We hear you: reporting our monthly services is important. We want to bring you clarity and offer you peace of mind about how we’re keeping your site in good health. Starting June 30th, our SiteCare Core, Plus, and Advanced clients can expect to receive a detailed Maintenance Report logging the major services we’ve provided them over the previous month. 

What Does the WordPress Maintenance Report Include?

Join us on your WordPress site’s health journey and better understand the critical work we’re doing to help your most valuable online asset succeed. Our Maintenance Report will highlight upcoming initiatives or events that could impact your site.

Each monthly Maintenance Report will provide a quick overview of your website’s health: 

• Our team will measure your website’s speed and performance using Google’s PageSpeed benchmark, awarding a score out of 100.
• We will provide a high-level performance summary, which includes additional information on your site speed score, load time, and number of requests made by your site.
• We will also record any WordPress core, theme, or plugin updates we’ve completed, so you can be confident your website is running the latest or best version of everything. 
• Backups are crucial insurance for a website. Our Maintenance Report will record the number, frequency, and size of backups taken, along with a log of backup dates. 

This valuable initiative is available exclusively to our SiteCare plan clients. Our SiteCare plans are the best WordPress maintenance and support solution for clients looking for peace of mind. They also include hands-on and rapid customer support and regular security scanning. 

If you’d like to learn more about our monthly Maintenance Reports, or if you’re interested in signing up for a SiteCare plan, complete the form via this link to contact us.

The post How Our Maintenance Reports Help Your Site and Your Peace of Mind appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

These payments are often for hundreds of dollars and are phishing scams. These attacks are designed to steal personal user data and money and do the rounds so frequently that you’ll likely receive one of these notices if you own a website. So we want you to know what to look for should your contacts or you encounter such a situation. 

What is a Domain Renewal Scam? 

A domain name is your website’s unique identifier; SiteCare’s is sitecare.com, yours is likely also a variation of your company’s name. Maintaining your unique domain name is essential for your website and brand. So, how does a domain renewal scam work?

Hurry Up and Pay!

In this scam, an unscrupulous domain provider will contact you – via phone, email, or, most commonly, a letter – claiming to be your domain name provider, letting you know your domain name is due for renewal, and requesting a renewal payment.

The letter is full of high-pressure language, often stating that your domain name has expired and that this is a “last chance” to save the domain before it’s registered by someone else. The scammer also urges you to pay immediately to renew the domain – often at a price considerably more expensive than your domain renewal likely will be.

Here’s the tricky part – domains can (and do!) expire. So how can you distinguish between a genuine notice and a fake phishing scam? Here are our eight tips to follow to avoid domain renewal scammers.

1. Know who manages your domain. This way, you’ll know immediately if someone fraudulently claims to be your domain name provider. You can look it up if you don’t know where your domain is registered.
   
   You can find your domain registrar’s name and contact information through ICANN lookup. Common registrars include GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, Hover, NameCheap, etc. If you’re still unsure, our team of support experts can always help you solve the mystery. 
2. If you have multiple domains registered with numerous providers, we recommend consolidating them to ensure everything is centralized so you can easily stay on top of all the details.
3. Read the letter carefully (really carefully). Often, it will include a phrase like, “This is not a bill,” “solicitation,” or “offer.”  

THIS IS A SOLICITATION FOR THE ORDER OF GOODS OR SERVICES, OR BOTH, AND NOT A BILL, INVOICE, OR STATEMENT OF ACCOUNT DUE. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO MAKE ANY PAYMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF THIS OFFER UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER.

Example language found on a domain renewal solicitation

4. Beware of clicking on links from emails like this or from email addresses you aren’t familiar with. You can always hover over a link to ensure it leads to the domain it says it will. 
5. Is it snail mail? Your real domain renewal notice will nearly always be emailed rather than snail-mailed. 
6. Google the company’s name + scam and see if anything comes up. 
7. Know when your domain expires. Typically, businesses register a domain for one to five years, so renewal periods are often predictable. 
8. File records and invoices for your domain so you can access them. If you lose control of your domain, you have lost a critical piece of your online presence. 

Are Domain Renewal Scams Illegal? 

Nope. It isn’t illegal to encourage website owners to transfer their domains. The sketchy part is the deceptive language used, tricking customers into accepting the offer. These companies are scraping domain information off the web and sending misleading letters to all domain owners in the hope that you’ll be fooled into paying them an inflated price for something they already own. 

If you’re worried about your domain details or a scam slipping through the cracks, contact us; we’re here to help solve the mystery, no matter how big or small. Our support team takes the “support” part of their work seriously and can answer any questions. As always, we strive to go the extra mile for our clients; your success is ours. 

The post 8 Tips to Avoid Domain Renewal Scams appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

Reason #1: Security

Older versions of PHP have reached their end-of-life, meaning they no longer receive security updates. When this happens, it leaves web applications, like your WordPress installation, vulnerable to potential security threats, like cross-site scripting (XSS) or database injections. By upgrading to PHP 8.0, WordPress websites can take advantage of its enhanced security features.

Reason #2: Performance

PHP 8.0 uses a new compiler that can vastly improve the performance of web applications like WordPress. PHP 8.0’s Just-In-Time Compiler allows the server to handle more traffic and provide a better user experience.

Reason #3: Support

Supporting out-of-date versions of PHP can be time-consuming for the web host. The number of support tickets required to support older versions of PHP has caused many hosts to migrate all their hosting clients to PHP 8.0. 

Reason #4: Compatibility

As web technologies and frameworks continuously evolve, they may require newer versions of PHP to function properly. As a matter of fact, there’s an active debate in WordPress about what versions of PHP to support. Ultimately, the web host must make the business decision of what versions of PHP to support, not only for their past clients but to ensure performance for future clients. 

While the mandate to upgrade to PHP will require testing on legacy sites with custom programming, migrating to PHP 8.0 will help ensure better security, performance, support, and compatibility.

If you need help migrating your legacy WordPress installation from PHP 7 to PHP 8.0, contact the team at SiteCare for assistance.

The post My Web Host Is Forcing Me To Update my PHP version. What do I do? appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

Few things obstruct your productivity more than a site error message. Whether first sitting down to a day full of tasks or trying to knock out something quickly, learning your site isn’t functioning properly can derail your to-dos entirely and cause full-blown panic until you troubleshoot the issue. But, if your WordPress site is displaying a message stating, “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress,” don’t worry. We’ve got your back.

