How to Start a Travel Blog (to Make Money or Otherwise) in 2018

Do you want to start a travel blog but don’t know where to begin? Travel blogs are a popular medium to share your travels with not just family and friends but also with the rest of the world. In this guide, we will walk you through how to properly start a travel blog and even make money from it without any special technical skills.

What do you need to start a travel blog?

There are three things you need to properly start a travel blog.

• A domain name (this will be your blog’s name that people will type to find your site e.g. wpbeginner.com)
• Web hosting account (this is where your website files are stored on the internet)
• Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.

Yes, you can get started with a proper professional-looking travel blog in less than 30 minutes. We will walk you through the process every step of the way.

In this step by step tutorial, we will cover the following items.

• How to Register a Domain Name for Free
• How to Choose the Best Web Hosting
• How to Install WordPress
• How to Find the Perfect Theme (website design) for a Travel Blog
• How to Add Content to Your Travel Blog
• How to Get More Traffic to Your New Blog
• How to Make Money from Your Travel Blog
• Resources to Learn WordPress and Grow Your Travel Blog

That being said, let’s get started.

Step 1. Choosing The Right Platform

For most beginners, the biggest mistake is not starting with the right blogging platform. Since you are already here, you will not be making that mistake.

We recommend using WordPress.org. It is the most powerful and popular blogging platform in the world giving you complete freedom to start, grow, and make money from your blog. For more details, see our complete WordPress review.

It is important not to confuse WordPress.org with WordPress.com, as they are two different platforms. WordPress.com is a hosted solution and WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform. For more on this topic, see our comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

To start a travel blog with WordPress.org, you will need a domain name and a WordPress hosting account. To learn more, see our article on the difference between domain name and web hosting.

Normally, a domain name costs $14.99 / year and web hosting normally costs $7.99 / month.

That’s a lot for beginners who are just starting their travel blog.

Thankfully, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and discount on web hosting. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and officially recommended by WordPress.org.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Basically, you’ll be able to get started for just $2.75 per month.

Bluehost is committed to giving back to the WordPress community since 2005. They have promised us that if you cannot get your blog setup within 30 minutes by following this tutorial, then our expert team will complete the process for you without any cost. They will compensate us, so you don’t have to. Simply contact us for free blog setup help.

Note: At WPBeginner we believe in full transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, then we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact you will save money and get a free domain + free SSL). We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we use personally use and believe will add value to our readers.

That being said, now let’s go ahead and purchase your domain name and hosting for your travel blog.

First, you need to open the Bluehost website in a new browser tab and click on the green get started button.

Next, you will be asked to select the plan that you want (basic and plus are the most popular among our users).

After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.

Tip: Make sure your domain name is easy to pronounce and spell. You can also use keywords that you think people will search when looking for a travel blog. This will help you get more traffic from Google search. For more tips, see our guide on how to choose the best domain name for your blog.

After choosing your domain name click on the next button to continue.

Now, you will need to add your account information and finalize the package information to complete the process. We recommend going with the 36-month plan because that’s the best value.

You will also see some optional extras that you can purchase. We don’t recommend purchasing them right away. You can always add them later on if you decide that you need them.

After that, you need to enter your payment information and finish the purchase.

Once finished, you will receive an email with details on how to login to your web hosting control panel (cPanel).

Step 2. Installing WordPress

This step is not required as Bluehost will automatically install WordPress on your domain name. You just need to click on the link in the email you received after sign up.

This will take you to your hosting control panel. From here, you can just click on the login to WordPress button to enter your WordPress site’s admin dashboard.

Now you are ready to customize your travel blog’s appearance and start adding content.

Step 3. Choosing a Theme for Your Travel Blog

Themes are one of the best things about WordPress. They control your website’s design and appearance and there are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes to choose from.

WordPress is used by all kind of websites so WordPress themes come with lots of choices. A WordPress theme designed for business websites may not look so great for a travel blog.

You will need a theme that matches the look and feel of a travel blog. The trick here is to strive for simplicity and find the perfect balance between functionality and design.

