How to Ask for WordPress Support the Right Way
Despite WordPress being a very user-friendly platform, questions and potential issues arise every day. This is true for all WordPress users, from those who are just starting to those who are very experienced. Some of the issues users encounter can be resolved simply by more practice with the WordPress platform or by searching online.
However, sooner or later, an issue will come up that you won’t be able to solve on your own, regardless of your investigation skills. To solve it, you will need to ask for WordPress support from developers, technicians, or the WordPress community. But, even the process of asking for support properly is a skill in itself, and one that plays an important role in solving the issue quickly and efficiently. Since this is not as easy as it may seem, we have created a guide on asking for WordPress support the right way. In the process, we will also cover where you could go for help and who to ask. Let us begin.
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Where you should look for WordPress support
There are a lot of places where you can find help regarding WordPress, either by asking for it or by simply going over the posts, forums, manuals, or other helpful content yourself. We will try to summarize them as best as possible in this section. But, given that there are a lot of WordPress-related resources available online, we are sure to miss some.
As we established, there are a lot of forums and platforms where you can ask WordPress-related questions and get the answers you need. First of all, you should start with the official WordPress.org and WordPress.com support forums. Besides them, all themes and plugins published on WordPress.org will have their separate forums that can be accessed after navigating to their official pages.
Other than the official WordPress forums, there are a lot of forums and platforms online that have parts dedicated to WordPress. Those include the WordPress subreddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, and Stack Exchange, for example. For the users who prefer reading documentation or want to widen their overall knowledge of WordPress, we advise reviewing the Codex and Developer’s handbook. And for users who are accustomed to learning visually, we recommend watching tutorials on WordPress.tv or searching for tutorials on YouTube.
Furthermore, since WordPress was initially designed as a blogging platform, there are a lot of blogs still available that cover various website-related topics intended for a wide range of readers. Therefore, in most cases, you only need to search online for a bit to find an appropriate article that covers the issue you are having or the topic you are interested in.
Finally, if you are using a premium WordPress plugin or theme, you will receive premium support for a certain time, so you can ask for help from them, as well. They will have extensive documentation, knowledge bases, and FAQs that you should also review. In some cases, asking your hosting provider for help also could be integral in solving the issue.
How to go about asking for WordPress support
Now that you know a bit more about the ways and places where you can find information and help regarding WordPress, we can dive into the specifics of asking for help. We have condensed our advice into seven distinct, carefully constructed sections.
In general, our advice applies whether you’re asking for WordPress help in a forum or platform, or asking for support from plugin or theme authors. By following our suggestions, you will have the best chance of resolving your question or issue quickly and without stress. But, apart from reaching out for help, you should know that you are expected to perform some initial investigation like reading the plugin’s FAQ section or some troubleshooting steps before asking for support. We will discuss this in one of the sections below. Without further ado, let us proceed.
Create a subject title specific to your issue
The first thing you should always consider when creating a support thread is to make sure that the title of the thread accurately depicts the issue while using the fewest words. This holds for all support requests that you’ll be making in the places we’ve mentioned.
A carefully selected subject line can grab the attention of whoever is reading it while providing a glimpse into the issue you are having. In some cases, this can lead to a quick resolution of the support thread if the issue is familiar to the community. Meaning, it has a known solution, or it’s one of the more frequently asked questions, or it’s an often requested how-to, and so on.
However, even in the cases that it doesn’t lead to a quick resolution, a title that is well thought through can help clear any misunderstandings that might exist in the body of the support thread. Otherwise, any confusion could lead to the question not being answered properly. Therefore, make sure to always create subject titles that are specific and provide an idea of the issue you are having as it can significantly increase the chances that the issue is solved quickly.
Be polite
As our second piece of advice on how to ask for WordPress support, we suggest being polite and writing the whole support request in a well-mannered way. This includes not using insults, swear words, threats, or discrimination on any basis. By not adhering to this advice, your support request could easily lead to needless back-and-forths, arguing, and frustration. In extreme cases, you could even be denied assistance due to harassment. Instead, make sure to be courteous to all the people who are willing to help with your issue from the start. Then lay out all the details of your issue according to the guidelines we will discuss below.
Describe your issue clearly
Now that you know the tone you need to use to describe your issue, we’ll look at precisely how you should explain it. Try to describe the issue as thoroughly as possible. Include the exact steps that you were doing that lead to the issue, as well as a screenshot where the issue is highlighted. Depending on the error, you could also create and include a video explaining the issue that appeared on your website. Make sure to include both the steps that lead to the issue and the issue itself on that video.
Furthermore, specify what you thought should happen but didn’t, due to the issue. By clarifying this, you will avoid any misunderstandings among the technicians or the WordPress community that is trying to help you. This clarification could be helpful as you might simply be misunderstanding some WordPress, theme, or plugin feature, which will be, then, pointed out to you. Also, specifying this could remove any doubts as to what the issue is, in case the words you used were ambiguous.
Provide the necessary information for troubleshooting
After you describe your issue clearly, don’t forget to provide the necessary information for the troubleshooting process. However, this information can be very sensitive. Therefore, you should carefully consider whether you should reveal it publicly, or use a private reply or other secure means of transmitting data. With that being said, let us discuss what that information is.
