GoDaddy Hosting For Wordpress Sucks
I manage a lot of blogs for companies. Some of them come to me and their website is on godaddy hosting. I have to tell them that godaddy hosting is the worst place for their blog. Why?
One of the most important things to do for a blog that will help you with seo is to use a custom permalink structure. In order to do so, you write something like /%category%/%postname%/%monthnum%/%day%/%year%/
That means the exact url to a blog post will read like http://www.thingsthatjustpissmeoff.com/ categorynamewhichcontainskeywords/ blogposttitlewhichalsocontainskeywords/
It add a mod rewrite to the htaccess file on your server to make this happen.
However at godaddy hosting, this never works. I called their tech support to get their assistance. They tell me mod rewrite works fine but maybe it won’t work on their version of apache. After an hour back and forth on this, the final verdict was “There is a lot of documentation at apache.com about our version of apache and you could try to figure out how it all works there.”
Lets see. I can show initiative and go to apache.com and learn all about godaddy hosting’s version of apache or I can just tell all my clients to go to another hosting company. No skin off my back if it won’t work on godaddy hosting’s version of apache.
I just can’t believe that since millions of people use wordpress that godaddy would not be a little more helpful in trying to resolve this issue. They are the ones that will lose clients because of it. My clients will host somewhere else is I ask them to so it doesn’t hurt me either way. I’m just pissed off because I tried for over an hour to work with them rather than just tell my clients that godaddy hosting sucks and they were not willing to help find a fix for me.
So from now on I will just recommend that people who want to use a wordpress blog and rank well in the search engines that godaddy hosting is not the best place to be.
Stumble it!
We definitely want to help you get this working. In general, the permalinks option from the Settings menu within the WordPress admin area works without error.
Without having access to the accounts, we can’t give you a specific reason as to why this issue has occurred. I can tell you that it does take some time to initialize upon setup because recognition of the newly created .htaccess file is not immediate.
I’d be more then happy to work with you in order to resolve this problem. Please don’t hesitate to contact me so that I may assist you further. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Alicia R.
Go Daddy Hosting
Comment by Alicia R. — June 10, 2008 @ 3:19 am
[...] Creating an htaccess file is fairly simple. You can do it in Notepad. Then you FTP it onto your server in the root of your WordPress blog folder. If you do that with any host other than GoDaddy, it works like a charm. But you can’t do it with GoDaddy. They have a version of Apache that makes this an impossible task and causes bloggers using WordPress to be stuck with a less than adequate permalink structure. Chris McElroy explains it at Things That Just Piss Me Off. [...]
Pingback by » Online Media News: Is GoDaddy A Good Hosting Company? NewsAndMediaBlog.com — June 11, 2008 @ 2:43 am
Why?
Why would an htaccess file that has been uploaded to the server not immediately be recognized?
Does this mean that all files uploaded to the account are not immediately recognized as well? Or only htaccess?
Using commands in htaccess are a vital part of SEO and many other aspects of website user access and visitor control.
Does this mean that if I decide to password protect some directories via htaccess that I can’t get immediate control of directories if I happen to be hosted with Godaddy?
Humbly awaiting your answers Alicia.
SEO Website Design
Comment by Web Design Programming — June 11, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
Alicia, I appreciate your response. But I manage more than 70 blogs and every time my client has godaddy hosting, the htaccess with the mod rewrite never works, even after time.
I talked to one of your techs for a long time. I told him I prefer not to move clients to new hosting and would like him to help me resolve it. He told me to read up on godaddy’s version of apache at apache.com.
Not my job to do that. Easier for me to advise clients to use different hosting. He should have been a little more motivated to help me resolve the issue since it affects godaddy’s business, not mine.
I repeatedly told him that I wished to solve the problem rather than move clients to new hosting. he repeatedly told me that there was nothing he could do to help me fix the problem. Basically he told me that if it doesn’t work, it’s my problem not his.
I have already moved that client to a new hosting account and another client since then has also been moved. If I can have your phone number and extension, I will be happy to contact you the next time I have a client who wants a blog and is hosted at godaddy.
My email is info@blogcontentprovider.com if you want to send that to me.
Comment by namecritic — June 11, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
Currently our servers use a caching technique for .htaccess files only. This is to avoid, as much as possible, the penalty of traversing your directory structure with each request. This cache is invalidated periodically so that new files are found.
This, however, only affects the discovery of new .htaccess files. Once an .htaccess file is in place there’s no delay in making any changes to it. Also, the caching doesn’t affect the removal of .htaccess files because those are recognized immediately as well.
Regarding password protection, we’ve made special accommodations for our File Manager’s Password Protection feature so that new .htaccess files are recognized immediately.
I hope this answers your questions.
Namecritic- Thanks for the follow up comment. I’ll get in touch with you via the email you provided.
Regards,
Alicia R.
Go Daddy Hosting
Comment by Alicia R. — June 11, 2008 @ 11:07 pm
Thanks Alicia. I do compliment you on the fact that you guys responded. I am really interested in resolving the problem and look forward to your email.