Need to look at some great examples? See our expert pick of the best WordPress themes for travel blogs.

After you have found a suitable theme, head over to our guide on how to install a WordPress theme for step by step installation instructions.

Step 4. Adding Content to Your New Travel Blog

After you have installed and set up a WordPress theme, the next step is to start adding content. WordPress comes with two default content types, they are called posts and pages. While the posts will be the entries in your travel blog, pages are for adding static content to your website.

We recommend adding the static content first because it helps you build a structure for your website. For example, contact form page, about us page, privacy policy page, and more. See our list of important pages that every WordPress blog should have.

Next, you would want to start adding articles and posts to your travel blog. Go to Posts » Add New page to add your first blog post.

You can add any type of content you want. You can write articles, add images, create image galleries, embed videos, audio, and more.

For more details, see our guide on how to add a new blog post in WordPress and utilize all the features.

Step 5. Content Ideas for a Great Travel Blog

Your travel blog posts are where you will develop your own voice and engage your audience. They need to be informative, entertaining, and helpful.

You may be able to quickly add first few posts but it will get harder to regularly come up with new ideas for your blog posts. Check out this massive list blog post ideas that are proven to work, and you can easily use them for your travel blog.

We also recommend you to regularly visit popular travel blogs to get inspiration for your own blog post ideas. See what these top blogs are doing and replicate that on your own blog.

We are not advising you to steal or reproduce the same content. You just need to get the ideas, inspiration, and topics and then use them to create unique content with your own voice, style, and flavor.

You will also notice that popular travel blogs publish quite regularly. That’s because maintaining a consistent frequency is the key to successful blogging. You need to stick with a consistent frequency for your artilces. We recommend starting with three articles a week and gradually build up your pace to 5 articles a week.

Step 6. Getting More Traffic to Your Travel Blog

Once you start adding content to your travel blog, the next step is to help users find your website. To do this, you need to do take the following steps.

1. Work on Your Blog’s SEO

Search engines are the primary source of traffic for most websites and blogs on the internet. They recommend website owners to use certain best practices to increase their site’s visibility in search results. These best practices are called SEO or search engine optimization.

WordPress is very SEO friendly out of the box. However, there is much more that you can do to drive even more traffic to your travel blog. For detailed step by step instructions, follow our ultimate WordPress SEO guide for beginners.

2. Improve Website Speed and Performance

No one likes a slow website. Your users will leave your website instantly with a bad user experience and you will probably never get them again. It also affects your website’s search rankings as Google considers speed one of the top ranking factors.

You will not to perform certain WordPress performance adjustments to speed up your website. We have a complete guide with step by step instructions to improve your WordPress speed and performance.

3. Track User Statistics

Most beginners use their best guesses to decide what their users will like to read or view. You don’t need to do that when you can get actual data to show you exactly what your users want and do on your website. Using this data you can make informed decisions to plan your content strategy and grow your website.

To get these insights you need to start using Google Analytics. It tells you how many people are visiting your website, what they see, where they come from, and more.

For instructions, see our article on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress for beginners.

Google Analytics offers a ton of data. However, as a beginner, you may not know what to look where and which reports to monitor.

To answer these questions, we have made a beginners guide on how to easily track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics.

4. Make a YouTube Channel

YouTube is not only the world’s largest video sharing website, it is also the world’s second most popular search engine. You can create a YouTube channel for free and start uploading your travel videos, vlogs, and travel tips videos.

Travel channels are huge on YouTube. In fact, there are already travel vloggers on YouTube making six-figure income through sponsorships, advertisements, and brand endorsements.

Even if you don’t want to become a YouTuber, you can still use the platform to drive traffic to your travel blog.

Step 7. Making Money From Your Travel Blog

Ever wondered how these top travel bloggers go to all these exotic locations all over the world. Travelling is quite expensive and some of these travel bloggers do nothing else but travel. How do they make money?

Here we will tell you how other travel blogs make money and how you can do the same with your travel blog.