This common error likely means you only need to perform a simple update. It can be fixed within a couple of minutes to help you return to work and keep your site running optimally. 

Here’s our quick-yet-comprehensive walkthrough that will help you do exactly that.

PHP and MySQL Refresher

Before jumping into the troubleshooting basics for an error message stating: “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress,” let’s run through a brief refresher on PHP and MySQL:

• PHP – A general-purpose programming language most commonly used for web applications. WordPress and its functionality are written with PHP. The language is periodically updated, and the most recent version of PHP is 8.1.

• MySQL – An open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) that runs on structured query language (SQL) and is used to create, modify, or extract all of your data, which is stored in database tables. Essentially, that’s the fancy way of saying it stores your website options, settings, and content.

Fortunately, WordPress makes site management easy enough that you don’t need to get into the nitty-gritty technical details. Anyone can easily fix this issue from their WordPress Dashboard or by following the step-by-step guide further below. 

But it does help to know the actors involved in this error when you’re troubleshooting it!

What Does “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension” Mean?

This common error message means the version of PHP that your site runs on—and the version of MySQL you use— are suffering from a disconnect. There’s merely a missing or misconfigured extension within your PHP installation that—when operating correctly—enables your site to connect to MySQL and access the data stored in your WordPress database.

It’s a simple mismatch between the versions you’re running for each, and the error can almost always be solved with the proper update or extension configuration.

Why Does the PHP and MySQL Error Occur?

Beginning with version 5.5.X, PHP deprecated—or dropped—the MySQL extension after replacing it with one for MySQLi or for PDO_MySQL. It’s as if PHP suddenly forgot MySQL’s name from that point on and draws a blank every time your site tries to call out to your database.

So, if you’re using the most recent versions of PHP and WordPress with MySQL, this error is quite common.

Alternatively, a PHP extension in versions released before 5.5.X might be misconfigured and point to an incorrect file location—much like calling out the wrong name instead of drawing a complete blank.

That means we just have to help PHP remember MySQL’s name to fix the error.

Troubleshooting the PHP and MySQL Error

Fixing your PHP and MySQL error can be done from either the WordPress Dashboard or through an FTP Client. From the Dashboard, you can only perform updates to ensure the correct versions are running. If you need to check for a misconfiguration error, you’ll need to use the FTP Client.

Additionally, keep in mind that updates improve speeds, fix functionality bugs, and patch cybersecurity vulnerabilities. So it’s always in your best interest to run the most current versions.

Dashboard Troubleshooting

There’s a quick and simple process to fixing this issue in a few steps directly from your WordPress Dashboard:

Confirm which PHP version you’re using – Although checking your PHP version won’t solve the problem, it does provide essential diagnostic information. Once you know your PHP version, it’s easier to determine whether mismatched updates or a misconfiguration is the source. You can check your PHP version by following these steps:

Click “Tools” in the left sidebar of your WordPress Dashboard to expand the sub-menu. You can also navigate to your control panel for your PHP version number, but its location may vary depending on your hosting provider and which control panel you’ve integrated with your site (e.g., cPanel).

Click “Site Health” from the options below “Tools.”

Check whether WordPress recommends you update your PHP version. If so, this will be listed under “Critical Issues,” and it will also display your version number. Versions above 5.5.X are probably missing the extension, while versions below have a misconfiguration that needs fixing. If you can’t find your version number, you can contact your hosting provider for it.

Confirm which WordPress version you’re using – As outlined above, this PHP and MySQL error message likely comes from incompatible versions. So, the next step is to see if your version of WordPress needs updating:

Click “Updates” in the left sidebar of your WordPress Dashboard, located toward the top and just below “Home.” If you see a red circle with a number inside of it, that’s how many updates you have awaiting installation—but they may not be for your WordPress version.

If a newer version of WordPress is available, click “Update Now” to begin the installation. Important note: If your WordPress installation hasn’t been updated in quite some time, the likelihood of this update process breaking your website is quite high. We recommend using a staging site or contacting our team for assistance updating WordPress.

Similarly, check the “Updates” page to see if any of your plugins and integrations require updating, as they may contribute to the issue.

With your WordPress and PHP versions updated, the “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress” message should disappear.

Using Your FTP Client

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) allows you to transfer files over the internet, including from the machine or device you’re working on to your hosting server. FTP Clients are applications that facilitate the transfer. That means you can use your FTP Client to request information about your WordPress site directly from the hosting server.

To do that, simply:

1. Log into your FTP Client.

2. Open your “public_html” folder—your root WordPress directory folder that contains all other directories and files.

3. Create a new file in the “public_html” folder named “phpinfo.php” and open it to edit the contents. Critically, remember to delete the “phpinfo.php” file once you’ve finished troubleshooting to prevent anyone from discovering essential configuration data about your site. Leaving that file is a massive cybersecurity risk.

4. Add “<?php phpinfo(); ?>” to the file.

5. Open your web browser and enter your WordPress site’s URL, followed by “/phpinfo.php” (e.g., mywordpresssite.com/phpinfo.php).

6. The page your web browser should display will contain extensive information about your website’s PHP installation. In the top left corner of the page, you should see your PHP version number. As mentioned above, any version that is 5.5.X or higher is likely missing an extension that is fixed with a version update, while any below is likely misconfigured.

Your WordPress version can be updated from your Dashboard (as described above) or directly through your FTP Client. To do so, download the latest version from https://wordpress.org/download/ and follow the instructions provided by WordPress’ support documentation.

Troubleshooting with cPanel

Using cPanel is another method to troubleshoot the PHP and MySQL error, but not every WordPress site has access to it. Some hosting providers include it with their service as an easy-to-use dashboard interface for site management, but others may offer their own custom dashboards instead.

If you’re using cPanel, you can navigate and log into your dashboard and scroll down until you find the “Software” tab. There, you’ll find an icon named “Select PHP Version.” Clicking this icon will tell you which version is running, provide you with a dropdown list to update PHP for your site, and allow you to select your extensions from a list.

When updating your PHP to a version more recent than 5.5.X, you’ll need to check the “mysqli” and “mysqlnd” extensions.

Running PHP Version 5.5.X or Earlier

If you’re running a version of PHP that should still connect seamlessly with MySQL, you’ll need to check that extension’s configuration to ensure it’s properly set up. You can do that by following these steps:

Return to your “/phpinfo.php” web page, and locate the row for “Client API version” in the “MySQL Support” section.

