Check Website for Errors: Quick Guide to a Flawless Divi Site

When you need to check your website for errors, the best place to start is with a quick triage using tools you already have. I've found that a combination of your browser's developer console and an online speed scanner like GTmetrix can uncover the most critical issues in under 15 minutes. This initial scan points you right to the source of the problem, helping you tell the difference between a minor hiccup and a site-breaking emergency.

Your 15-Minute Divi Website Health Scan

When your Divi site feels sluggish or a feature suddenly breaks, the first instinct is often to start digging through plugin settings or server logs. Hold on. There's a much more efficient way to begin.

Instead of a deep dive, start with a rapid health scan. This isn't about fixing everything at once; it's about a quick diagnosis to figure out how bad the problem is and where it's coming from. Think of it as website triage.

First, Check the Browser Console

Your most direct and immediate tool is your browser's own developer console. Don't let the name intimidate you.

Simply right-click anywhere on your site and select "Inspect." This opens a panel that reveals hidden JavaScript errors, which are often the culprits behind broken interactive elements—like a contact form that won't submit or a popup that refuses to appear. Look for any errors highlighted in red. These little clues can save you hours of guesswork.

Next, Run an Online Scanner

After a quick console check, your next move is to run your site through an online performance scanner. Tools like GTmetrix or Google's PageSpeed Insights give you a high-level report card on your site's health. You don't need to understand every single metric right away.

Just focus on the most obvious red flags:

• Large Page Size: Are massive, unoptimized images slowing everything down? This is a really common one.
• Slow Server Response Time (TTFB): A high TTFB could point to an issue with your hosting or a plugin that's hogging resources.
• Render-Blocking Resources: These are scripts or stylesheets that are forcing your page to wait before it can load, frustrating visitors.

This two-pronged approach—checking the browser console for functional errors and using scanners for performance bottlenecks—is an incredibly effective first step.

By dedicating just 15 minutes to this process, you can build a clear picture of your website’s immediate health. This proactive scan helps you catch small problems before they escalate into major outages that affect your users and your business.

To make this even easier, here's a quick checklist to help you triage what you find.

Initial Error Triage Checklist

This table is your quick-glance guide to rapidly identifying the most common website errors using these basic tools.

Symptom	Potential Cause	First-Step Tool
Sliders, forms, or popups not working	JavaScript conflict or error	Browser Developer Console
Website is very slow to load	Large images, slow hosting, render-blocking scripts	GTmetrix or PageSpeed Insights
A specific page loads slower than others	A heavy plugin or unoptimized media on that page	GTmetrix (analyze a specific URL)
Elements look broken or misaligned	CSS loading issue or caching problem	Browser Developer Console (Network tab)
"Mixed content" security warnings	Insecure (HTTP) assets on a secure (HTTPS) page	Browser Developer Console

This checklist gives you a solid starting point for almost any issue you'll run into, pointing you in the right direction without getting lost in the weeds.

Beyond specific website errors, a broader Marketing Health Check can provide a more comprehensive overview of your entire online presence, including how your site's performance fits into the bigger picture.

The simple flow below visualizes this exact three-step process for a quick and effective website health scan.

The process is straightforward: identify immediate script issues in the console, get the bigger performance picture from scanners, and then move on to a triage step where you can prioritize what needs fixing first.

Finding Hidden Errors in Browser and Server Logs

Some of the most frustrating website errors are the ones you can't even see on the page. These invisible culprits hide out in your browser and server logs, quietly breaking things behind the scenes. The good news? You don't need to be a developer to track them down.

Learning to check your browser console and server logs is a game-changer when you're trying to figure out what’s gone wrong with your site.

This is where the real diagnostic work starts. We're moving past surface-level scans to get under the hood and see what’s actually happening. It’s a lot less intimidating than it sounds, and these logs often hold the exact clue you need to fix a stubborn problem.

Peeking into the Browser Console

Think of the browser console as your window into how your website’s scripts are behaving for every single visitor. When a button stops working or an animation stutters, the console should be your first port of call.

Getting to it is easy. In Chrome or Firefox, just right-click anywhere on your page and select "Inspect" or "Inspect Element." A new panel will pop up—just click on the "Console" tab. You'll probably see a mix of messages, but you can ignore most of them.

We've got a detailed guide specifically for Divi users, which you can find here: how to check the console for errors on your Divi website.