1. Sponsorships

The traveling perks for most famous travel bloggers are sponsorships. These sponsorships come from hotels, airlines, cruise ships, tour operators, and even government agencies promoting tourism.

Once your blog reaches a decent amount of regular traffic, you can reach out to these organizations on your own. In return for free stuff, they would want you to mention their place or service on your blog.

How do you find out who would be interested in such a deal? See which other companies are already sponsoring other travel bloggers, or randomly try your luck with hotels and airlines for the places you want to visit.

While sponsorship deals will give you some perks, they will not make money for you.

2. Advertisements

Not just travel blogs, but almost all popular blogs on the internet rely on advertisements. The most popular way to display ads on your blog is by using Google AdSense.

It connects bloggers like you to the advertisers looking for a targeted audience. Advertisers pay Google, which pays you after taking a small cut of their own. For details see our article on how to how to add Google AdSense to your WordPress blog.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing enables you to recommend travel products that you use and love. You get a referral commission when your users purchase a product after clicking on your link.

To make money with affiliate marketing, you will need to find travel products and brands with an affiliate program. These could be backpack manufacturers, adventure cameras, selfie sticks, travel insurance companies, tour companies, and so on.

The biggest affiliate partner you can sign up for is Amazon Affiliates. They have tons of products in travel gadgets, accessories, luggage, bags, clothing, electronics, and more.

Need help getting started? See our beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing with step by step instructions and tools you will need to succeed.

4. YouTube Travel Vlogger

As we have mentioned earlier, YouTube provides lots of opportunities to travel bloggers. Since videos are much more engaging than plain text or even photos, top brands and advertisers are spending big dollars on YouTube promotions and ads.

YouTube runs its own advertising program too which will generate you some revenue. However, it will help you connect with brands and advertisers while getting new subscribers and followers at the same time.

Step 8. Mastering Your WordPress Skills

WordPress is quite easy to use and manage. However, there is a learning curve involved whenever you start with a new platform. You will continue discovering new things to learn. This is where WPBeginner can help.

WPBeginner is the largest WordPress resource site for beginners. We have lots of helpful content which is created specifically for beginners, business owners, and bloggers.

Following are few of the helpful resources you will find on WPBeginner (all of them are completely free).

• WPBeginner Blog – The central place for all our WordPress tutorials and guides.
• WPBeginner Dictionary – Our WordPress glossary is the best place to familiarize yourself with the WordPress lingo
• WPBeginner Videos – New WordPress users can start with these 23 videos to master WordPress.
• WPBeginner on YouTube – Need more video instructions? Subscribe to our YouTube channel with more than 110,000 subscribers and 10 Million+ views.
• WPBeginner Blueprint – Check out plugins, tools, and services we use on WPBeginner.
• WPBeginner Deals – Exclusive discounts on WordPress products and services for WPBeginner users.

Many of our users use Google to find answers on WPBeginner by simply adding ‘wpbeginner’ at the end of their search term.

We hope this article helped you learn how to start a travel blog and make money from it. You may also want to see our list of essential WordPress plugins for new websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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6 Best Stripe Payment Plugins for WordPress (2018)

Are you looking for the best Stripe payment plugin to accept payments on your WordPress site? Stripe is one of the most popular payment processing companies in the world. It allows you to easily accept credit card payments on your website. In this article, we will share the best Stripe payment plugins for WordPress sites.

Why Use Stripe to Accept Payments on WordPress?

If you want to accept credit card payments on your WordPress website, then there isn’t an easier solution that Stripe.

Stripe is one of the top payment companies that does not require you to go through a lengthy process of getting a merchant account. They allow anyone with a legitimate business to accept credit card payments online. All you need to do is create a Stripe account.

The best part is that your customers do not need to have a Stripe account. They can simply enter their credit card on your website to make a payment.

Accepting online payments on your website has never been this easier. There are many popular payment services that you can use to accept credit card payments on your website.

Note: Stripe requires you to use SSL on your website to accept payments. If you haven’t already done so, then see our guide on how to how to get a free SSL certificate and how to properly switch your WordPress site to https.

