you aren’t very technical, you have no business working on your own website. You might add text or photos, but still you are probably missing things that even some professionals miss. For example, out of hundreds of websites we’ve worked on, only a handful had proper alternative text.
Places to Get WordPress Help
Official Sources
An online search for your WordPress problem will likely lead to many results. Some will be better than others. The age of the information also matters. Maybe you find some code that worked 10 years ago but it doesn’t work today. The safest place to search for help is the official information from the WordPress.org Codex. If you are very technically adept you can go to the Developer Resources.
Official sources are the best place to start when your problem is very specific. For example, with a premium plugin or theme you can get support from the plugin or theme website.
Unofficial Sources
There are many blogs but you have to make sure the information meets your specific situation and is recent enough that the information is still accurate. Online communities and forums can help too. Some communities exist as “community support forums”, within Slack groups and others within social media platforms. People are pretty generous in offering some tips but if it is something basic you might want to Google it first or you will get blasted.
A WordPress Hosting Platform
While most requests to resolve a WordPress problem would not be supported by a hosting platform, there are situations where they can help. In particular when there is a global problem. For example:
- Error Codes called HTTP response status codes, 400 – 599
Sometimes you won’t get a status code and instead have a blank screen or the word “Forbidden” - Unusual behavior
- Possible Hack
Even if you have tech support from the hosting company you should look at the php error log and ModSecurity logs.
In some cases even a hack might not be within the hosting company’s Terms of Service (TOS) so you have to lean on other resources.
What about WordPress Experts?
Is there really such a thing as a “WordPress Expert”? Yes and no, WordPress is open source so the WordPress universe is continually expanding. So while we offer “Expert WordPress Technical Support” we can’t say we know everything about WordPress. But there are experts out there in various fields like programming in various languages, hack repair, hosting, performance and much more. We have is extensive experience troubleshooting problems of all kinds even after other “experts” failed or gave up. Additional areas of expertise include: HTML, CSS, Troubleshooting, Hosting and WordPress Performance.
- Ask About our WordPress Maintenance Plans
- Ask for a One Time Fix for your WordPress site
What to Look for in a WordPress Support Professional
- Experience
- Tenacity
- Professionalism
- Availability
The last item, Availability is critical. If something goes wrong with your website you want help fast! WordPress Expert WPTechGuru is available 24/7/365 by phone and email.
Learn about What to Look For in a WordPress Maintenance Plan.