Your mission is to find the messages highlighted in red. These are the errors that matter. A couple of common ones you'll run into are:

• 404 Not Found: This just means the browser tried to load something—an image, a font file, a stylesheet—but couldn't find it. It's often caused by a simple typo in the file path or a file that got deleted.
• Uncaught ReferenceError or Uncaught TypeError: These are JavaScript errors. An Uncaught ReferenceError is a classic sign of a plugin conflict, where a script tries to use a function that hasn't been defined yet.

Let's say a contact form built with a Divi module suddenly won't submit. You open the console and see a TypeError: $(...).validate is not a function. That error is your golden ticket. It's telling you that the jQuery validation script the form depends on isn't loading, pointing you straight at a plugin or theme conflict that's messing with it.

Digging into Server-Side Logs

While the browser console shows you what’s happening on the visitor's end (client-side), server logs show you what's going on with your website's backend. This is where you'll uncover the root cause of more serious issues, like the dreaded "White Screen of Death."

To see these errors, you need to enable WordPress's debug mode by editing your wp-config.php file. This is a core WordPress file, so please, always back up your site before you touch it.

You'll need to find and either add or change these lines in your wp-config.php file:

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
define( 'WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', false );

This setup tells WordPress to start logging all errors to a file called debug.log inside your /wp-content/ folder, but crucially, it keeps them from being displayed publicly on your website.

By enabling WP_DEBUG_LOG but disabling WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY, you create a safe environment for troubleshooting. This ensures you can capture detailed error messages without alarming your visitors with cryptic code on the front end of your website.

With that enabled, go back to your site and trigger the error again. Then, open the debug.log file using your host's file manager or an FTP client. Inside, you might find something like this: PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted.

This is an extremely common memory limit issue, especially if you're running heavy-duty plugins like WooCommerce. The log tells you exactly what happened: a script tried to use more memory than your server has allocated for it. The fix is usually as simple as increasing your PHP memory limit—a solution you'd likely never guess without looking at the logs. It turns a vague, show-stopping problem into a clear, actionable task.

Running Performance and SEO Audits on Your Divi Site

Let's be real: a slow or invisible website is basically a broken one. When you're checking your website for errors, you have to look beyond just the obvious functional bugs. It's time to dig into its performance and how well it shows up in search engines. This is where we shift from simple troubleshooting to genuine strategic optimization.

Running a performance and SEO audit isn't just about chasing a perfect 100 score. It's about making sure your Divi site gives users a smooth, frustration-free experience and that Google can actually find it.

Diving into Performance with Google Lighthouse

Believe it or not, your browser has one of the best performance auditing tools already built-in: Google Lighthouse. You can get to it right from the Chrome DevTools panel (just right-click and "Inspect") and head over to the "Lighthouse" tab.

When you run a report, Lighthouse provides an incredibly detailed health check across several key areas. For performance, we're laser-focused on the Core Web Vitals.

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This measures how long it takes for the biggest visual element on the page—usually a hero image or a large block of text—to appear. If your LCP is slow, chances are you've got a massive, unoptimized image right at the top.
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): This one tracks how quickly your page responds to user actions like clicks and taps. A high INP often points to heavy JavaScript that’s tying things up.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric looks at visual stability. It flags those annoying elements that jump around while the page is loading. Pop-up ads or custom fonts loading without their dimensions specified are the usual suspects here.

Divi's incredible flexibility can sometimes create performance hurdles, and Lighthouse is a champ at sniffing them out. For instance, it might flag an "excessive DOM size," a classic issue with complex Divi layouts full of nested rows and modules. Another common recommendation is to "eliminate render-blocking resources," which is a fancy way of saying you need to delay loading any CSS or JavaScript that isn't absolutely essential for the initial page view. Mastering how to speed up your Divi website is a game-changer for any Divi user.

Uncovering SEO Flaws with a Site Audit

Once your site is zipping along, you need to make sure search engines can find and understand your content. This is where an SEO audit tool becomes your best friend. Tools like Screaming Frog or the site audit feature in Semrush crawl your website just like Googlebot does, compiling a list of technical SEO issues.

These audits systematically check every single page for problems that could be tanking your rankings. The final reports can look pretty intimidating at first, but the key is to focus on fixing the handful of issues that will deliver the biggest impact.