Unlike other “best Stripe WordPress plugins articles”, we didn’t just create a random list of Stripe integrations. We hand-picked a list of the top Stripe WordPress payment plugins for each use-case.

That being said, let’s take a look at the top Stripe payment plugins for WordPress that you can use to start accepting payments on your website.

1. WPForms

WPForms is the best drag & drop form builder plugin for WordPress. It is currently being used by over 1 million websites and boast a 4.9 out of 5 star rating average with over 2300+ reviews.

WPForms Pro version allows you to easily accept online payments on your website using Stripe or PayPal.

If you’re looking to create a simple order form or donation form without the hassle of a full-fledged eCommerce platform or shopping cart plugin, then WPForms is the perfect solution for you.

You can create an unlimited number of payments forms and accept credit card payments right on your website. You can add these forms anywhere on your website including posts, pages, sidebar widgets, and more.

For detailed instructions, see our step by step guide on how to easily accept credit card payments in WordPress.

2. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform. It is available as a WordPress plugin, and you can use it to create an online store or sell items on your existing WordPress website. WooCommerce enables you to sell physical goods, digital downloads, as well as membership and subscription courses.

During the Setup Wizard, WooCommerce will ask you to choose payment providers. By default, it will give you two options: PayPal and Stripe. In case, you missed the setup wizard, you can simply install and activate the free Stripe for WooCommerce addon.

3. MemberPress

MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin. If you’re looking to sell courses or add a membership option to your website, then MemberPress is a great choice.

MemberPress comes with a Stripe integration for WordPress that allows you to easily accept credit card payments on your site. Their Stripe and PayPal addon are available for all MemberPress membership levels.

You can use it to add paywalls to your site, sell courses, lock specific downloads, etc. MemberPress supports recurring payments, has complete subscription management options and everything else that you would expect from a premier membership plugin.

For detailed instructions, see our step by step guide on how to create a membership website in WordPress.

4. WP Simple Pay Pro

WP Simple Pay Pro enables you to accept payments on your website using Stripe without adding a shopping cart plugin to your website. It allows you to create unlimited payment forms with a Stripe payment button.

You can add all the fields you will need to create a payment form. You can also use it with Easy Pricing Tables plugin to create beautiful pricing pages for your website. Their business plan enables you to add subscription or recurring payments option.

For detailed instructions, see our article on how to accept payments with Stripe in WordPress.

5. Stripe for Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads is another popular WordPress eCommerce plugin which allows you to easily sell digital downloads from your website. By default, it comes with PayPal and Amazon payment gateways. Stripe for Easy Digital Downloads is a paid add-on which adds support for accepting online payments via Stripe on your Easy Digital Downloads powered website.

It is suitable for websites that are exclusively selling digital downloads on their website. Once installed, it will add a new payment option in your Easy Digital Downloads settings page. From here, you can set up Stripe and make it your default payment gateway.

6. LearnDash

LearnDash is the best WordPress LMS plugin in the market. It allows you to create and sell courses online. You can easily accept payments on your WordPress site using their free Stripe integration.

LearnDash comes with powerful features like multi-tier courses, assignments for students, quizzes, grading system, and more. You can easily set prerequisites for students such as finishing a lesson first before going to next lesson.

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to sell online courses in WordPress using LearnDash.

We hope this article helped you find the best Stripe payment plugins for WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on more ways to make money online from your WordPress website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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How to Check for WordPress Security Updates (Beginners Guide)

When starting a blog, often beginners don’t know that they can check for security updates on their WordPress site. Security updates can help protect your website against malware attacks, hacks, and other common security threats. In this article, we will show you how to check for WordPress security updates.

Why You Should Check for WordPress Security Updates?

Security should be a top priority for every website owner. This is why we recommend that you always keep your website up-to-date to stay protected from hackers, malware, DDoS attacks, etc.

WordPress shows you updates for the core software, themes, and plugins in your dashboard. These 3 things are interconnected, so you need to update them regularly to avoid any compatibility issue between the old and latest versions.

