Where to Find Help with WordPress

Regular users of WordPress know that it’s super easy to learn and to use. But whether you’re a beginner or a pro, there’ll be times when you need help with WordPress. Not to worry, the nice thing about WordPress is that it has a wide community ready to help. Not only that, the internet is filled with a number of quality blogs, WordPress tutorials and resources that can provide answers to the most common WordPress issues. This post will show you some of the best places where you can find WordPress help.

But wait – even before you look for any outside help, here are a few first steps:

• Check to see if it’s a plugin conflict. Often, problems arise on account of conflict between a plugin with the WordPress core, or theme or with another plugin. This is easy to troubleshoot. First, deactivate your plugins. If the problem vanishes you know it’s a plugin issue. So reactive your plugins one at a time to locate the troublemaker. Simply skip the plugin or look for a better alternative.
• Check if your theme is the issue. Simply activate one of the default WordPress themes (such as Twenty Nineteen) in place of your existing WordPress theme. If your issue goes away try reaching out to the theme developer for help.
• Test if your site down due to server/hosting. You can also carry out some simple site checks to find out why your WordPress website is down.

If, at this point, you’re nowhere near a solution, you can go on to search online resources for answers to your WordPress problems.

While searching for a solution, it’s important to use the right keywords to initiate a search. For this reason, pay attention to any Error Message on your screen. It can indicate the nature of the problem and you can use these words as search terms on search engines.

Here is where you can find help with WordPress.

1. Use the Help Button

There’s a Help button in the top right corner of every WordPress screen. Click on it – it’ll lead you to information relevant to the screen you’re on. It links to the relevant WordPress documentation and it’s very likely that you may find your solution here right away.

2. Search Within the WordPress FAQ Pages

The WordPress FAQ pages contains questions that are neatly categorized. Your problem may figure on these pages, else you can ask your question on the FAQ Work Page.

3. Check the Plugin or Theme Page

If you do conclude that it’s a plugin or theme causing a problem, check for a solution on the item’s official page. If you’re using a free plugin from WordPress.org there are tabs for Installation and Support. It’s possible they already have a solution listed for the issue you’re having. For a free WordPress.org theme, there is typically a quick link to the theme’s homepage (where you can usually find documentation) as well asa button on the theme page sidebar to view support forum. Just remember the theme and plugins on the WordPress Repository are free. So be polite and ask for solutions nicely. Or if there’s a premium version, you may want to consider upgrading.

Speaking of premium – of you’ve purchased a theme or plugin use the same logic. First, look for documentation. Most developers make this super easy to find by linking to it on the item page. For example, on Themeforest you can usually find theme documentation information on the item support tab. If you don’t find a solution in the documentation, then reach out to the developer. Often 6 months to 1 year of support is included with your purchase. Who better to help than the person or team who created the item?

4. WordPress Support Forums

The Support forums on WordPress.org are one of the first places to ask volunteers to help you out with your problem. It’s particularly great for newbies, who may find a ready made solution in the existing threads. If not, as a registered user, you can open a new thread too.

Take care to provide concise and relevant information. Explain the efforts you’ve taken until now, upload screenshots of the problem to the cloud and provide links in the thread. If you wish, find out more about how to write a great support request.

5. Look up Quality Online Resources

There are a number of quality resources like WordPress TV available on the internet that can help you understand WordPress better. You may want to check out these tutorials before you widen your search.

Also, there are a number of wonderful blogs and tutorial websites related to WordPress (such as WPExplorer). They cover how to deal with common WordPress mistakes or issues like 404 errors, memory exhausted issues, database corruption problems, WordPress showing a blank screen and more. If you need additional resources, try any of these best blogs on WordPress.

6. WP Compendium

WP Compendium is another great compilation of step by step tutorials for just about every WordPress related subject. What’s more, it’s available as a cool extension to your Chrome browser, so that WordPress help is just a click away. Besides, a number of training modules help a beginner to get along and become familiar with WordPress and its ways.

7. Try the IRC Chat Room

The IRC Chat Room is mostly for live help for WordPress developers. Much of the talk here may be way too technical for average WordPress users like you and me. Even so, if you leave a question, there’s a chance that some volunteer may answer here.

8. WordPress Stack Exchange

The WordPress Stack Exchange is another place that’s intended mainly for developers. It’s free and you can ask and answer questions without registering on the site. As the top rated answers are moved to the top, you can find the best answer quickly. You’ll find the discussion here mostly relating to WordPress code.

Another place for discussing WordPress issues is Rise Forums. It’s a place where you can meet website owners, bloggers and WordPress users to discuss common issues. For a one-off registration fee of $10 you can join in in the community discussion.

9. Ask Your Hosting Provider

Some managed hosting services like WPEngine, Flywheel or Kinsta have their own team of WordPress experts on hand. Just open a ticket or live chat to seek help from their support team.

10. Hire Help

When in doubt, turn to a professional. Take your pick from small freelancers on sites like Fiverr and Upwork. Or invest in a premium WordPress support service. These often undertake maintenance and management of the whole host of WordPress services and fix any issue you may be facing. Here are a few we’d recommend:

WP Buffs, a service that looks after the speed, security, backups and updates of any number of your WordPress website. They are available 24/7 for monitoring and editing your website. The plans start at $50 per month and for this WP Buffs will monitor, backup and restore your website. Your website will be fully managed all day, every day.

WP Tech Support offers comprehensive WordPress maintenance and service plans. Whether you need a quick emergency fix and standard maintenance ($55 per month, which includes backups, updates and security) or if you want the comfort of unlimited help there’s monthly plans for that too (starting at just $75/mo).

WP Help will take care of all aspects of WordPress for a fee that ranges from $129 to $299. From security to backups and monitoring to updates, they take care of the whole range of WordPress services.

WP Site Care aim to provide complete WordPress support services to small businesses and professional bloggers. They’ll optimize your website for speed and help you grow your traffic. Security audits, backups and resolving support issues quickly are included in the packages. Plans start at $79 per month, and there’s a 30 day money back guarantee thrown in.

Valet.io provides maintenance and management services for WordPress websites. They can be trusted to keep your website running smoothly and help with development projects. They take pride in understanding your goals and partnering with you to make them happen sustainably. You’ll need to fill in a form with your details to know about their plans and pricing.

Final Words on Finding Help with WordPress

WordPress is open source software that has a strong community backing it. Besides, there’s a whole lot of resources available online. So the next time you’re up against a WordPress screen you do not understand, do not panic. Stay calm and figure your way out using the resources suggested in this post.