At Net Solutions we are big fans of WordPress. WordPress is an exceptional choice for building websites as it offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it accessible to beginners and non-technical users. It's a straightforward content management system where users can easily create, edit, and manage website content without needing advanced coding skills.

WordPress is highly customizable, offering a vast array of themes and plugins. This allows users to create unique and visually appealing websites that match their brand identity and specific requirements. Whether it's a simple blog, a portfolio site, or a complex e-commerce platform, WordPress provides the flexibility to tailor websites to suit individual needs.

Due to its many features however, and the complexity of the software behind the scenes, WordPress can let you down when things go wrong, after all it was developed by humans. Humans make mistakes, and sometimes this may lead to some serious stuff like potentially exposing your site to hackers and data theft.

This is why it's important to have someone on standby who can support you when things go south, pear-shaped or just break.

Common issues that break WordPress sites

Poorly Maintained Site

The most common cause of all issues is a poorly maintained site. Way too often we see new websites built, and then we see a set and forget attitude. Way to often we hear, "I was told by my designer not to touch or update anything because it will break things". Routine maintenance, updates and regular backups are the most important tasks to perform. All sites that are not maintained properly are guaranteed to eventually have consequences some time down the track.

Outdated Themes and Plugins

WordPress sites are built on themes and plugins. There are literally hundreds of thousands of themes and plugins on the internet, all at your disposal. Themes and plugins are written by either professional software developers, amateur hacks or by someone in-between. Like most people though, you probably have no idea what plugins you have installed on your site. Like all software, plugins and themes need to be maintained and updated. If you are not doing that, or your plugins aren't being properly maintained by the developers, this only increases the chances of your site breaking. The hacker community is well aware of poorly designed plugins and themes, so your site will be an easy target if ignored.

Poorly built sites & too many Plugins

Compatibility between themes and plugins is critical. We often see sites with a large number of plugins, or plugins from a variety of different vendors. This is a concern as it raises the complexity of how your site operates, since all your plugins have to 'play nice' with each other and with WordPress. So the number of plugins and the quality of each plugin will directly impact the performance and operation of your site. We often see designers and developers pay very little attention to quality and security, so you risk exposing your site and its sensitive data to hackers.

Poor Security & Software bugs

Way too often we see poor security practices, weak passwords and no access control restrictions. WordPress is built on complex software so one single weak point can expose your site to the hacking community. Just like the big players Microsoft, Google and Apple, software bugs get discovered from time to time and no software is 100% perfect and error free. To ensure your site continues to run well, applying patches, software updates, security policies, security scans etc all need to be scheduled regularly.

Cheap Hosting

Many hosting companies who offer cheap and 'unlimited' plans will usually use poor or used servers and/or cramp as many users as possible into those servers and cut as many corners as possible to keep the costs down. Hosting your site with a cheap provider is not a wise decision. Many sites get cross-infected from other accounts on the same server and don't deploy advanced hosting tools to enhance performance and security. The hosting companies also employ a minimum number of support staff from the lowest cost countries to keep the costs low.

Commonly Asked Questions

1Can't I get free WordPress support?

Sure you can. WordPress, WooCommerce and many plugin authors provide free support via forums. WordPress is an open source community project and everyone is welcome to create plugins, themes, contribute patches, suggest/fix bugs, etc.

In our experience, however, many users get completely overwhelmed by so much information and don't know where to start and how to troubleshoot.

This is where we can help. You can outsource those tasks to us. But please be mindful that we bill for our time.

2Have I been hacked?

Many WordPress sites are targeted by hackers. Most hackers belong to organised crime groups and they know that once they hack into your site, it's a gateway to data and identity theft. and the use of your site as a launching pad to hack into other sites.

As law enforcement is very weak in this area, the risk of hackers getting caught is low. Hackers are often more savvy than most IT professionals so this is where we can help. You can outsource those tasks to Net Solutions.

3Why should I get support from Net Solutions?

Our core expertise is heavily focused around WordPress and WooCommerce. We have very strong skills with these platforms and are capable of accomplishing just about any unique task required.

We love the challenge! We love being able to provide solutions where others have failed. As one of our clients once said "If Net Solutions can't fix it, you're in real trouble."

We work with small businesses, large enterprises and government departments.

4Do you outsource your support?

No, we don't. We are aware of sites that offer WordPress support for around $20/hour. These are often freelancers and offshor companies with very cheap labor rates. There are many Australian companies who say they provide support, but simply outsource their work overseas to low cost companies. If you are driven by price alone, and don't care about quality this may be suitable for you.

We don't outsource any of or development or engineering work because we want to ensure that you receive the highest quality service. All our engineers are in-house local resources.

Many clients come to us after a bad experience with companies who offshore their work. Sure, we may charge more but we don't take shortcuts.

5How much will support cost?

We bill on a time and materials basis. If you have an existing WordPress Maintenance service our rate is $99/hour including GST. If you don't have an existing WordPress Maintenance service our rate is $132/hour including GST.

If you are a new client you will need to purchase support hours. Existing clients can raise a service request.

While in some cases we are able to provide an estimate of how much time is needed to fix ceratin issues, there are just too many 'unknowns' to quote.

We generally get a good idea of what is required within the first hour, so if you are a new client, start off with purchasing 1 hour of support. We are often able to fix simple issues in that timeframe. If the issue turns out to be more complex and requires more time, we will advise you before proceeding.

Need WordPress Support now?

New Client - Purchase Support
Existing Client - Request Support