If no information is present in this row, your MySQL extension is missing and must be installed by you or your hosting provider. Alternatively, the MySQL extension won’t be necessary if you update to the latest PHP version.

Misconfigured PHP Extension

If you’re running the latest versions of PHP and WordPress, you can ensure your extension is properly configured by looking for the “Loaded Configuration File” and “extension_dir.” rows. The file path values in these fields should match identically.

However, if they don’t match, you can fix this by:

1. Returning to your root WordPress folder (i.e., “public_html”) and opening the “php.ini” file.

2. Replacing the file path listed with the value displayed in the “Loaded Configuration File” field.

If you’ve completed all of these steps—ensuring compatible versions and configurations—and the error message persists, you’ll need to contact your hosting provider or a WordPress support provider like us at SiteCare.

And again, remember to delete your “/phpinfo.php” file once you’ve finished troubleshooting to protect your website. You don’t want your site information and configurations available to anyone who might try directly navigating to that URL.

Troubleshooting WordPress Errors with SiteCare

Some error messages and WordPress site issues like “Your PHP installation appears to be missing the MySQL extension which is required by WordPress” prove to be major problems (despite being easy fixes). Others may require extensive support to remedy.

Either way—if you’re not technically inclined or simply don’t want to risk worsening your site troubles by mistake, that’s what SiteCare is here for.

Our team of experts provides full-service WordPress support, from back-end management to SEO strategies that boost your page visits. We’re the all-in-one WordPress service that enables anyone to elevate their brand and website.

Contact us today to find out how we can take site management and SEO out of your hands so you can get back to what drives your business.

The post PHP Installation Missing the MySQL Extension appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

WordPress caters to this eventuality with a selection of maintenance mode plugins, which enable registered users and administrators to work on the site’s backend while keeping the site unavailable to the public for a short period.

This blog explains what maintenance mode is, when it’s needed, what potential disruption it can cause if not implemented correctly, and how to choose and set up a maintenance mode plugin on your WordPress site.

What is WordPress maintenance mode?

WordPress’ Maintenance Mode is similar to the Back In 5 Minutes signs that retailers hang on their locked shop doors when needing to pop out to run errands. It’s activated using a WordPress plugin to set up a dedicated landing page that lets online visitors know that the site is temporarily offline for maintenance and repairs and will be back online shortly.

Why is maintenance mode important?

Communicating to visitors that a website is only momentarily inaccessible is essential for discouraging any assumptions that a business or website no longer exists. Companies that fail to explain why their websites can’t be reached risk losing potential leads and conversions; this is especially true for eCommerce sites, where any downtime can lead to a loss in sales and revenue.

In addition, a maintenance mode plugin lets you pass a 503 status onto Google to let Google know not to crawl and index your site until you are back online again. Why is this important? If taken offline, all links to your site will appear broken, leading to ‘404 Page Not Found‘ errors when anyone (including Google Bot) attempts to access it. You then run the risk of Google de-indexing your site, negatively impacting its rankings and visibility in search.

WordPress Maintenance Mode alerts Google that your site is temporarily unavailable by redirecting Google to a 503 HTTP message. Google’s Bot then knows not to crawl and index your website and to come back for re-crawling only once you are happy for it to do so.

When do I need to use maintenance mode?

Most minor site tweaks or updates, such as uploading content, adding new pages, or installing plugins, won’t need maintenance mode activated. However, there are instances when putting a website into maintenance mode comes in handy. It is wise to take a website down when making significant changes to a WordPress site, such as changing themes or implementing feature upgrades, switching or upgrading plugins, or migrating a website to a new domain. This is especially true for websites that don’t have a staging website for testing new changes.

Can anything go wrong when my WordPress site is in maintenance mode?

Apart from de-indexing concerns, it is also possible for a site to get stuck in maintenance mode once updates have been completed, leaving the site inaccessible to online users and Google far longer than planned.

This may happen if you:

• Try to update too many plugins at once.
• Close the browser before an update is complete.
• Or if there’s an error resulting from compatibility issues when updates are being made.

To fix this error, you’ll need to log into your site using a file transfer protocol (FTP) program to find and delete the .maintenance file in your site’s root folder. If deleting the file doesn’t resolve the issue, you may need to rerun the last update from when your site became stuck in maintenance mode to ensure the update was successful.

What impact will a site in maintenance mode have on my marketing?

Driving traffic to a website in maintenance mode is a waste of ad budget and bad for user experience. Before taking your website offline, ensure that all involved parties have enough time to adjust their marketing messaging and tactics accordingly.

Your marketing team will potentially need to:

• Coordinate any marketing activities and campaigns around the proposed web maintenance dates.
• Pause any ads that redirect customers to your website to save on budget.
• Set up alternative customer communication channels to attend to customers’ support needs and queries. (Social media is an excellent platform for engaging online users while a website is temporarily down.)
• Help customize the messaging on the maintenance mode page and other marketing channels to set expectations around when the site is back online, and share alternative contact details that can be used to reach you for assistance.
• Ensure the 503 status is being correctly passed on to Google.

How do I set up WordPress Maintenance mode in WordPress?

Start by choosing a suitable plugin for your maintenance mode landing page. Once installed, you can customize existing templates to build a landing page using your brand style guide.

The following are two maintenance mode plugins that work well for WordPress.

1. SeedProd

The SeedProd plugin has over 4,000 five-star ratings and one million active installations. The plugin is compatible with any WordPress theme and can help create highly-converting landing pages, maintenance mode pages, 404 pages, a Coming Soon page (for new site launches), and more.

The plugin is easily installed via the WordPress dashboard. Click on your Plugins icon on your dashboard, and then on “Add New.” In the search tab, type in “Coming Soon,” Click on “Install Now,” and follow the prompts to install the plugin.

Follow similar steps as above for finding and installing the WP Maintenance Mode plugin from your WordPress Dashboard.

2. WP Maintenance Mode

While less popular than SeedProd, with only 200+ five-star ratings and 800 000 active installations, the WP Maintenance Mode plugin is easy to activate and use.

Templates are fully customizable for building out branded maintenance mode pages. Features include a countdown timer to let visitors know when your site will be accessible again and a subscription form for collecting visitors’ email addresses to notify them about the site’s availability.