Security updates will also protect your website from all new threats and malware attacks. For more details, you should check out our complete guide on WordPress security.

That being said, let’s take a look on how to check for WordPress security updates step by step.

Checking for WordPress Security Updates

WordPress has a dedicated page for the updates that you can access from your admin area. Simply login to your WordPress admin account and go to Dashboard » Updates page.

On this page, you’ll see the timestamp when your WordPress site last checked for updates. WordPress automatically checks for updates on a regular basis, however you can also click the “Check Again” button to manually check for updates.

Next, you’ll see a “Re-install Now” button which allows you to reinstall the current version of WordPress. Most users can safely ignore this button. This is only helpful for those who’re restoring their website from a backup, and they may need to re-install the latest version of WordPress core software.

After WordPress core, you’ll find the plugins section where it’ll display the latest available updates for your installed plugins. If you are looking for a specific plugin update, and you don’t find it on this page, then you can also force WordPress to check for plugin updates.

You can either update the plugins individually or select all plugins at once, and then click on the Update Plugins button.

Once the plugins are updated, you’ll find the WordPress theme updates section below. If there’s a latest version available for your installed themes, then you can update it from here. Similar to plugins, you can either update the themes individually or select all themes to update them in 1-click.

When you update a WordPress theme, it will update all the theme files and change the settings to default. This could mean that you’ll lose the customization that you made previously on your theme. Simply follow our guide on how to update a WordPress theme without losing your customization.

Note: Before performing any updates, we strongly recommend that you create a complete backup of your WordPress site.

Backups allow you to easily restore your WordPress site should anything go wrong. Although unlikely sometimes an update can cause compatibility issues, and this gives you a safety net.

That’s all. We hope this article helped you learn how to check for WordPress security updates. You may also want to see our guide on how to protect WordPress against brute force attacks.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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How to Put Your WordPress Site in Maintenance Mode

Do you want to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode? The maintenance mode allows you to display a user-friendly notice to your users instead of a broken site during website maintenance. In this article, we will show you how to easily put your WordPress site in maintenance mode.

Why and When You Need to Put WordPress in Maintenance Mode

Normally, you can work on customizing your WordPress website without having to put it in maintenance mode. You can perform minor tweaks, publish new content, update themes and plugins without any downtime.

However, sometimes you may need to work on your website for a longer period. Like when you are manually setting up a new theme or configuring a new plugin that changes the behavior of your website. During this time your website may appear broken to your users for a period of time.

If your website has a lot of traffic, then you don’t want your users to see a broken website because it creates a bad user experience and give them a poor impression of your brand.

Putting your WordPress site in maintenance mode allows you to remedy that with a user-friendly notification, alternative links to visit, and provide a time frame for when the maintenance will be done. This creates a better user experience and a positive brand image among your users.

If you are working on a new website, then you can use the same concept to put your website in an under construction mode. This will allow you to build anticipation among your users and create hype for your upcoming website.

Having that said, let’s take a look at how to easily put your WordPress site in maintenance or under-construction mode.

We will show you two different plugins to create coming soon or maintenance mode pages. You can choose the one that works best for you.

1. Setup Maintenance Mode Using WP Maintenance Mode Plugin

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Maintenance Mode plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to go to Settings » WP Maintenance Mode to configure the plugin settings.

The plugin’s setting screen is divided into five tabs. By default, you will see the General options tab.

The first option under General is Status, which is set to Deactivated by default. In order to put your WordPress site into maintenance mode, you need to set it to ‘Activated’.

If you want search engines to be able to see your website while it is in maintenance mode, then you need to set ‘Bypass for Search Bots’ option to Yes. If you have an established website, then we recommend setting this to Yes.

WP Maintenance Mode allows you, the administrator, to have full access to your website during the maintenance mode. This means that you can see the working website and login to your WordPress dashboard.

You can specify which user roles should be allowed to access the front and backend of the website while it is in maintenance mode. By default, it is set to Administrator only.