A thorough site audit reveals the "invisible" errors that hold back your search performance. Fixing broken links, missing meta descriptions, and redirect chains is like clearing roadblocks for search engine crawlers, allowing them to index your content more effectively.

Prioritizing Your SEO Fixes

After the crawl finishes, you'll be staring at a long list of potential problems. Don't panic. Start with the low-hanging fruit—the fixes that will give you the most bang for your buck.

Here’s a practical priority list to get you started:

1. Fix Broken Links (404s): These are dead ends for both your visitors and search engine crawlers. They’re frustrating and need to be fixed ASAP.
2. Resolve Redirect Chains: When one URL redirects to another, which then redirects to a third, it eats up your "crawl budget" and can weaken the power of your backlinks.
3. Add Missing Meta Descriptions: While not a direct ranking signal, a well-written meta description is your ad in the search results. A good one dramatically improves click-through rates.
4. Find and Address Duplicate Content: Having identical or nearly identical content on different URLs confuses search engines and can split your ranking power between pages.

To get a truly comprehensive, top-to-bottom health check for your website, it's worth considering professional SEO audit services. A seasoned expert can often spot subtle issues that automated tools miss, giving you a clear, actionable roadmap for improvement.

Tackling Critical Accessibility and Mobile Usability Flaws

Let's get real for a moment. A website that's a nightmare to use on a phone, or one that's impossible for people with disabilities to navigate, isn't just "inconvenient"—it's broken. These aren't minor tweaks you can put off; they are fundamental flaws that tank your user experience and, as a result, torpedo your SEO rankings.

When you're hunting for errors on your site, accessibility and mobile usability are non-negotiable. Ignoring them is like locking the front door on a huge chunk of your audience and signaling to Google that your site just isn't worth recommending.

Making Your Website Accessible to Everyone

Web accessibility isn't about ticking off a compliance box. It’s about basic human decency, ensuring everyone can access your content, including people who rely on screen readers or other assistive tech. One of the best places to kick off your audit is with the WAVE browser extension.

It's a free tool that's incredibly insightful. It overlays your site with icons that visually pinpoint accessibility problems. It’s a fantastic way to spot common issues that are easy for us to overlook but create massive barriers for others.

From my experience, these are the usual suspects you'll find:

• Missing Alt Text: When an image lacks descriptive alt text, it's completely invisible to a screen reader. All your carefully chosen visuals become meaningless.
• Low-Contrast Text: If your text color blends too closely with the background, it’s a struggle for anyone with low vision to read. It's a simple fix with a huge impact.
• Empty Links: This one's a classic. It’s a link with no text, leaving screen reader users with zero context about where it goes. It's confusing and frustrating.

These aren't just small slip-ups; they can make your site completely unusable for some visitors. The good news is that fixing them in Divi is often straightforward, like tweaking colors in the theme customizer or just being diligent about adding alt text to every single image you upload.

Accessibility isn't some extra feature you bolt on at the end. It's a fundamental part of a well-built website. Every error you fix makes the experience better for a real person and tells search engines your site is high-quality and inclusive.

The scale of this problem is absolutely massive. A WebAIM analysis of one million home pages uncovered a jaw-dropping 56,791,260 distinct accessibility errors. That averages out to nearly 57 errors per page. These errors can crush your SEO, as search engines increasingly prioritize accessible, user-friendly pages. Proactively scanning your Divi site for these issues isn't just good practice—it's your ticket to better conversions and a more loyal audience. You can find more of these critical website statistics over on DiviFlash.com.

Ensuring a Flawless Mobile Experience

More than half of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices. That's not a trend; it's the reality. If your site is clunky on a phone, it's a critical failure. It might look amazing on your big desktop monitor, but that's not how most people are seeing it.

Your first stop should be Google's Mobile-Friendly Test. Just pop in your URL, and it will give you a clear pass or fail, along with a list of specific problems. It's the quickest way to see your site exactly how Google sees it.

After that, it's time to get hands-on. Use your browser's built-in device simulator to see what your users see. In Chrome, just right-click anywhere, hit "Inspect," and then click the little phone/tablet icon to "Toggle device toolbar." This lets you test how your site renders on different devices.

