When something breaks on a WordPress site, it is easy to treat every problem as urgent. Most are not. Knowing which situations genuinely require emergency support and which can wait a few hours reduces stress and keeps costs down.
These situations are genuine emergencies
The site is completely down and returning a 500 error or a white screen to all visitors.
The WooCommerce checkout is failing. Orders cannot be completed and the store is losing revenue.
There are signs of a security breach. Unusual admin accounts have appeared, content has changed without anyone making changes, or a hosting provider has flagged malware.
Customer data may be at risk. If a site has been compromised and collects personal or payment data, this requires immediate attention.
These feel urgent but usually can wait
A layout issue on a secondary page. If the homepage and the checkout are working, a broken footer on a blog post can be fixed within normal hours.
A contact form not submitting. This is disruptive but not a revenue emergency unless it is your only conversion point.
A non-critical plugin throwing a PHP notice or warning in the admin. Unless it is causing visible errors on the front end, it can be investigated without urgency.
What to do before calling anyone
These steps take five minutes and may resolve the problem or narrow down the cause.
Check your hosting provider's status page. A server outage on their end is not a WordPress problem and cannot be fixed by a developer.
Check whether it is a DNS issue by testing the site on a different device or network. If the site loads on a mobile connection but not on your office Wi-Fi, the problem may be local.
Check whether a recent update triggered the problem. If an update ran in the last 24 hours and the site broke shortly after, the update is the most likely cause.
Do not make any changes without a backup in place. If you do not have a recent backup, do not touch anything until you do.
What to tell an emergency developer
Having this information ready gets the problem resolved faster.
Your hosting provider and whether you have access to the control panel or cPanel.
When the problem started, as precisely as you can say.
What changed recently. An update, a new plugin, a code change, a content edit. Even something that seems unrelated is worth mentioning.
Whether you have backups and how recent they are.
Emergency support costs more, and maintenance prevents most of it
Emergency work is priced above standard rates. That is true across every developer and agency. Work outside business hours, under pressure and without preparation costs more.
Most genuine WordPress emergencies are caused by neglected updates, absent backups or changes made to a live site without testing. A maintenance retainer addresses all three. Sites on a retainer arrangement rarely face genuine emergencies because the conditions that cause them are managed before they become problems.
If you need ongoing WordPress support rather than a one-off fix, the WordPress services page covers what a retainer arrangement includes.
WordPress site down?
Describe what is happening and how long it has been broken. I will respond within one working day. For retainer clients, same-day response.
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