The most important piece of information that you should include is the URL of the page where the issue is present. If you’re contacting the support technicians of a premium plugin or theme, you should also include your login URL and a set of WordPress admin credentials, so that they could log in and investigate. This is the kind of information you’ll want to share only privately with a trusted recipient. Additionally, in case your website has frontend protection, make sure to supply them with those credentials as well.
However, if you don’t feel comfortable with someone investigating the backend of your website, you can opt to send the page URL only, in case it’s sufficient for troubleshooting the issue. And, if the page URL alone is not enough, you can consider making a staging website as a copy of your original site. Then you can supply all the information for that website instead; namely, the page URL, login URL, and WordPress admin credentials.
On the other hand, if you are working in localhost, you should mention that within the body of your support request and describe your issue in detail. Apart from screenshots and/or video, in this case, you should also include which plugins and theme you are using, as well as their versions, including which WordPress version you are using currently. This will be very helpful to anyone trying to recreate your issue on their end in hopes of solving it.
Finally, if the current issue has broken your website, you should ask your hosting provider for the error log and send it within the body of the support request. Optionally, if you are contacting a trusted source, you should send your FTP credentials as well. That way the support technicians could investigate the files mentioned in the error log via FTP.
Point out any troubleshooting steps you have done
Several troubleshooting steps can be applied to a wide range of WordPress issues. Attempting some of them can help narrow down the cause of the issue or even solve it, sometimes. As such, if you are able, you should try to perform these initial troubleshooting steps before submitting a support request to speed up the resolution process. In that case, make sure to list the troubleshooting steps you have done and the results you got within the body of the support request. We will briefly mention what those potential troubleshooting steps are below.
The first step includes checking for caching issues by clearing the browser and plugin cache when viewing the page where the problem is present. Moreover, doing this is good practice that you should use after each step we mention, as it will help to confirm the validity of your results.
Following that, you should test if your current issue is due to some of the plugins you are using or even your current theme. This is done by deactivating one plugin at a time from the list of your installed plugins. You can do this within the WordPress dashboard (the Plugins > Installed Plugins section), if you have access to it, and review the issue afterward. Similarly, to test if your current theme is the culprit, install and activate a default WordPress theme instead of the one you were using up till now. Then test the status of the issue afterward.
Additionally, make sure to review your website across multiple browsers and on various devices to see whether the issue is only present on certain browsers or devices. Finally, try to temporarily remove any code (CSS, JS, or PHP) that you might have inserted into your website and check for the issue afterward. This is especially important to test if you have simply copied and pasted that code from somewhere, without modifying it in any way or being aware of what it does.
Don’t spam
Even though this advice could apply to all sorts of WordPress support, it is most relevant to users that ask for help from plugin or theme authors using various means of communication. While any unfamiliar website issue can cause you to stress and worry, asking for support from the same source using different channels (various social media, email, phone, chat, and other means of communication) won’t help solve the issue any faster. Especially if you’ve submitted the initial support request at the same time. This can lead to you getting different advice if you describe the issue differently each time, and it can ultimately be considered rude and disrespectful.
In most cases, the expected wait time for an answer on your issue(s) after submitting a support request is up to one workday, so being a bit patient is the best course of action.
Moreover, making follow-ups on the initial support request before the developer or support agent has replied is not advised. This is because some support platforms order their support requests based on the time of the last reply. Thus, with each subsequent follow-up you make to your support thread, you will be pushing the original support request down the queue. This can postpone resolving your issue even further and may lead to unnecessary frustration. Therefore, one simple follow-up via email or Twitter, for example, regarding the status of your existing support request when the wait time is near its end is more than sufficient. That way, you will avoid creating any mix-ups delaying the turnaround time on your ticket.
However, if you have a lot of issues that are not related, we advise making several separate support requests for them instead of putting all the issues within a single thread. This will speed up the process of solving all your issues significantly. Each of your support requests will be examined by a different developer or support agent at the same time instead of having one person go through the whole list of issues one by one.
Show gratitude after the issue has been solved
After the issue has been solved, don’t forget to thank all who have helped you resolve it. A simple thank you can go a long way, especially if you relied on the kindness of strangers on a forum. By acknowledging their work and thanking them for it, they will be more inclined to help you in the future and might assist you further than you expect.
Finally, after learning more about WordPress yourself, you should consider helping others to feel the same rewarding sense of satisfaction and contribute to the WordPress community.
Final Thoughts
WordPress is an excellent platform, equally welcoming to all its users, from the most inexperienced to the most advanced. But, even in a perfect environment, issues are bound to happen. Some can be solved simply by searching online or combing through articles and forums, while others require you to ask for technical help. In this article, we talked about asking for WordPress support and all the advice you should follow to receive help quickly.
To summarize, you should try to be respectful, clearly explain your issue, provide enough data for the troubleshooting process, mention the steps you have already taken, and be thankful to everyone that spared their time to help you. Additionally, you should try to avoid spamming as it can be quite counterproductive. With that being said, we are sure that you already know most, or if not all the points we mentioned, since they are just common sense advice. Nevertheless, we hope that this article will prove to be helpful the next time you ask for WordPress support.
