Creating and launching your WordPress site can be an exciting, as well as a very stressful experience. Even if you follow all necessary steps, problems can occur.
There are a few issues which are difficult to detect prior to launching your website. We have gathered some of the most common issues on WordPress site post- launching, as well as advice on how to fix them.
Spam submission on contact form
It can be difficult to establish the level of spam protection you need before your website goes live. Spam is so widespread that it can be hard to avoid entirely, and it is a common issue for new website to be flooded with them.
There are two ways to defeat spot bots. Captchas and Honeypots. Honeypots are the method of adding a field to a submission form which is hidden to users but can be found by bots. You can use a lot of popular form submission plugins such as Contact From 7 and Gravity Forms, which offer just a few simple steps to enable honeypots.
Another way is by adding a captcha to your form which will require from users to do a puzzl,e proving they are not robots. These options have significantly improved as time goes by and Google now offers invisible captcha with some different settings. There are certain websites which will require you to do both capture and honeypots, reducing the high volume of form submissions.
Problems with hosting configuration
Performance has been a crucial element for every WordPress site. Slow page load times can have a very negative impact on your website, but there are several steps you can take to prevent any damages.
First thing you should do is run a speed and performances test on a production server. These tests can help you prevent any future issues, but tests after launching your website will show you more accurate results, especially in terms of high traffic websites.
If your page load times are slow, check out the hosting configuration. Is your website on a shared hosting? Can the server manage the traffic volume?
Most developers and designers try to follow the best practices for optimizing images, which is why you will not find image optimization as the main culprit for slow loading time.
Most performing tests will show you the server response time, which will help you to determine if you need to change your hosting services or setups.
Indexing errors with Google search console
New websites often encounter indexing problems, especially concerning websites with big changes to their URL structure and redirects. A great tool to find indexing errors is the Google Search Console.
Once you go to the menu, open the Index Coverage Report and check out the troubleshooting section for any issues. Some of the most common problems can be the following:
– Pages are blocked by a robots.txt – Page has a crawl issue – Page marked no index – Submitted URL is 404 – Submitted URL is soft 404
For problems with no index setting or robots.txt, check the general reading setting or if “discourage search engines from indexing this site” has been unchecked after launch.
In cases of a specific page URL marked as no index, you will need to check the website settings and if certain pages need to remain no index or be edited. If you have a problem with the Index Coverage Report, it may be more difficult to resolve. Your best way of figuring out what might be causing the issue is by using the URL inspection tool in the Google search console.
If you do detect a 404 error, it is essential to address it soon as possible. Numerous 404 errors can significantly hurt your websites rankings.
Incorrect featured image for social sharing
Creating a new website could be an amazing marketing opportunity and it’s only natural that you want to share your new beautiful website on social media.
Before you hit the share button, however, make sure to check the featured image for your homepage. Share your website URL on social media and see which image will show up.
If you haven’t reviewed the social sharing settings, Facebook will randomly choose an image from your homepage, which in some cases could be disappointing.
There are a number of ways to adjust the settings. Several platforms, including Facebook, use open graph protocol. You can use the Facebook open graph protocol debugging tool and check out the current information which the platform is using. After you make the necessary adjustments you can use the debugging tool to clear the Facebook cache for the URL.
Incorrect tracking code
A lot of advertising campaigns and analytics platforms rely on tracking code to collect data from your website. When you are making a redesign of an already existing website, you may forget that this tracking code is there in the first place and not move it to your new website.
Forgetting to add tracking codes or having incorrect ones can cause huge issues, which includes lapse in your data in a moment when you might need it the most.
If you are relying on Google tag manager for your tracking, then you will have the Google tag code in your website, as well as the additional tracking codes within the tag manager. If you, however, are missing the Google tag manager code on your new website, you could lose data on numerous tracking platforms.
Make sure to check any analytics software you are using, such as Google analytics, prior to launching your website and again 30 days later.
Conclusion
Launching a new website is a huge accomplishment, which is why we have no doubt that you would rather enjoy a smooth sailing and no additional problems.
Have you ever encountered any of the issues mentioned above? Share with us your experience in the comments below.