Other options on the page are self-explanatory. Once you are satisfied with the settings, you need to click on the Save settings button to store your changes.

Creating Your Own Splash Page for Maintenance Mode

WP Maintenance Mode allows you to create beautiful landing pages to display during maintenance mode. To create your splash page, simply click on the Design tab on the plugin’s settings page.

First, you need to provide a title, heading, and content to display on your maintenance page. If you are creating a coming soon page, then you can change the content accordingly.

Next, you need to select the text color and background type. You can choose from the background color, choose a pre-defined image, or upload your own background image.

Once you are done with the settings, don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Adding Countdown and Newsletter Signup on WordPress Maintenance Page

If you are putting WordPress in coming soon mode or just want to let users know when your site will be up, then you can use a countdown timer module that’s included with the plugin.

You can set it up by going to the Modules tab on the plugin’s settings page. From here you can select a start date and enter the remaining time.

You can also allow users to subscribe and be notified when your website is back online. These users will be notified via the plugin, and they will not be subscribed to your email marketing list.

You want to make sure that your WordPress site is able to send emails. For more details, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue to test and fix WordPress emails.

Next, you can also add links to your social media profiles in the coming soon mode or maintenance mode page. Simply enter your social media profile URLs, and the plugin will automatically display the social buttons.

Optionally, you can also enable Google Analytics and add your tracking ID in the plugin settings.

Don’t forget to click on the save settings button to store your changes.

WP Maintenance mode also allows you to set up a pre-programed live chat bot which includes an interactive conversational help box. You can use this feature to politely ask users if they would like to subscribe.

If you enable the bot, then it will hide the maintenance mode content you had set in the General settings page. This is how the chatbot would look on your website.

If you are collecting user data through the signup forms on your maintenance mode or coming soon mode page, then you would want to make it GDPR compliant.

You can do this by switching to the GDPR tab on the plugin’s settings page. From here you can enable the privacy module and select your privacy policy page.

You can now visit your website in a new browser window with the incognito mode, and you will be greeted with your maintenance mode or coming soon page.

2. Setup Maintenance Mode using SeedProd Plugin

SeedProd is a premium WordPress plugin that comes with beautiful designs and guaranteed support.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit you need to visit Settings » Coming Soon Pro page to setup coming soon or maintenance mode page.

First, you need to select the status. You can select ‘Enable Coming Soon Mode’ or ‘Enable Maintenance Mode’. You can also select redirect mode which allows you to simply redirect your users to some other website.

After choosing maintenance or coming soon mode, click on the ‘Save all changes’ button.

Next, you need to click on ‘Edit Coming Soon/Maintenance Page’ button. This will open the SeedProd theme customizer.

You will now see a list of beautiful ready-made themes that you can use for your maintenance or coming soon page. Click to select a theme and SeedProd will show customization options for the theme.

From here you can easily add your own logo, background, change content, add email subscription form, social sharing buttons, countdown timer, progress bar, etc.

SeedProd also supports all popular email marketing services. You can simply select your email service provider and setup a signup form by following on-screen instructions.

Once you are satisfied with the changes, don’t forget to click on the save button to store your changes. You can now visit your website in an incognito mode to preview your maintenance mode page in action.

For more detailed instructions, see our article on how to create coming soon pages in WordPress with SeedProd.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily put your WordPress site in maintenance mode. You may also want to see these examples of maintenance page ideas that you can use on your website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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How to Fix the 504 Gateway Timeout Error in WordPress

Have you ever gotten a 504 gateway timeout error on your WordPress site? This error can make your website inaccessible to users. What’s worst is that it can disappear and reappear on its own if the underlying issue is not fixed. In this article, we will show you how to fix the 504 gateway timeout error in WordPress.

What Causes 504 Gateway Timeout Error?

The 504 gateway timeout error is usually caused when a server is unable to connect to an upstream server to complete a request.

For example, if you are using a website firewall like Sucuri, and it is unable to connect to your WordPress server, then you will see a 504 gateway timeout error.

