Troubleshooting WordPress Plugin Technical Issues

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There are a number of common configurations that are known to cause issues with the Unbounce/Wordpress plugin.

We try to provide workarounds when possible, but we cannot guarantee that the Unbounce plugin will work with every configuration, and we are unable to fully support the plugin in these situations.

This article will help you point out common WordPress Plugin known issues and diagnose their potential causes. 

Note:

Note: Do you have log-in access to your domain hosting provider? Then you can also connect your domain to Unbounce using the CNAME method, eliminating the use of WordPress and the Unbounce Plugin.

Known Issues 

WordPress 'Default' URL Structure

By default WordPress uses web URLs which have question marks and lots of numbers in them; however, this default structure will not work with the Unbounce Plugin.

You can update your WordPress Permalink Structure by visiting yourdomain.com/wp-admin/options-permalink and changing to anything other than the default WordPress setting.

WordPress caching plugins can cause conflicts

Some WordPress caching plugins can cause conflicts with the Unbounce Pages plugin. If you experience any issues with scripts, republishing, stats, or form submissions on your Published pages, please let us know and send us a list of the 'Active' plugins installed on your WordPress Admin so we can investigate further.

Unpublishing Pages

When several pages are published to WordPress (two or more) and each of them is then unpublished, the last page to be unpublished may throw a 404 error rather than displaying the default WordPress 404 page.

It should resolve itself shortly.

Instead of seeing a WordPress 404 page like this:
Instead_of_seeing_a_WordPress_404_page_like_this.png

You will see a 404 page like this:

You_will_see_a_404_page_like_this.png

Robots.txt

For tracking purposes the Unbounce page builder will reformat outgoing links on a page by inserting either a "clkg" (tracked as conversion goal) or "clkn" (not tracked as a goal) wrapper around the link. For example:

http://unbouncepages.com/blank-page/clkn/http/unbounce.com/

 

In order to prevent these formatted links from appearing in search results please add the following to your robots.txt file in Wordpress:

Disallow: */clkn/*
Disallow: */clkg/*

 

Robots.txt with the Yoast Plugin

If you are using the Yoast plugin for SEO you can add the above code under SEO -> tools from your Wordpress dashboard. 

Screenshot

yeost_robot_txt.png

Troubleshooting Wordpress Plugin Technical Issues

Common Issues Potential Causes

Form Not Submitting.

Page Stats Are Not Being Tracked.

Pages 404ing.

Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching.

 

Note: If you're experiencing a WordPress plugin technical issue not listed in the table above, please reach out to us.

Getting Plugin Diagnostics

When contacting our support team regarding issues with the Wordpress plugin it is often helpful to send along the plugin diagnostics to increase our visibility into any errors or issues. Here's how you can do this:

1. Click on the diagnostics link at the bottom of the page.

Screenshot

Click_the_Diagnostics_Link.png

2. When you click on the Diagnostics link, you will see a page like this:

Screenshot

See_Details.png

3. You will see a list of the following items that will either have a checkmark or an X beside them:

  • Curl Support 
  • Permalink Structure 
  • Domain is Authorized 
  • Can Fetch Page Listing
  • Supported PHP Version
  • Supported Wordpress Version

4. If any of the above checks have an 'X' next to them, please copy and paste everything from the "Details" window and include it when contacting our support team.

Caching Plugins

(Potential Cause for: Form Not Submitting | Page Stats Are Not Being Tracked | Pages 404ing)

In addition to server caching, caching plugins installed on your Wordpress site can have a similar impact. A page cached by a plugin may 404 or prevent a redirect from occurring. For example the page request gets caught by the caching plugin rather than getting sent to the Unbounce plugin.

Please exclude all Unbounce page URLs from being cached by any plugins. 

Cloudflare

(Potential Cause for: Form Not Submitting | Page Stats Are Not Being Tracked | Pages 404ing | Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

Cloudflare is a common plugin used for security and performance. Issues can arise for a number of reasons when using Cloudflare with the Unbounce Wordpress plugin. 

