Most beginners think a technical problem means something is wrong with them. The menu is gone, the page looks strange, and an error message appears in red. It is easy to assume everyone else knows something you missed.
Almost every beginner problem falls into one of three kinds: you can’t find something, you broke something, or you don’t understand something. Each kind has a calm first move, and knowing which kind you are facing tells you what to do next. That is the most useful part of learning how to fix common website problems as a beginner, because it works on problems you have never seen before.
Why a tech problem at the start feels bigger than it is
When everything is new, you cannot tell a small problem from a serious one. A missing button and a broken website look equally alarming, because you have no past experience to compare them with. Your body reacts to the size of the feeling, not the size of the problem.
Embarrassment adds to it. Asking feels risky, so you stay quiet and keep clicking, and the problem usually grows. Extra clicks made in a hurry tend to create a second problem on top of the first.
Sorting the problem into a kind gives you something to do in the first minute, and doing something calms you down. You stop asking “what is wrong with me?” and start asking “which kind is this?”
Kind one: you can’t find it
This is the most common kind, and the least serious. Something exists, but you do not know where it is. It might be a menu that was there yesterday, a login you have not used for a week, or a page you are sure you saved.
The calm first move: assume it still exists and look nearby before you look anywhere new.
- The missing menu. Look for a search box first. Many dashboards and settings pages have one, and typing the word you are after is faster than clicking through every section. Also check whether you are on the right screen. A menu that shows on one page may be hidden on another, and on a small window or a phone, menus are often folded behind an icon.
- The lost login. Use the “forgot password” link instead of guessing again and again, because repeated wrong guesses can lock an account. Then search your email, including the spam folder, for the welcome message sent when you signed up. It often contains the address you registered with, and you may have used a different email than you remember.
- The page you swear you saved. Check the drafts list, then the trash or bin. Then check that you are logged into the right account and looking at the right site, since beginners often have more than one. A page that was never published will not appear on the live site, even though it exists in your dashboard.
If you still cannot find it after a few minutes, you have a clear question to ask: “I’m looking for X and have checked A, B and C.” That is a far easier question to answer than “it’s gone.”
Kind two: you broke it
This one feels worse than it is. You changed something, and now a page looks wrong, the text has jumped, or an image has vanished. Your last move is almost certainly the cause, which makes it easier to deal with than a problem with no obvious source.
The calm first move: stop, and undo only your most recent change.
Stopping matters most. When a page looks wrong, the pull is to fix it by changing three more things. Each extra change makes it harder to tell what caused the original problem. Take your hands off the keyboard for a moment.
Then undo the last thing you did and nothing else. Most editors have an undo button, and the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Z on Windows or Cmd+Z on a Mac. Many website editors also keep earlier versions of a page, often called revisions or version history, so you can go back to how it looked before. If you can see such a list, choose the version from just before your change.
Before you decide anything is broken, check that the page is really showing its current state. Browsers sometimes display an old saved copy. Refresh the page, then open it in a private or incognito window, which loads it fresh. If it looks right there, nothing was ever wrong with the page itself.
If undoing the change fixes things, you have learned which action causes the trouble, and that is worth writing down. If it does not fix things, you still have a precise description: “I changed X, and then Y happened.”
Kind three: you don’t understand it
Here the thing is in front of you, and nothing is missing or broken. You just cannot read it. It might be an error message in unfamiliar words, a term like “permalink” or “plugin” that nobody explained, or a setting you never chose that is already switched on.
The calm first move: copy the exact words, and change nothing yet.
- Error messages. These are written for a program to report a fault, so they sound cold, but they are specific. The exact wording is the best thing you can search for. Paraphrasing it (“something about a connection”) throws away the details that lead to an answer. Copy the message or take a screenshot.
- Jargon. Look up one term at a time. You do not need to learn the whole subject, only enough to understand the sentence in front of you. A short search for the word plus “meaning” or “for beginners” is usually enough.
- Settings you didn’t choose. Many were set by default, and defaults are usually a sensible starting point. Leave them alone until you have a reason to change one. If you do change a setting, note its original value first so you can put it back.
Not understanding something at the start is the normal condition of a beginner. It says nothing about your ability.
The five-minute routine: stop, write down, copy, search, then ask
Whichever kind of problem you have, the same short routine works. Set a timer for five minutes if that helps.
- Stop. Take your hands off the mouse. Close nothing and change nothing until you have read the screen properly.
- Write down what you did. Jot a few lines on paper or in a notes app: what you were doing, what you clicked last, and what you expected to happen. Memory is poor when you are worried, and these lines are what you will need later.
- Copy the exact message. If there is an error, copy the text or take a screenshot. If there is no message, note exactly what looks wrong and where.
- Search it. Paste the message into a search engine, in quotation marks if it is long, and read the first few results. Include the name of the tool you are using. Often someone has met the same message before.
- Then ask. If five minutes have passed and you have no answer, you are ready to ask a person. By now you have a clear description, and that is most of what a helper needs.
The order is deliberate. Asking comes last because by then your question is much better than it would have been at the start.
How to describe a problem so a friendly person can answer it
People like helping, but they cannot see your screen. A good question gives them what they need without making them guess. It has two parts: a screenshot and one clear sentence.
The screenshot shows the problem as it looks to you. Crop it to the relevant area, and make sure any error text can be read. Leave out anything private, such as passwords or personal details.
The sentence says what you were doing, what you expected and what happened instead. For example: “I changed the heading on my About page, expected it to stay the same size, and now it is much smaller than the other pages.” Then add one line on what you have tried: “I undid the change and refreshed, and it still looks small.”
That is enough. A helper reading it knows the page, the action, the surprise and the first fix you attempted, so they can answer in one reply instead of asking five questions back. Skip apologies and long backstories. A short, specific question is easier to answer and is welcomed.
Keep a small “solved it” note
Every problem you solve is one you can solve faster next time, provided you can remember how. Memory fades quickly, especially when the fix took only a minute.
Keep a simple note in whatever app you already use. For each problem, add three lines:
- What it looked like, including the exact error text if there was one.
- Which kind it was: can’t find it, broke it or don’t understand it.
- What fixed it, and where in the dashboard you did it.
After a few weeks, you will have a short list of your own answers, written in your own words. When a familiar problem appears, you search your note before you search the internet. Problems you have already solved stop feeling new, and that is the practical meaning of getting comfortable with the technical side of a website.
The note also shows your progress. Reading back over a list of problems you have already handled is a reasonable answer to the worry that you are the only one who struggles.
Bring your next stuck moment along
When something goes wrong next, name the kind, take the first move, and run the five minutes. If it still will not budge, bring it to the Wealthy Affiliate community, written with a screenshot and one clear sentence. Plenty of members remember what it was like to be new and are glad to help someone who has made the question easy to answer.
For the next read, see how to write a question that gets answered, which covers asking for help in more detail.