Comment by namecritic — June 12, 2008 @ 5:28 pm
Did you get this issue resolved? My wife has a Godaddy hosting account and now wants a blog. If permalinks cannot work we will need to move the account to another provider. I’m curious to know what the solution was, if any.
Comment by Allan — June 29, 2008 @ 1:20 am
I haven’t had the chance to have Alicia help me on a blog hosted at godaddy yet. So far I have not been able to change the pertmalink structure in any blog hosted at godaddy. Anyone who knows how to resolve the issue is certainly invited to comment.
Comment by namecritic — June 30, 2008 @ 8:06 pm
I’ve never had any issues with WP permalinks on GoDaddy. In the admin panel under Settings–>Permalinks just specify what you want your structure to be. As stated above you will have to wait about an hour or so for your permalinks to become active on GoDaddy’s servers. FWIW, I’ve never had to do any .htaccess rules to have it work properly.
I found out that just being patient and waiting for the servers to update was all I needed to do.
My biggest issue with WP on GoDaddy shared hosting is sluggish performance…
Comment by Stevie — July 14, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
Easy to be patient and wait if you have one blog to do. We manage a lot of blogs and we have to get work done very fast. And even when time has gone by, it still has not worked properly at godaddy. So your mileage may vary applies here. Even the godaddy tech I spoke to could not get it to work way more than an hour after it was done.
Comment by namecritic — July 15, 2008 @ 10:50 am
Dotster is no peach either, but after reading this, I’m definitely not going to jump at godaddy.com just because of Danica Patrick!
Comment by Alejandro — July 28, 2008 @ 3:19 am
I know this may be a bit late to post a comment, but since this is showing up under search results I would love to contribute a bit of information towards this issue.
I have dozens of WP blogs hosted with GoDaddy and the permalink structure works well ONLY if I edit the 404 behavior within the hosting control panel to “Make my 404 Page my Home Page.” This works on any of their hosting accounts including Economy. Where I run into an issue is using their Deluxe Hosting for multiple websites. The way they structure these multiple domains is to point them to a subfolder within the root. So, if the 404 behavior is to point to the root folder, then any other blogs hosted under the account cannot have the permalink structure desired. Ssearching for a solution ran me into this blog, and if I come up with a solution, I will post my findings.
Hope this helps.
Comment by Rene — August 30, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
Thank you Rene. I really appreciate the info. I can see where I would run into problems when clients have the multiple hosting as well.
I would really appreciate you posting any solutions or workarounds you find. The 404 is something I would have never thought of.
Comment by Chris McElroy aka NameCritic — September 3, 2008 @ 9:08 pm
Wow, I told my client not to go with GoDaddy and use 1and1. But she did anyway, I am having those problems as well, at least I know how to fix it, hopefully she won’t care…
Comment by TheFrosty — September 4, 2008 @ 10:56 pm
Glad to see I wasn’t crazy after all. It seems others have had the same issues.
Comment by Chris McElroy aka NameCritic — September 5, 2008 @ 7:27 pm
The fact that others had the same problem does not negate the fact that you’re crazy.
Yes Chris, you are crazy after all…
Comment by Local Search Marketing — September 5, 2008 @ 9:08 pm
Ok. You are right. I stand corrected.
Comment by Chris McElroy aka NameCritic — September 6, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
I manage three blogs on godaddy with wordpress and I changed my permalinks to /%postname%/. Two of the blogs took a few minutes for it to change while the third one took an hour before the links worked again. I did nothing to the hatch files as stated in other blogs that I read. Just give it some time to see what happens.
Comment by parkcityxj — September 8, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
Which was covered previously in regard to the htaccess caching, parkcityxj.
The problem is just like Chris said, it’s cool if you have one blog and lots of time. It’s not so cool if you manage hundreds of client blogs and are setting them up in batches.
Bottom line is this….
Godaddy Hosting still sucks.
Comment by Local Search Marketing — September 8, 2008 @ 6:18 pm
good article
Comment by Victor — November 6, 2008 @ 5:20 am
same problem here..changed the permalink structure, uploaded the.htaccess file and got the 404 error..damn..
Anyone know any other good/cheap/reliable hosting other than GD ?
Comment by Seo Dave — December 17, 2008 @ 6:38 pm
I just spent the past 40 minutes on the phone with GoDaddy and was given the same runaround, followed by a “we can’t help you with third party software issues” line, after I repeatedly explained that the problem was with their Apache software. I just got one snippy little remark after another from Weylin, who was far less than helpful - to the point of being rude. I asked to speak with a supervisor and that yielded a ridiculous amount of time on hold. I never did get to speak to one. And, apparently they have no idea who Alicia is, either.
Apparently the techs at GoDaddy are unable and/or unwilling to provide any real support to their customers to resolve this issue. And, to think I have been a customer since 2001 and have sent them many other customers. Thankfully, my hosting account is up for renewal in February. I think it’s time to look for another hosting provider for the several accounts that I am presently hosting on a Deluxe shared plan with GoDaddy.