  • Caching: Disable and/or exclude Unbounce pages from Cloudflare caching
  • Rocket Loader: This is a tool used in Cloudflare to minify any javascript on the page to improve page speed (docs here). Commonly rocket loader will incorrectly minify the default Unbounce javascript, which can cause issues with page layout, form submission, and styling on a page. Please turn Rocket Loader to manual or exclude Unbounce pages using a Page Rule in Cloudflare.
  • Firewall/Proxy: Cloudflare can be used as a proxy or a firewall. Both of these configurations can cause issues with the Unbounce plugin. 

Firewall Configuration

(Potential Cause for: Form Not Submitting | Pages 404ing | Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

If there is a firewall in place that prevents requests being made between Unbounce and the server Wordpress is hosted on issues may arise such as pages 404ing, stats not being tracked, and updates not being pushed to a live page. In most cases pages will not load correctly. 

Please disable firewalls or exclude URLs for Unbounce pages. Note that Unbounce uses dynamic IP addresses to serve pages, so whitelisting a specific IP will not work consistently.  

Lack of cURL support

(Potential Cause for: Form Not Submitting | Page Stats Are Not Being Tracked | Pages 404ing | Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

cURL is needed in order for the Unbounce plugin to correctly retrieve a sitemap and to handle requests for Unbounce page content. cURL is determined on the server Wordpress is hosed on and which version of PHP is being used. More specifically the Unbounce plugin requires that the version of PHP being used supports a cURL library. Any updates to the PHP-cURL library may require the assistance of a hosting provider or server admin.

See this article to learn more about cURL and Wordpress. 

Multi-Domain WordPress Installations

(Potential Cause for: Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

The Unbounce plugin for Wordpress does not currently support multi site Wordpress installations. There is no viable workaround.

Proxy Configuration

(Potential Cause for: Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

Unbounce does not fully support use of the a proxy with the Unbounce/Wordpress plugin. If you are behind a proxy, then there is one configuration option you can try, however we do not offer any technical support beyond this. Unbounce Support is unable to assist with any issues arising from the use of the plugin in conjunction with a proxy server.

A possible solution in order for the plugin to work with a proxy is to modify the 'ub-allow-public-address-x-forwarded-for' option, found in your Wordpress options (www.domain.com/wp-admin/options.php). Change the value of this option from '0' to '1' and check to see if this update resolves the issue. Note that Unbounce cannot guarantee full functionality with this setup and page statistics may not be recorded.

Server Caching

(Potential Cause for: Form Not Submitting | Page Stats Are Not Being Tracked | Pages 404ing | Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

The Unbounce/Wordpress plugin allows content hosted on Unbounce to be served on the Wordpress site by routing requests for Unbounce page URLs to Unbounce’s servers. If a page is cached on the Wordpress server the content will no longer come directly from Unbounce but will be served from the cache. This can cause issues with many different aspects of Unbounce including pages 404ing, lead collection, and pushing updates to a live page.

Please exclude all Unbounce page URLs from being cached on the Wordpress server. 

Server Rewrite Rules

(Potential Cause for: Form Not Submitting | Pages 404ing)

Some server configurations will have rules that determine requests with certain file extensions are handled differently. For example URLs ending in .pdf, .html, .apsx may result in a 404 as the request will not be passed to the Unbounce plugin but instead handled by the server Wordpress is hosted on. This is especially common with Nginx server configurations.

Server SNI Support

(Potential Cause for: Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

SNI (Server Name Indication) is part of the TLS protocol and is required to ensure a secure https connection. Support for SNI on the server Wordpress is hosted on is required in order for the plugin to correctly serve secure pages. 

Wordpress Installed On a Path

(Potential Cause for: Plugin Not Authorizing/Page Listing Not Fetching)

Currently, the plugin will only work on Wordpress instances that are installed on a root domain. The Unbounce plugin does not support Wordpress instances that are installed on a path (ex: www.mydomain.com/blog).