You can also add a contact form for users to contact you directly if needing your assistance while the site is offline.

Follow similar steps as above for finding and installing the WP Maintenance Mode plugin from your WordPress Dashboard.

Use our five-point checklist as a guide if you need help deciding which WordPress plugin to select and install.

What Should My Maintenance Mode Page Say?

Your maintenance mode page needs to keep potential customers in the loop and ensure they can access your products and services even if your website is down for maintenance.

Use the page to communicate the next steps visitors can take to reach you and by when they can expect your site to be back online.

Include a clear call-to-action (CTA), inviting potential customers to schedule a call, request a quote, or sign up for an email notification to let them know your site is accessible again. You can also include a CTA that redirects them to your social media channels for ongoing communication and engagement until your site is back up and running again.

WordPress Maintenance Mode is a handy tool for ensuring you don’t miss a marketing beat if your site ever has to be taken offline for major upgrades or changes.

If you have any other questions about WordPress maintenance or development, feel free to reach out to SiteCare for support. We are more than happy to assist.

The post Everything You Need to Know About WordPress Maintenance Mode appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

This blog looks at the most common errors that can crop up from time to time on your WordPress site, and what you can do about them.

Table of Contents

• What is a WordPress error?
• What is a Fatal Error in WordPress?
• 7 common WordPress errors
  • Internal Server error
  • Error Establishing a Database Connection
  • White Screen of Death
  • 404 error
  • Connection Time Out
  • Unable to Upload Images
  • Stuck in Maintenance Mode
• How to make your life easier

What is a WordPress error?

While the causes differ, the results are often similar. When experiencing an error, your website will not load. Instead, it will display an error message or simply a blank, white screen. As of WordPress 5.2, WordPress has a built-in Recovery Mode to help with resolving errors and troubleshooting possible issues on your website. Resolving these errors might seem intimidating at first, but there’s no need to panic. Most of them are caused by relatively small issues that other users have experienced before and are easy to fix.

What is a fatal error in WordPress?

Now and then, the pop-up message will announce a fatal error. This looks very serious because it might seem like the entire site is taken down. Still, you can easily fix this. A fatal error often occurs after installing or updating a plugin or theme or when adding new code.

If you encounter a fatal error, the safest course of action is to get expert technical support. An expert can help you return your website to normal functionality quickly with less risk of losing your content or prolonged downtime.

SiteCare’s professional team of expert WordPress developers helps you get your website up and running in no time. Do get in touch for assistance if and when needed.

7 common WordPress errors

Now, let’s look at what the most common WordPress errors are.

We chose the following seven errors based on how often users encounter them and how easy they are to fix using a quick how-to guide. Note, to implement these fixes, you will need to know how to change file permissions.

1. Internal server error

What is an internal server error?

This error indicates that there is something wrong, but the server can’t identify the underlying problem. Internal server errors are typically caused by one of two issues: The memory limit of the site has been reached, or there is a problem with the site’s .htaccess (or hypertext access) file. This file can be found on a web server and controls the high-level configuration of a website.

How to fix an internal server error

Step 1: Disable the .htaccess file by simply renaming the file (e.g., .htaccess_test). Reload the site to see if the site loads. If it does, go to ‘Settings’ to reset your Permalinks, which will generate a new .htaccess file with the default WordPress htaccess rules. Note: Any customizations to your original .htaccess file will need to be added back or modified to work properly.

Here are the default WordPress .htaccess files if you need them in a pinch:

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

Step 2: Deactivate your plugins to see if any of these are causing the problem. If you’re unable to access your WordPress dashboard, you can deactivate your plugins by renaming your plugins folder the same way you renamed your .htaccess file (e.g. /plugins-test/).

Step 3: If the actions above don’t work, one last thing to try would be to try increasing your PHP memory limit. Typically PHP limits will give a more specific error like “Allowed memory size of 84892898 bytes exhausted”, but it’s possible that a generic Internal Server Error is generated too.

As long as it’s allowed by your host, you can increase the PHP Memory limit for WordPress by adding the following to your wp-config.php file. This file is located in your website’s root directory.

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

Modify the 256M to change the amount of memory allocated for WordPress.

2. Error establishing a database connection

What is a database connection error?

This error happens when the site can’t access the database. The source of this error often lies with the wp-config.php file, which contains the database information of the site.

How to fix a database connection error

Step 1: Make sure the credentials in the wp-config.php file are correct. To do this, go to the root folder, right-click on the file, and select ‘View/Edit.’ Compare the username, password, hostname, etc., to the details found in phpMyAdmin and update, if necessary.

Step 2: If the error is still not solved, you can activate the WordPress Automatic Database Optimization tool. To do this, add the following line to your wp-config.php file: define( 'WP_ALLOW_REPAIR', true ); and then go to https://yourwebsiteurl.com/wp-admin/maint/repair.php.

Click on the ‘Repair Database’ or “Repair and Optimize Database” button. Once done, remove the added line of code from your wp-config.php file.

Step 3: If the problem persists, contact your web hosting provider in case of an outage or data loss.

3. White Screen of Death

What is the White Screen of Death?

Your site is replaced with a blank, white screen. There is nothing. Your site isn’t loading properly, and there is no error message to assist. This could be either a PHP or database error, but where do you start looking to find out what’s wrong?

How to fix a White Screen of Death

Step 1: Disable all your plugins and see if this resolves the issue. Reactivate the plugins one by one to determine which one is causing the problem. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, proceed to the step below.

Tip: If you’re unable to access your WordPress dashboard directly, you can enter WordPress recovery mode which will allow you to change plugin and theme settings. If you didn’t receive the recovery mode email with a link to the recovery mode area, you can simply add /wp-login.php?action=entered_recovery_mode to the end of your website URL to access recovery mode directly.

Step 2: A newly installed theme could cause the problem. Disable your theme to see if this is the case. Again, if you can’t access your WordPress dashboard through the standard /wp-admin/ or /wp-login.php paths, the recovery mode link will serve you well.

Step 3: Use the WordPress debug mode feature to identify the problem. This is an advanced troubleshooting technique that will give you a code level view of the exact error that WordPress is encountering. If you get to this point and aren’t comfortable editing files on your server, reach out to WordPress experts for assistance.

You can enable debug mode on your site by adding the following to your wp-config.php file.

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', false );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

Here’s an example of what your error reports might look like:

For even more troubleshooting techniques and possible resolutions check out our in-depth guide for recovering from a white screen of death.

