Avoid These Common SEO Mistakes: My Website Breaks in 5 Minutes
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Chapter 1: The Unexpected Breakdown
After spending over five years in the SEO industry, I believed I had encountered most of the common pitfalls. I had mistakenly exhausted a client's monthly advertising budget and conducted conversion rate optimization with no tangible results. However, I had never before compromised my own website—until now.
If you think it's impossible to break a website in mere minutes, allow me to share my experience as a cautionary tale. My hope is that by learning from my blunder, you can avoid making the same error when managing your own site.
An Alerting Start
As an SEO specialist, I frequently test various tools to determine which ones are truly beneficial. Recently, I experimented with ContentKing, an SEO tool designed for real-time website auditing and monitoring. It automatically performed a site audit and unearthed both familiar and new issues affecting my website's performance.
For those interested, you can find my review of ContentKing here.
One feature that particularly impressed me was its real-time alert system. If any changes occur on your website, you receive a notification. I experienced this firsthand when I was alerted that my site's URL with "www" was no longer redirecting to the non-www version. I was both surprised and thankful, as I would not have caught this issue until my next manual audit. Kudos to ContentKing for their 24/7 website monitoring!
Rushing into Fixes
In my eagerness to resolve the issue, I hastily explored several methods to repair the broken redirect. Lacking a developer to assist me, I decided to tackle it myself. My website operates on WordPress, which grants me access to essential root files, including the htaccess file.
This file allows for modifications to your website's configuration without needing to alter server configuration files. Common uses for the htaccess file include:
- Rewriting URLs
- Password-protecting directories
- Blocking IP addresses
- Setting up redirects
While htaccess files are powerful, they can also lead to a complete website failure if mishandled. I thought adding a few lines of code would be straightforward. However, one wrong insertion can break an entire site.
In my case, I added code based on developer recommendations, validated it for errors, and hit "save." The immediate consequences were disastrous: I was logged out of WordPress, my site failed to load due to multiple redirects, and I couldn't access the login page as it redirected me elsewhere. I had inadvertently broken my website without knowing how to rectify it.
Finding a Solution
Feeling overwhelmed, I realized I could not access my website any longer, and it was down. All my efforts over the past two years, including a steady four-figure monthly income from my site, seemed to vanish due to a careless mistake.
I learned a valuable lesson: never make technical SEO changes when you're in a rush or unsure how to proceed. With no one to turn to for assistance and knowing that consulting a developer could take days, I dedicated a few hours to research and find a solution.
The problem I faced was a redirect loop—an issue where multiple redirects point to one another, causing a continuous loop. To regain access to my site, I needed to disable the problematic redirects. However, how could I do this without access?
The answer lay in contacting my web hosting provider. I've been with Cloudways for three years, having switched from Bluehost due to slow server response times. Their support team guided me through downloading my website's log file when I was unsure how to proceed. They were my lifeline during this crisis, helping me turn off the plugin responsible for the redirect issue. Finally, I could log back in to WordPress! 🎉
The Takeaway
Never attempt to edit your website's htaccess file on your own within your content management system! If you do have a developer available, seek their assistance. If you're managing your site independently, consider these tips:
- Download the htaccess file before making changes, enabling you to quickly restore it if something goes wrong.
- Instead of directly managing the htaccess file, use a redirect plugin for your content management system.
Here’s a humorous twist: I was enrolled in an advanced technical SEO course to enhance my skills, and the very next day, the lesson focused on the issue I had just faced. I couldn’t help but laugh when the topic was introduced!
Personal experiences—both positive and negative—are often the best teachers. Wouldn't you agree?
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