The error page’s appearance and the message may be displayed differently depending on your WordPress hosting company, the proxy server, or the browser you are using. Following are some of the most common 504 gateway timeout error messages.

• 504 Gateway Timeout
• HTTP 504
• 504 ERROR
• Gateway Timeout (504)
• HTTP Error 504 – Gateway Timeout
• Gateway Timeout Error

While the most common reason for the error is a proxy server unable to reach the upstream server, it can also be triggered by other hosting configuration issues.

That being said, let’s see how to easily troubleshoot and fix the 504 gateway timeout error in WordPress.

1. Wait and Reload

Sometimes the 504 gateway timeout error may simply be caused by a temporary glitch on your WordPress hosting servers. Give it a few minutes and then try reloading your website.

If the issue disappears, then you don’t need to take any further steps. However, if the error persists or reappears after a while, then continue reading to troubleshoot and fix the problem.

2. Turn off VPN

If you are using a VPN service to browse the web, then try disabling it. Sometimes your VPN server may not be able to get a response from your managed WordPress hosting server, and this will result in 504 gateway timeout error.

If your website reappears, then this means that the VPN server was the culprit. Now if using the VPN is important for you, then you can try switching to a different VPN server. If you are seeing the error even after changing servers, then you would want to contact your VPN service provider for support.

3. Turn off Website Firewall

If you are using a DNS level website firewall like Sucuri or Cloudflare, then try to temporarily disable the firewall. This will allow you to connect to your WordPress hosting server directly.

If that fixes the issue, then it’s likely that your hosting server is blocking the firewall IP addresses which can cause this issue. You will need to contact your firewall service provider to get their list of IP addresses, and then contact your web host to whitelist those IPs.

Sometimes disabling the firewall might show you the actual server error notice. In that case, you should refer to our list of common WordPress errors to fix the specific issue.

4. Disable Your Network Proxy

If you are connected to the internet through a proxy server, then that server may be unable to get a response from your WordPress website.

Try accessing your website using a different internet connection or use online services to see if your website is down just for you or everyone.

If it is down just for you, then you need to change your network settings. You can contact your internet service provider or a network admin to troubleshoot the issue for you.

5. Change Your DNS Servers

Your internet connection uses something called DNS servers. These servers help your computer connect to the different servers on the internet.

If the DNS servers you are using are down or unable to connect to your website, then you could see a 504 gateway timeout error. The easiest way to check this is by changing the DNS servers your device is using.

On Windows computers, you can find them under Control Panel » Network and Sharing Center screen.

On Mac computers, you can find them under Settings » Network. Click on the Advanced button, and then select the DNS tab.

You can change your DNS server address to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and apply changes.

Try visiting your website now. If this solved your error, then you are all done. The problem was with your internet connection, and it is now fixed.

6. Clean up your WordPress Database

A corrupt WordPress database may also trigger a 504 gateway timeout error. Don’t worry, your WordPress data is most likely safe. However, your database may need a little a bit of spring cleaning.

This can be easily done by optimizing your WordPress database using phpMyAdmin or using a plugin like WP-Sweep. Make sure you backup the WordPress database before performing any action.

7. Deactivate WordPress Plugins and Switch to Default Theme

WordPress plugins and themes are less likely to cause a 504 gateway timeout error. However, if a plugin or theme is making too many requests to the server, then it is likely that some of these requests may drop off and trigger a 504 gateway timeout error.

To test this, you need to deactivate all WordPress plugins via FTP.

After that, visit your website to see if the error has resolved.

If it is, then one of your plugins was causing the issue. You now need to activate all plugins one by one until you can reproduce the error. This will help you locate the plugin responsible for the error.

If deactivating plugins didn’t solve your issue, then you would want to check your WordPress theme. You will need to switch WordPress theme via phpMyAdmin.

After switching your theme to the default WordPress theme, visit your website to see if it’s working.

8. More Troubleshooting

If all else fails, and you are still unable to solve the 504 gateway timeout error, then follow the steps in our ultimate WordPress troubleshooting guide for beginners.