4. 404 Error

What is a 404 error?

A 404 error appears when visiting a single post or page, saying the page can’t be found. You can, however, still browse other sections of the website. Broken links are often the cause, and WordPress users typically experience this when using custom permalinks (i.e., SEO and user-friendly URLs).

How to fix a 404 error

Step 1: Refresh your permalinks settings. To do this, go to ‘Settings,’ select ‘Permalinks,’ and hit the ‘Save Changes’ button. It’s very important that you do not change your permalink settings. Simply save the options as they are, which will update the rewrite rules on the server.

Step 2: Manually update the .htaccess file to the default rewrite rules mentioned earlier in the article. If refreshing permalinks through the WordPress dashboard doesn’t work, you can restore the default rules at the .htaccess file level directly.

Step 3: If this is an isolated issue for 1 or 2 pages, double-check that the content actually exists at the URL. If it doesn’t, you can prevent a 404 by redirecting the broken URL to another page or post on the website using a redirect plugin like Redirection.

5. Connection timed out

What does it mean if a connection has timed out?

This error often appears when the site has been trying to load for some time without success. After a while, the server gives up trying. It could indicate that your site doesn’t have the necessary resources available or that your site is trying to execute more actions than your server can manage.

How to fix a connection that keeps timing out

Step 1: Disable all your plugins and see if this resolves the issue. Reactivate the plugins one by one to determine which one of the plugins is the most resource intensive. Query Monitor is a free plugin that will help give some indication of plugins or theme files that are using a large number of resources. If you’re able to disable all of your plugins and can get the admin area to load, install Query Monitor and then activate plugins one by one while watching the reports from Query Monitor. If activating a plugin spikes resource usage, you’ll know which one may be using up your server resources.

Step 2: Switch to a default WordPress theme. It’s entirely possible that heavy code in your theme is using too many server resources. If you switch to a default theme, all of your plugins are inactive, and the issue persists, move to step 3.

Step 3: In the age of CDNs, firewalls, and caching layers, it’s important to understand which layer in the stack is timing out. For example, if you use a service like Cloudflare, it’s possible that your web host is online, but an outage at Cloudflare is causing the time outs, or vice versa. Cloudflare specifically has some great visual indicators for this when you try to visit a website that’s timing out. Your “origin” is typically your web host.

If you encounter issues with connection timeouts and disabling all of your plugins and reverting to a default theme doesn’t resolve it, look for outages at your firewall provider or web host and contact them for assistance.

6. Unable to upload images

Why are you unable to upload images?

If you’re trying to upload images without success, the majority of the time this issue is related to insufficient disk space — meaning that you’re trying to upload files to a server that’s already full.

How to fix an image upload issue

Step 1: WordPress has a great built-in feature to know how much disk space you’re using. You can find this by going to Tools –> Site Health and then clicking on the Info tab.

Compare the Uploads directory size to the amount of disk space available from your host. If your usage exceeds what your hosting plan allows, you’ll either need to upgrade your account or remove files from your server.

Step 2: Also within the Site Health area of WordPress is a feature that will help you rule out file permissions issues as a potential culprit.

As long as the uploads directory is “Writeable” and you have sufficient disk space, uploading images should work without a hitch. If you’re still having trouble with image uploads, you may need to contact your host or manually reset the file and directory ownership as well as file and directory permissions for the server.

The problem is probably caused by incorrect file permissions that are applied. You may see a message along the lines of “Unable to create directory wp-content/uploads/. Is its parent directory writable by the server?” Luckily, this is a relatively easy issue to fix.

That said, changing file and directory permissions on your server can cause major problems, so only proceed to step 3 if you’re comfortable with file management on web servers.

Step 3: You can reset file permissions by access your site to WordPress’ recommended permissions structure using a file transfer client like Filezilla or Transmit (our favorite). Go to the /wp-content/ folder and find the uploads folder.

Now right-click on this folder and select ‘File Permissions.’ Change the numeric value to 755. Then right-click on this folder and select ‘File Permissions’ again. Change the value to 644, check ‘Recurse into subdirectories,’ and select ‘Apply to files only.’ Click ‘OK’ to apply.

You should be able to upload image files now. If you’re still experiencing problems, reach out to your host for assistance.

Note: Because this is a relatively common problem, many managed hosts give the option to perform this action with a button in the WordPress or hosting dashboard.

• How to reset file permissions at WP Engine
• Change File Permissions of Uploads Directory at Kinsta
• How to Reset File and Folder Permissions at Cloudways

7. Stuck in maintenance mode

Why is your site stuck in maintenance mode?

WordPress automatically creates a .maintenance file that temporarily disables your site during a routine updates. If this update is interrupted, WordPress might not remove the .maintenance file. As a result, you’ll keep seeing an error message that states that your site is briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. You can fix this by simply deleting the .maintenance file as follows.

How to fix a site that’s stuck in maintenance mode

Step 1: Use your file transfer program to log in to your site.

Step 2: Browse to the root folder of your site and find the .maintenance file.

Step 3: Delete the .maintenance file. Your site should now be back to normal.

Note that you may have to rerun the last update from when the site became stuck in maintenance mode as this error usually means the update was not successful.

We’re here to make your life easier.

That brings us to the end of our list of common WordPress errors for now. The online world is constantly in flux, and things can change overnight, which is why this is a growing list. We’ll add to this troubleshooting list from time to time, so be sure to check back. More importantly, share the common errors you encounter in the comment section below. Our team will consider adding these to the list when we next update this post.

Is it taking too much of your time to make sure your website is functioning optimally? Instead, focus on what you do best — running your business — and leave your website maintenance needs to our team of WordPress experts.

The post How to Fix The Most Common WordPress Errors appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

Of course, with more sites comes a higher chance of disasters, such as hacks, incompatible plugins, site crashes, etc. That’s why, with a multisite network, it’s extra imperative to have a recovery plan in case things go south.

Taking backups can help recover your network following an unforeseen disaster, but there are many problems you may face while trying to back up a multisite WordPress network. In this article, we discuss those backup challenges and demonstrate the easiest way to back up your WordPress multisite network.

Challenges of backing up multisite websites

We can’t stress enough on how the stakes are much higher in a multisite setup. All your sites are present in a single place which leads to increased security risks. Each website should be handled carefully especially when performing certain functions like taking backups and restoring a backup and migrating.