While you're poking around, keep an eye out for these classic mobile fails:

1. Content Wider Than the Screen: This is a cardinal sin of mobile design. Forcing users to scroll side-to-side is an instant deal-breaker. It's usually caused by fixed-width elements or images that aren't properly responsive.
2. Text That's Too Small to Read: If your visitors have to pinch-to-zoom just to read your paragraphs, you've failed them. Your font sizes need to be mobile-appropriate.
3. Tap Targets Are Too Close: Buttons, links, and menu items need breathing room. If they're crammed together, users will constantly hit the wrong thing by accident—a surefire way to make them leave.

Fixing these problems usually comes down to diving into the Divi Builder's responsive design controls. You have the power to set different font sizes, margins, and padding specifically for tablet and mobile views. Use it! A little time spent here ensures a seamless experience for every visitor, no matter what device they're using.

Troubleshooting Common Divi And WooCommerce Conflicts

Combining Divi’s flexible design engine with WooCommerce’s robust e-commerce features can yield incredible results. Yet every so often, that dream team hits a snag. When a layout stops loading or the checkout freezes, it’s time for a systematic look under the hood.

I usually start by deactivating every plugin except WooCommerce and switching to a default theme. If the issue disappears, I know I’m chasing either a theme or plugin clash. From there, it’s a matter of reactivating each component one at a time and retesting until the culprit reveals itself.

That approach is the gold standard for general WordPress troubleshooting. But when Divi is in play, peculiar quirks tend to pop up—quirks that need a more targeted remedy.

Fixing Common Divi Builder Issues

When the Visual Builder stalls on a spinning loader or refuses to save your CSS tweaks, it’s almost always a server-side squeeze. Before you tear your hair out, double-check these critical settings:

• PHP Memory Limit: Divi’s baseline is 128M, but for a WooCommerce-powered shop I bump it to 256M or even 512M.
• PHP Max Execution Time: If the Builder times out, try 120–180 seconds so scripts have breathing room.
• PHP Post Max Size: Complex layouts can hit this cap. I aim for at least 64M to ensure everything gets saved.

Caching plugins can also be sneaky troublemakers, serving up stale CSS or blocking essential Builder scripts. A quick disable of your caching plugin will tell you if it’s behind the curtain. For a deeper dive, check out our broader errors on websites guide.

When the Divi Builder acts up, think “resources and caching” first. Nine times out of ten, it’s a server configuration tweak, not a Divi bug.

Navigating WooCommerce Checkout And Product Errors

A broken checkout is a store owner’s worst nightmare. If your “Pay Now” button sits there unresponsive or the page hangs forever, you’re likely facing a JavaScript conflict. I open the browser console and look for red-flag errors pointing to a specific plugin or payment gateway script.

Product variations can misbehave, too—sizes and colors that simply won’t switch. Often a theme template override is clashing with WooCommerce’s defaults. Swap to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-Four, and if the variation dropdown springs to life, you’ve pinpointed the problem.

Common Divi vs. WooCommerce Errors

Here’s a quick comparison to help you distinguish where each issue tends to crop up and what usually causes it.

Error Symptom	Common in Divi	Common in WooCommerce	Likely Cause
Visual Builder Won’t Load	Yes	No	Low server memory, caching conflict
CSS Changes Not Saving	Yes	No	Caching, file permissions
Checkout Page Is Unresponsive	Possible	Yes	JavaScript conflict, payment gateway
Product Variations Won’t Display	Possible	Yes	Theme template override, caching

Use this table as a quick map when you’re isolating issues across both platforms.

By working through these targeted checks and understanding the usual failure points, you’ll get your website humming again—and keep sales flowing without skipping a beat.

Proactive Maintenance to Prevent Future Errors

Let's be honest—the best way to check a website for errors is to stop them from happening in the first place. Shifting from a reactive, fire-fighting mode to a proactive maintenance plan saves you from those late-night, high-stress debugging sessions and protects your site's reputation. A simple, consistent routine is your strongest defense against things going sideways.

Your absolute, non-negotiable first step is setting up regular, automated backups. A corrupted database or a botched update can wreck your site in a blink. Think of your backup as the ultimate undo button, letting you restore a clean, working version of your site in minutes.

Create a Safe Updating Process

Whatever you do, never update plugins, themes, or the WordPress core directly on your live site. That’s just asking for trouble. The professional workflow always involves a staging site—which is just an exact clone of your live website tucked away in a private environment.