Finally, as a last resort, you need to reach out to your hosting provider for support. They may be able to fix the issue or point you in the right direction.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix 504 gateway timeout error in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to protect WordPress against brute force attacks.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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How to Ask Google to Recrawl URLs of Your WordPress Site

Recently one of our readers asked if it’s possible to get Google to recrawl specific URLs? If your website is new, then Google will take some time to crawl and display new pages or changes in search results. In this article, we will show you how to ask Google to recrawl URLs of your WordPress site.

When and Why Do You Need to Ask Google to Recrawl URLs?

When you add pages and posts in your WordPress site, Google will take its due time to crawl these new links. The same time is required by Google to crawl the updated URLs of your WordPress site.

When you manually ask Google to recrawl your URLs, then it will put your new link in the queue to get indexed on Google. A Google search bot will start recrawling your links one by one and display them in search results.

Some of the common reasons for asking Google to recrawl URLs are:

1. When you add a new post or page
2. When you make changes to an existing post or page
3. If you think a page should be indexed in Google, but you can’t find it

For the first two options mentioned above, you can automate this process using XML sitemaps. Google is pretty good at indexing website because that’s their business.

However we have seen specific pages go missing from Google (for no reason). Sometimes just asking Google to recrawl will make the page appear right away.

That being said, let’s take a look on how to ask Google to recrawl URLs of your WordPress site and display them in the search results.

Asking Google to Recrawl URLs of Your WordPress Site

First you need to get your site listed on Google and then Google will automatically start crawling your URLs. However, you can also request Google to recrawl your new links for any cases that we discussed above.

You can follow the steps below to ask Google to recrawl URLs of your WordPress site.

Step 1: Using the URL Inspection Tool to Recrawl URLs

URL inspection tool is available in the new and updated Google search console (formerly known as Google webmaster tools). This tool helps you identify the issues related to your URLs and offer solutions to index your links in Google.

It will also help you troubleshoot the common WordPress errors for your URLs and other URL indexing issues.

In the new Google search console, you need to select your property or website to check the URL index status.

Note: If you don’t have a website listed on Google webmasters tool, then first you need to add it as a new property to continue with the URL inspection tool.

After selecting the property, you need to go to the URL Inspection tool on the left menu and add your URL in search field that you want to inspect.

It will get the data about your URL and display it in the Google search console dashboard.

If your URL is on Google, then you’ll see a success message with the useful information about your link. You can expand the findings and see if there are any other issues to be solved. If not, then you’ll see the submission request from Google to recrawl and index your URL.

However, if the link isn’t on Google, then it’ll show you the errors and a possible solution to get your URL indexed on Google.

You can solve the issues and inspect the URL again until you get the success message. After that, a request is initiated to recrawl your URL. Simply repeat the same for all your URLs that you want Google to recrawl.

Step 2: Submitting XML Sitemap to Recrawl URL

If you’re still not sure about the indexing of your URLs on Google, then you can simply submit an updated XML sitemap with your new URLs to Google webmaster tools. Sitemaps are the quickest way to get your new URLs indexed on Google.

For this step, we recommend using Yoast SEO plugin which includes flexible options to properly set up your XML sitemaps in WordPress.

In your WordPress admin area, you need to go to SEO » General page. Under the Features section, you need to turn on the XML sitemaps setting.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button.

Next, you can view the updated sitemap by clicking on the question mark icon next to the XML sitemaps heading. If your new links are visible in this sitemap file, then you can go ahead and submit it to Google webmasters tool.

To submit the XML sitemaps, you need to visit the new Google Search Console and go to Sitemaps on the left menu. Simply add your XML sitemap link and click on the Submit button.

This updated sitemap will ask Google bots to quickly recrawl your new URLs and display them in the search results.

Note: you only have to upload the sitemap once. Google recrawls your sitemap regularly, and it will add updated posts quickly once your sitemaps are added.

We hope this article helped you learn how to ask Google to recrawl URLs of your WordPress site. You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how to improve WordPress SEO.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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