There are two main challenges that multisite networks face:

1. Finding compatible backup plugins

One of the biggest challenges faced by multisite if finding compatible services. Knowing how important it is to take backups of the network, finding a compatible backup plugin is absolutely necessary. Luckily, we know of a WordPress backup plugin that works seamlessly with a multisite network. Before we get into how to take backups of a multisite WordPress network, we want to touch on another challenge associated with the network.

2. Managing multiple backups

A multisite network can have hundreds of thousands of subsites. Each subsite will have data that you want to back up. Some people prefer backing up their website manually by exporting data and storing the data in cloud storage facilities like Dropbox and GDrive. There are a few manual ways of backing your websites — such as using phpMyAdmin, or FTP or via your host. But downloading data from hundreds of subsites and then uploading them is time-consuming and prone to error. It’s much easier to use a plugin that’ll take backups of all your sites under the network.

Backing Up a WordPress Multisite Network

In a WordPress multisite network, there is a primary website as well as one or more subsites set up within the primary site as either subdomains or sub-directories. For example:

For example, let’s say that we have a primary website called westworldfansite.com, and within that primary site, we have three subsites:

• demo.westworldfansite.com
• shivam.westworldfansite.com
• sufia.westworldfansite.com

It’s not uncommon to see dozens of subsites within a multisite network, which can make the process of taking manual backups cumbersome and time-consuming. One way around this issue is to use a backup plugin that supports multisites.

There are many WordPress backup plugins to choose from, but only a handful are compatible with multisite WordPress. BlogVault is one such plugin. It works seamlessly with multisite networks and is designed to take comprehensive backups of your primary site and all your subsites. With BlogVault, you don’t have to take individual backups of each subsite. Below, we’ll explain how to back up a WordPress multisite network with BlogVault.

How to Back Up a WordPress Multisite with BlogVault

This first step is to log into your BlogVault account (or create an account if you don’t have one yet) and add your main or primary website to the BlogVault dashboard.

First, we selected the Add New Site option from the dashboard.

Then after inserting the URL (westworldfansite.com) of our website, we clicked on Next Step.

We now must add the BlogVault Plugin on a network level. There are two ways to do this. Either you can download the plugin and add it manually or you can automate the installation process by entering your WordPress credentials. We’ll show you how to do both so that when one fails, you can try the other.

Automated install of BlogVault plugin

Enter the username and password of your primary site and hit Install plugin. The BlogVault plugin will install and the backup process will begin.

Manual install of BlogVault plugin

But if you’d rather manually add the plugin, make sure you are installing it on a network level. Here’s how to do just that:

Step One: Download the BlogVault plugin.

Step Two: Log into your primary website. Using our example, our primary site is westworldfansite.com.

Step Three: Once logged in, from the dashboard navigate to Plugins > Add New. It’ll take you to a page where you can upload the BlogVault plugin.

Step Four: On the next page, select Upload Plugin and then choose Install Now to add BlogVault plugin to your network.

Step Five: After the plugin is installed, activate the plugin by clicking on Network Activate.

Step Six: After activating the plugin, go back to the BlogVault dashboard and select the option that says Plugin Already Installed? Check Now! BlogVault detects the plugin on the site and proceeds to take the first backup.

BlogVault backs up all the files and the database (of both the primary site and subsites) on its own server. It takes a while to back up the first time. Once the first backup is complete, BlogVault notifies you on the dashboard.

Backing up a WordPress Multisite is Easy with the Right Plugin

Not only do you have to tread carefully, but you need a safety net ready to fall back on when disaster really strikes. WordPress Support backups are the safety net that ensures you never lose your websites, ever again. Multisite naturally tend to be very large, but with a plugin like BlogVault, the size of your website is not an issue. BlogVault has backed up sites as large as 350GB without any trouble.

The post How to Back Up a WordPress Multisite Network appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

When an email like the one described above comes through, this is typically my response:

Dear Sir/Madam [I’m a very fancy email communicator],

It has come to our attention that your website is currently living in the technological equivalent of the Crustaceous period and needs to be brought back to the modern day. This will require extensive testing, a small bit of sorcery, potential time travel, and a well-appointed checkbook (or any major credit card).

Regards,

Count Sullivan of Site Care

I really don’t enjoy writing these emails and telling people that making their respective sites current is going to be an expensive and time-intensive undertaking. So today I’d like to address some of the most common missteps I see and how we, together as a community, can keep WordPress up to date and avoid the dangers of outdated WordPress software.

Intentionally Deferred WordPress Upgrades

I’ve seen developers do some very clever things to not only ignore WordPress core upgrades, but to cover their tracks as well.

If the client can’t see the red update notification, they’ll never know there’s a problem.

Developers everywhere

It’s the same logic that big tobacco uses to sell cigarettes. “If they can’t see the nicotine and harmful chemicals, then we’re off the hook! (Until someone dies, of course. But that’s a bridge we’ll cross another day).”

Some of the most common ways I’ve seen updates hidden are custom plugins that modify user roles, management plugins like ManageWP or InfiniteWP, or Easy Updates Manager. I’ve also seen updates blocked through the wp-config file hundreds of times, with a few other steps taken to hide notices from the dashboard completely.

And I’ll be the first to admit, sometimes hiding the notices is absolutely necessary. Curious clients see that update notification as a BIG RED BUTTON and need to push it. That’s facts. Unfortunately, more often than not these blocks are put in place with good intentions, and then end up being ignored indefinitely.

Here are some of the most common scenarios I’ve seen for blocking WordPress plugin, core, and theme updates:

• Theme update hasn’t been tested for compatibility – We’ve all seen theme updates break things. If it hasn’t happened to you already, it will. Updating a theme without disrupting the website may require staging the update in a sandbox and testing for compatibility. And who’s got time for that?
• Updates haven’t been tested with the PHP version on the server – Sometimes we want to test pending updates but because some hosts are slow to upgrade their PHP versions, or alternatively insist on running bleeding edge server software, there’s yet another variable to test for that’s going to require more time and effort.
• Managed hosting is taking too much control – Sometimes there are business reasons for not updating software right away. One example is an established change control process. Some corporations literally won’t allow changes to be made to their websites without going through a somewhat rigorous set of checks and balances. In these scenarios we tell the host to stop processing updates automatically. Hopefully we don’t use that as an excuse to ignore updates altogether.