On your staging site, you can run all your updates and then thoroughly test everything to spot any new conflicts or visual glitches. Only after you've confirmed it all works perfectly do you push those changes to the live site. This one process isolates all the potential risk away from your actual visitors.

Using a staging site as the core of your update routine changes the game. You're no longer just hoping an update works; you're knowing it will. It turns a risky click into a controlled, predictable process.

Build a Simple Maintenance Schedule

When it comes to site maintenance, consistency beats intensity every time. A sustainable schedule keeps your site secure and performing well without becoming a massive chore. Your weekly or bi-weekly checklist should be short and sweet.

Here are the essentials for a solid routine:

• Perform Updates: Always apply pending updates on your staging site first. No exceptions.
• Run a Backup: Make sure a fresh backup is safely stored before you push any changes live.
• Scan for Broken Links: Use a free tool to quickly find and fix any 404 errors that have popped up.
• Clear Caching: Purge all server and plugin caches so your changes are immediately visible to everyone.

This small weekly investment pays off big time. It helps you catch problems early and ensures your Divi site remains a reliable, error-free asset for your business.

Got Questions About Website Error Checking?

Jumping into website maintenance can definitely stir up a lot of questions. To clear things up, I’ve put together some of the most common ones I hear about checking a website for errors and how to build a maintenance routine that actually sticks.

Think of this as your quick-and-dirty guide to making error checking a manageable, consistent part of your workflow—not something you dread.

How Often Should I Check My Website For Errors?

The honest answer? It really depends on your site's complexity and how much traffic it gets. The more dynamic your site is, the more often you need to be checking in on it.

For a busy e-commerce store built with Divi and WooCommerce, a weekly check-up is a solid baseline. This isn't a deep dive; it's a quick scan for broken links, a performance test with a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights, and a quick glance at your WordPress Site Health screen.

On the other hand, if you're running a smaller brochure website or a personal blog that doesn't get updated as often, a thorough audit once a month is usually plenty.

The most important rule of thumb? Always, always perform a full error check immediately after any major updates—to WordPress core, the Divi theme, or critical plugins like WooCommerce.

What Are The Most Critical Errors I Should Prioritize?

Not all errors are created equal. When you're staring down a list of issues, you have to know what to tackle first based on user impact. Some errors will take your entire site offline, while others are just minor annoyances.

Here’s how I typically rank them in a real-world scenario:

1. Site-Down Emergencies: A "500 Internal Server Error" or the dreaded "White Screen of Death" is an all-hands-on-deck situation. These make your website completely inaccessible, so you need to drop everything and fix them.
2. Functionality-Breaking Bugs: Next up are JavaScript errors that break core features. If a customer can't click an "Add to Cart" button, submit a contact form, or use your main menu, that's a critical business problem that needs immediate attention.
3. Navigation and SEO Blockers: After that, hunt down and fix 404 "Not Found" errors for important pages. Hitting a dead end frustrates users and tells search engines your site provides a poor experience, which hurts your rankings.
4. Experience Degraders: Finally, you can address performance bottlenecks and accessibility flaws. While not as catastrophic in the short term, these issues slowly erode user trust and can drag down your search rankings over time.

Are Free Error-Checking Tools Good Enough?

For the vast majority of website owners, the answer is a resounding yes. You absolutely do not need an expensive suite of premium tools to do a thorough job. A smart combination of powerful, free resources can cover pretty much all your bases.

Just think about the toolkit you can assemble for free:

• Google PageSpeed Insights: The go-to for in-depth performance analysis and Core Web Vitals.
• GTmetrix (Free Tier): Amazing for its waterfall charts, which show you exactly what’s slowing your site down.
• Google Search Console: Essential for spotting crawl errors, 404s, and mobile usability issues directly from Google's perspective.
• WAVE Accessibility Checker: A simple browser extension for finding and fixing accessibility flaws.
• Browser Developer Tools: The built-in console in Chrome or Firefox is your best friend for catching sneaky JavaScript errors in real-time.

The effectiveness of your maintenance routine isn't about how much you spend on tools. It’s about the consistency of your process. Regularly using free tools will always be more valuable than having a premium subscription you never touch.

Ultimately, the best tool is the one you actually understand and use consistently. By weaving these free resources into a regular schedule, you can keep your Divi website healthy, fast, and error-free without spending a dime.

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