WordPress fixes & trouble-shooting.

The most common forms of WordPress fixes and troubleshooting that I do are:

• Post-update breaks – when you update WordPress and things stop working
• Post-plugin updates – often, updating plugins can cause issues with other plugins or themes
• Theme file work – small changes and tweaks to WordPress template layouts, CSS or functionality
• Post-hack cleanup – if your WordPress site has been hacked, I can help you get it back up and running
• Ad-hoc design changes – often simple changes to the layouts of pages, UX improvements and design
• Installs and upgrades – taking care of getting your WordPress site up-to-date
• Site moves – moving your WordPress site to a new host
• Domain and DNS issues – fixing incorrect DNS and ensuring records are correct
• Installing Cloudflare – moving your DNS to a free Cloudflare account to improve speed and security

How to do WordPress fixes work?

You give me a login, and I get it sorted.

There are some other ducks we need to line up, such as:

• Ensuring your site has a fresh backup
• Checking if you have server access, just in case
• DNS access, if needed and so on…

Not sure about what any of the above means? No problem, I can still help.

Avoiding the rabbit hole.

WordPress issues can be tricky to track down, and this obviously takes time.

To avoid wasting time and money when fixing or troubleshooting WordPress sites, I follow a simple strategy: I get to the root cause of the issue as soon as possible and then incrementally fix it.

As I have fixed 100s of WordPress sites, I have a lot of experience in the common causes of problems and how to fix them quickly, minimising cost and downtime.

To avoid the rabbit hole of lots of time and outages, I start with a 30-minute block of time, charged in advance, and then I work to get your site fixed within that block of time.

I will know in about 15 minutes if this might be a more significant problem, but I won’t use more than the initial time without prior approval.

For any minor website fix, my minimum charge is £30; that gets you 30 minutes, and I can do a lot in 30 minutes.

Get started

Is this mission-critical, or can it wait a bit?

Websites are like live TV: if something goes wrong, it’s immediately apparent to everyone watching.

To this end, most WordPress fixes are needed NOW, and that does come at a premium.

I am very seldomly not working on something else, so a fix with an immediate requirement means I have to pack up what I am currently working on and address the fix.

I try to categorise fixes so they can be dealt with in a timely and cost-effective manner:

1. Site outage – obviously mission critical, needs fixing today.
2. Non-critical functionality not working as it should – important, fix within 24 hours.
3. Design work, template changes etc – less critical, schedule in.
4. Most other stuff – least critical, schedule in.

This way of working affects time, turnaround and charges, so its important to categorise the fix level from the get go.

Fixing WordPress-related stuff.

WordPress issues often transcend just the install itself.

There can be related problems that need fixing including:

• Hosting issues
• DNS and domain issues
• Email deliverability problems

I will provide a time estimate for what I have been asked to do, anything outside that is fine, but it all uses the time.

I think it’s best to be clear when working on WordPress projects.

Scope creep.

• If you ask me to fix A, B and C, fixing D, E and F is fine, but it will need more time and my charges will go up.
• Sure, we can have a meeting, but that 25 minutes on Zoom costs too.
• If there’s an additional issue that crops up that requires more time, that is also chargeable.

I work quickly and don’t overcharge, so I simply ask to be paid for the time it takes me, which I think is pretty fair.

Inheriting other people’s shoddy work.

If you have an issue with your site, it’s usually not your fault, but it’s not mine either; I am trying to fix it.

It’s important to remember that I am trying to help you, I did not cause the issue in the first place.

If we get into that dance, it’s Good night and Good luck.

Kill fees.

Very occasionally, I hit a brick wall, which means I can no longer proceed. When this happens, the time I have spent up to this point is still billable, as I have done what I can.

These occurrences are rare, but if we cannot proceed further with a fix due to factors outside of my control or influence, I will bill for the time spent to that point.

• An example of this would be when I need server access to fix an issue but cannot access the server.

In 99.9% of jobs, this does not happen, but when it does, the above applies.

What I’ll need.

• There is very little I can do without an admin-level WordPress login, so will need that for starters.
• I may need server access, so if you have that to hand, that would be handy.
• I might even need DNS access, so if you don’t know what that is, it’s the website where you bought your domain from – your DNS usually lives there.

Please DO NOT send me any login details via forms on this site – we will sort that out later.

Security concerns?

Obviously, we’ve just met, and I am asking for the keys to the kingdom, but I do have a non-disclosure agreement if you need one – just let me know on the form or when you call, and I will send over a copy.

Timescales.

I help people as soon as I can. If I am neck-deep in pushing a site live, it won’t be now, but it will probably be later. I keep strange hours, but always at my Mac between nine and five, unless I am on holiday or something exotic like that.