These are all completely legitimate reasons for deferring updates but they aren’t excuses to ignore them outright. An uncomfortable trend I’ve seen is that while the initial reason to block updates and hide notices is legitimate, it’s treated more like a Get of Jail Free card. If you’ve ever told yourself you’ll get to the updates “on a day when I have more time,” don’t fool yourself. Unless keeping plugins and themes up to date is a priority, the time will never come.

If you’re a service provider and your client trusts you to stay on top of these updates, please make them a priority. Or you can pass them off to our team and we’ll do the heavy lifting for you. But please don’t leave these important updates unattended.

Absence of License Keys

The absence of license keys is the most prevalent challenge we encounter when trying to get websites up to date.

Developers, agencies, I say this with all the love I have available in my small heart: CLIENTS NEED TO BUY THEIR OWN PLUGINS AND MAINTAIN ACTIVE LICENSES

Without an active license key or account connection (see all Themeforest and CodeCanyon products), all future updates will be blocked.

And I know how it goes. You have the developer license for the theme or plugin that gets installed on the client’s site. Or you have the latest version from another project you’re working on so you install that to get your work done without asking the client for more money. It’s no big deal, right? In fact, you’re even doing them a favor!

Well, it isn’t a big deal today. But eventually you’ll stop paying for that developer version because the plugin author raises prices, or because you decide you like another forms plugin more, or the budget is tight and you need to find ways to cut costs.

These things happen and it’s totally fine. Really, it is.

But when these decisions are made, licenses expire and updates are suddenly unavailable. I’m not saying it’s never been done, but I’ve never once seen a developer or agency go back to a client after the fact and say “We’ve been paying for you to use this plugin for the last 4 years and aren’t going to anymore. Please purchase a new license and send us the key.”

No, I usually get to be the one that tells them Revolution Slider is 4 years out of date and that they not only need to pay the for a plugin, it’s also going to take six hours of developer time to upgrade the plugin and resolve all the resulting compatibility issues.

Do yourselves a favor and discuss license fees at the beginning of every project. Businesses understand the concept. They pay for Adobe, McAfee, and Microsoft Updates every single month. And at a much larger scale than any WordPress plugin fees.

Recommendations for Security Best Practices

It only takes a few days of following updates at WPVulnDB to get a very clear picture of how often security updates are applied to WordPress software. Authors are usually quite good at releasing security updates in a timely fashion when they’re needed.

Aside: If you use a WordPress plugin or theme with a known security issue and the author doesn’t release patches quickly, find another solution.

Without proactive monitoring and a regular update schedule things can get out of hand very quickly.

WordPress is often compared to Microsoft as “the operating system of the web.” It has extremely wide reach which makes it a prime target for exploiting vulnerabilities.

Yoast SEO has over 5 million active installs. If I’m a hacker and that plugin has a known security flaw, I’m going to try and build a bot to exploit it as quickly as I can. Even if half of website owners are diligent in keeping their plugins up to date, I still have a user base of 2.5 million I can try and take advantage of. I like those odds.

P.S. I’m not a hacker.

You’ll see lists on the internet for “300 tips to secure your WordPress website” but ultimately protecting your website comes down to these core principles:

1. Use a quality web hosting provider who maintains current web server and PHP versions
2. Have a regular update routine for WordPress core, plugins, and themes. Anything less than monthly is too infrequent.
3. Use a firewall. We recommend Cloudflare or Sucuri. These firewalls prevent malicious requests from hitting your website.
4. Keep active license keys or account connections for all premium WordPress plugins and themes.
5. Use strong passwords. WordPress’ default requirements are stronger than they’ve ever been. If you want to really enforce strong passwords check out Force Strong Passwords.
6. Disable File Editing – Even if an unauthorized user is able to access your site, they’ll be somewhat limited if they can’t access your site at the file level.
7. Use SSL everywhere. With may hosts offering SSL certificates for free or a small fee, there’s no excuse for not using SSL for your website.

Simplify your WordPress experience with SiteCareCare

Take the headache out of managing your WordPress updates by signing up for a SiteCare plan today!

The post The Dangers of Outdated WordPress Plugins & Themes appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

If it is that easy to break your website without touching code, imagine how dangerous it could be to use the built-in editor on your theme or plugins or edit code directly through File Transfer Protocol (FTP). You should probably avoid it at all costs.

While we recommend using expert WordPress support and maintenance services to make changes to your site, we recognize that it’s also beneficial to understand the lay of the land yourself. Most importantly? Whether you are editing custom code on your site or even just updating plugins, if you want to ensure everything will work properly, you must test everything in a staging or development version of your website first.

If you want to be able to maintain WordPress sites and build them out, the first step is learning the background. So, here’s how to do it – and do it right:

The Easy Way

Most of the modern managed WordPress hosts out there today, like WPEngine, WPMaintain, and Pressable, offer one-click staging environments. From your WordPress dashboard or hosting account, you can simply click a button, and they will auto-magically copy your live site and create a sandbox environment where you can test your code/updates without the fear of breaking anything too important.

Doing It Manually

Sometimes, due to custom requirements, price, or any number of reasons, using a managed WordPress host is not for you, which means you (typically) do not have a single button to create staging sites for you. The good news is that it is still not that hard!

At the lowest level, a staging site is nothing more than a copy of your current website. The most common route taken to create this copy of your live site is to set up a “staging” subdomain. For example, if we were to use SiteCare.com, we may want to use something like staging.sitecare.com (and don’t worry–our staging site is located elsewhere!). Depending on your host, the process to set up a subdomain may vary; what you ultimately want to achieve is to have a WordPress site available at that subdomain.

Now that WordPress is running, the fun comes in duplicating your site as it currently sits, which requires copying the files in your wp-content directory and then your database. The simplest (but maybe not the fastest) way to start this is to download a copy of your live site’s wp-content folder via FTP and then upload it again to your staging site’s wp-content folder. All your plugins, themes, and uploads will be copied doing this. There are faster methods if you are familiar with the command line and have those tools, and if you have those tools, you probably already know how to do it!

The database is another thing altogether. Unlike the wp-content folder, you cannot simply copy this over because of the links to the live site throughout your database. These need to be rewritten to point to your staging site, or you may run into issues.

WP Migrate Pro

A plugin we regularly use here at SiteCare is WP Migrate Pro, which, once installed (on both sites), will handle copying the database between sites as easily as it gets–simply the push of a button.