Comment by Andrea — December 20, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Hmm…. I just installed a Wordpress blog (for the very first time) onto a GoDaddy Deluxe hosting account - and this works fine for me…
(and a crucial item in my requirements)
Comment by Rob — December 30, 2008 @ 10:20 pm
test… can’t get this to let me post.
Comment by Andrea A — December 30, 2008 @ 10:59 pm
It wasn’t the installation that was the problem. It was enabling permalinks that was the issue.
I did a bit of testing and figured out the problem, which is relatively simple to fix. It is an issue with the way GoDaddy’s Apache software is set up to run. Of course, rather than knowing and being able to tell you this, the GoDaddy techs just shake it off as a ‘third party software issue’ and tell you to go figure it out for yourself. Here’s the solution for anyone else that runs into this problem.
The cause:
You can only run .htaccess in a root folder under GoDaddy’s shared hosting configuration. It will not work in a subfolder - which is the default installation option for Wordpress - and where many people install their blog if they are not running an entire Wordpress site (i.e., Wordpress is only a part of their website). The directory where Wordpress is installed is where the .htaccess file is created for Wordpress to use permalinks. But, with GoDaddy’s shared hosting configuration, this will not work.
The fix:
You must install the Wordpress in a root-level folder to use the .htaccess file to enable permalinks. If your site is not a just Wordpress site, i.e., it’s just one part of your site, you must install Wordpress as a subdomain so that it is in a root-level folder. You cannot install it into a site subfolder. It won’t work. Installing Wordpress as a subdomain will allow Wordpress to use its own .htaccess file located in the same folder as the installation.
I hope others find this helpful.
Andrea A
Comment by Andrea A — December 30, 2008 @ 11:00 pm
In other words…
http://www. yoursite .com/wordpress - the .htaccess file will not work
wordpress. yoursite. com - your installation will be in a root-level folder, so the .htaccess file will work fine.
Comment by Andrea A — December 30, 2008 @ 11:02 pm
Ah I see (and I understand what we’re talking about, not the install but permalinks and htaccess which as I mentioned worked just fine for me immediately).
But that’s the difference - I installed Wordpress in the root (entire site) so I did not have this issue.
I was only pointing out that I have not had too many bad experiences with GoDaddy - in fact I have found them to be mostly very helpful with support - and I’m not a basic user.
I have heard the horror stories but I have had MANY MANY horrible situations with other hosting companies and so far (knock, knock) GoDaddy has been good to me… so far.
Comment by Rob — December 31, 2008 @ 2:48 am
I wasted too many hours trying to get Wordpress permalinks to work on GoDaddy. I had Wordpress installed in the root and yet the permalinks still did not work. After trying several suggestions and fixes I finally decided to switch hosting providers. I am so happy I made that decision cause I had my Wordpress blogs up and running in less than a few hours.
Comment by Kelly Stevens — January 15, 2009 @ 10:36 pm
It’s hard to be patient, but took 40 min for my permalinks to work. Thanks for this article, and especially for godaddy explaining why it takes a bit of time, it was driving me crazy on my other blogs!
Comment by val — February 24, 2009 @ 11:06 pm
Yep, it works if you wait a bit. No need to install your blog in a root directory.
It would be nice if it were possible to find this information on GoDaddy’s support pages and if the GoDaddy tech support people had quick access to it.
Comment by Jon — March 8, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
“Yep, it works if you wait a bit. No need to install your blog in a root directory.”
Not if you on a shared hosting plan! Their shared hosting does not accept the .htaccess mod rewrite if it’s in a sub folder. After four days of waiting, and then doing a lot of testing, I found this out first hand. When I finally canceled my plan with GoDaddy a few weeks ago, I spoke to a tech who finally acknowledged that I was correct. It is because of their Apache configuration that it does not work outside of a root level folder.
Comment by Andrea — March 9, 2009 @ 12:43 am
I really appreciate everyone’s efforts to resolve the issue. I don’t dislike godaddy, but when I have a problem like that I just move on to another service and ask my clients to move as well. I’ve always found if I have a problem in the beginning it is a sign of future problems as well.
I decided to find other solutions for my clients;
1. Powweb.com is one I recommend if someone doesn’t have the money for better hosting. They charge like $45 for the whole year and wordpress and htaccess works just fine there.
2. I got my own dedicated server;
I offer hosting for $240 per year on my dedicated server and it comes with all the wordpress updates installed for you as they come out or on-demand when you want the upgrade, and we back up your database weekly in case anything happens.
Comment by Chris McElroy — March 9, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
I install many instances of WordPress weekly in a shared hosting environment on GoDaddy and permalinks work perfectly if I set them up before I create any pages or posts.
If I forget and create a page or two first and then go back and change the permalink structure - it becomes a nightmare. I’ve just made it a habit to always set permalink structure up first.
Comment by Rachael — April 27, 2009 @ 12:18 pm