Owning and operating your own website is absolutely
necessary in today’s world. Whether it be a personal website with your resume
and achievements or a blog about your favorite hobby, they’ve become an
integral part of how we produce and consume information. One of the most
popular website builders around, which boasts a formidable “36% of the web” on
their site, is Wordpress. Wordpress is the golden child of new websites. It’s
easy to use, easy to access, and can support as much as you're willing to pay for.
On top of that, they’re more affordable than a lot of their modern competition.
The only issue with Wordpress is that of any other website builder: you’ve got
to maintain it. There are some issues that are light years ahead of
non-technical folk. The proper support channels can help you with that. But
there are a handful of fixes that you can do on your own. Here are some of the
most common issues one can come across in Wordpress and how to fix them.
1. Appearance Editor
Missing
Let’s say you've been using your website for a few months
and you want to make some changes to the way it looks. Naturally, you would go
to the Appearance Editor. That’s where you can go in and tweak anything you
need to tweak with regard to how it looks. You go to the Wordpress dashboard
and, for some reason, it’s not there. How does one change the appearance
without the Appearance Editor? We asked correspondents at alivebetter.com and were given an
easy fix to either. This is most commonly due to wp-config.php setting or some
security plugin preventing it. Here’s a step by step guide to both options
Configuration
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Access your WP File Manager
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Right click wp-config.php and select the code editor
from the drop box menu.
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Scroll down until you find the line:
define(‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true) and change that “true” to “false.”
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Save, close, clear the cache, and, if necessary, do an
F5 Refresh.
iThemes Plug-in
●
If you’ve got the iThemes plug-in, you may see a block
of code that prevents the Appearance Editor use.
●
Go to SECURITY, then SETTINGS, then WORDPRESS TWEAKS,
and finally CONFIGURE SETTINGS.
●
Apparently there is a default setting that disables
file editor. Uncheck the option that says “Disable File Editor.”
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Save settings in the bottom left.
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After that, you should be able to see your Appearance
Editor.
●
Note: This is based on the latest iThemes update that
allows for you to do this.
2. Syntax Errors
Syntax errors happen when you try to add something that’s
not complete. There are snippets and things you might have saved over time or
found on the internet that, if improperly placed, can result in a syntax error. The simple fix is to
go over it a few times. Most likely it's something innocuous like a bracket or
an underscore. You can also run it through FTP (file transfer protocol) and it
should tell you which line needs to be edited. That narrows things down
significantly.
3. Image Issues
A common complaint is that there is no ability to resize or
edit images. Even further, uploading images and making them look the way you
want them might seem off. When you upload a new image (post, “+”, image) get familiar with the image editor
that pops up on the right. It might not be a fallout photoshop option, but you
can resize and play with it to the extent that it will allow.
4. RSS Feed Errors
On Wordpress, RSS feed output is in XML format. As you might
have known, XML formatting is a very strict markup language. Errors in your RSS feed are somewhat similar to
the syntax errors you may face. Things as innocuous as a misplaced tab or a
line break can totally mess up the stream of code that constitutes your RSS
feed. In order to fix this, you’ll need to go over it a few times, just like
your syntax errors. Good thing for us, the error code will tell us where
exactly it is.
●
You might see: “XML Parsing Error” followed by the line
and column where the error was found.
●
If this is not the primary issue, you may have to go
in, kind of like the Appearance Editor fix, and disable plugins related to your
RSS feed and see which one may be affecting it.
●
This may take a bit of time, but between the error code
fixes and the plug-ins you’re sure to get to the bottom of it.
5. Facebook
Thumbnail Issues
If you’re trying to post on Facebook, you’re probably going
to run into some complications regarding the thumbnail. It is extremely common.
It’s anything but major, really. The most common reason why is that you have
more than one image set in the og:image tag. If facebook doesn’t pick the image
you want, you can simply add it directly on facebook.
●
Share the article, and add the image you want to the
“available images” cue.
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Make sure it's’ the first one.
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That image will be added to your photos list, as well.
6. 404 Error
A 404 error is when you click the link and the content isn’t
where it’s supposed to be. That’s a big problem with a very easy fix. Because
of the Wordpress CMS, much like the XML format, any small addition or
subtraction will throw the whole thing off. If your links don’t route to your
website, most likely nothing has been deleted. It has something to do with the
ability to access it.
●
Go to SETTINGS, the PERMALINKS.
●
From there, just click SAVE CHANGES. You don’t have to
change anything. It will change the settings and flush the rewrite rules just
by clicking on SAVE CHANGES.
These are the most common issues that you’ll bump into while
building your website. They’re all pretty easy to fix. In the moment, when
you're tired and just want the thing to be finished, these errors may seem like
a massive mountain. All you need to do is step back, take a deep breath, and
see it for the molehill that it really is. Afterwards, you can go back to
enjoying your website build.