While copying the database, it will also rewrite all your paths and URLs from one site to the other, making your life much easier. This is a premium plugin, which means it does have a cost associated with it ($49 for 1 install), but take a moment to think how much time it will save you and decide if that time is worth the expense.

If that is not an option for you, though, another way to copy the database is to export your SQL file from one database and import it into the other, then manually fix your URLs.

We recommend using Better Search Replace (a free plugin built by the same team) or WP-CLI, a powerful command line tool to import, export, and perform search and replace.

Once your wp-content directories and databases are synced up, you now have a functioning copy of your site! You can now log in and test to your heart’s content. If something gets too out of whack, all you have to do is sync up your files and database again.

Securing Your Staging Site

If your staging site is on a publicly available subdomain, you may want to secure it so that only registered users can access it. While there are several ways to do this, one of the easiest ways is installing a plugin like Restricted Site Access; it will require a password to access the site. This will help keep the site away from prying eyes (and Google’s spiders).

Other Alternatives

I recommend putting your staging site on the same server as your website. That way, the hosting environment is almost exactly the same. There are some cases where you may test code locally to find that it works, but it ends up breaking your live site anyway–and that is exactly what we want to avoid!

If you still do not want to set up a subdomain, you could also run a copy of your site on your local computer. A simple way is to use free software such as Local, which makes it extremely easy to run WordPress locally using their auto installer. Just install and follow your onscreen instructions for installing WordPress. Other options exist, but we recommend Local because it works well AND supports Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Congratulations! You Have a Functioning Staging Site.

You’re like a true professional.

Next time you go to upgrade that plugin on your site, try testing the updates on your staging site first to make sure everything works. While this is useful for everyone, it’s especially important for those who have sites that are integral to their income.

Now, as you’re playing around on the staging site, even if something does break, you will never again open a frantic WordPress maintenance support ticket because your website is down. Instead, you will be cool, calm, and collected and can find the solution at your leisure while all your friends rip their hair out with a downed website. Although, if you are nervous, our WP maintenance services will get you out of a sticky situation.

Feel free to contact SiteCare with any questions you have about WordPress migrations, backups, or staging sites; our WordPress support and maintenance services are here to help. If you’re looking for WordPress hosting and maintenance services to take your website to the next level, speak to one of our team today.

The post How to Create a Staging Site for WordPress appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.

As a developer, you are not only responsible for the result of your code, but also the integrity of the underlying components. It is possible (and often faster) to create a block of code that meets the goal, but which is otherwise unintelligible.

Meeting deadlines with bad code works–that is, until you or another developer has to return to the stew of code to update it or correct an error. While creating code that is clean and readable does add a bit of time and consideration on the front end, the benefits will definitely save you time later down the road. Here are some simple things to keep in mind when you’re hammering out your next theme or plugin.

Focus and Intent

When you’re clear in your own mind about what you are developing and why, it can go a long way toward helping you organize and maintain clean code. Try organizing large pieces of code that serve many functions into smaller chunks that are easier to understand and maintain. Smaller logical chunks that can function independently of one another will narrow the margin for errors versus one large interlocking document.

To illustrate, think about an automobile. A car is one large machine made up of separate systems working together to operate the whole. If you were writing an application that mimicked a car, you could theoretically put every line of code into a single file and a single function named “car,” but this approach doesn’t consider that a car consists of an engine, transmission, wheels, headlights, etc.

Should you ever need to work on the engine, you wouldn’t be working on the transmission at the same time, so it would be ludicrous and confusing to have a file named car.php inside which was a function named car() that described every operation the car performed (engine, transmission, wheels, headlights, and so on).

A much better approach would be to break down the car function into smaller more focused functions such as engine(), headlights(), or wheels(). To further organize car.php, you could move focused functions into separate files: engine.php, headlights.php, etc. In the end, you’d have smaller chunks of code whose intent is more immediately clear. You wouldn’t have to dig through the entire car to just fix the wheels.

Clarity and Self-Documenting Code

I have heard many developers defend their sloppy illegible code by claiming that they can save time by limiting the number of characters they type. Such time-saving measures come in the form of vague one or two letter variable names, function names that do not communicate their purpose, or a complete absence of comments. The code was likely understood by the developer when it was written, but no one else is going to have any context for it. When it comes time to revise or refactor this code a week or a month later, someone’s going to have to untangle the mess. So much for saving time.

Because variables and functions can be declared many lines or files away from where they are used, vague names for these variables and functions can (and will) lose context if they do not describe their purpose–so when writing a function or variable name, try using descriptive text to keep it in context. A function named “myFunction” only communicates that you (or someone else) wrote a function.

By contrast, “myFunctionThatAddsTwoNumbers” is a function name that explains what it does. Without digging any further into the code, you know that the function will add two numbers. This extends to variables as well; if you were saving the latitude of the Eiffel Tower to a variable, a good name would be something like “latitudeOfTheEiffelTower”. or something similar to describe what the variable contains.

Another way to improve clarity in your code is to document it directly using comments. Complex code with great self-documenting naming can still be difficult to read and understand, so even a small comment can go a long way to helping other developers understand. If code consists of nested conditional statements or loops, familiarity with the programming language won’t always be enough deduce the solution applied to the problem.

A short comment to explain when a statement ends, or to describe how one part relates to another, can go a long way toward guiding others through your code is important. Think of it as writing it down so you don’t have to explain yourself later.

Coding Standards

If you’re having trouble figuring out how to clean up your code, or if you’re having a semantic argument about formatting with a co-worker, there may be some documented coding standards available depending on the technology you’re using. WordPress, for example, has guidelines for HTML, PHP, CSS, and Javascript.

Completely integrating or including the coding standards from technologies like WordPress not only cleans up the code you are writing but also aligns it with the standards of the community–a community that you may be asking for help, hiring from, or working in. Keeping things clean and consistent with any current coding standards helps you understand one another.

A Cleaner Future

If you found yourself guilty of any of the sloppy code-writing described above, I’d encourage you to use some of the suggestions above as a starting point for cleaning up your code. It will require some effort and a small investment of time, but in doing so, you’ll not only gain more pride in your work, but you’ll save yourself and others a lot of time and headaches later on.  For even more helpful information, you might look at the book Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship for further reading.

The post The Importance of Clean Code appeared first on WordPress Support & Optimization Specialists.