How to resolve the “There has been a critical error on this website” issue with Avada Builder and Yoast SEO in WordPress

When editing a specific WordPress page with the Avada Builder, users may encounter the dreaded error:
“There has been a critical error on this website. Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions.”
This issue often appears on the backend when a conflict arises between the Avada theme and the Yoast SEO plugin—typically affecting only certain pages.

Issue background

On a site using the Avada theme, a page with a custom provider filter was accidentally deleted and later restored from a staging environment. While the frontend appeared mostly intact, opening the page in the Avada Builder triggered a critical error message in the backend interface.

Notably, this error did not occur on other pages using the Avada Builder, suggesting a page-specific issue.

Diagnosis

The Freshy team discovered that disabling the Yoast SEO plugin immediately resolved the error—confirming a plugin conflict. However, removing Yoast site-wide wasn’t an option due to its SEO importance and existing configuration.

Investigating further, the team noted the error was tied to backend rendering for a specific page, not the frontend or site-wide behavior.

Resolution steps

1. Verified the conflict: Disabling Yoast SEO cleared the builder error on the affected page.
2. Scoped the issue: The conflict only occurred when editing a specific post ID in the WordPress admin.
3. Implemented a mu-plugin workaround to selectively disable Yoast when editing the problematic page:

   <?php
   /*
   Plugin Name: Disable Yoast on Post Edit 204
   Description: Disables Yoast SEO when editing post ID 204 to fix Avada conflicts.
   Author: Freshy
   */
   if (is_admin() && isset($_GET['post']) && $_GET['post'] == 204 && isset($_GET['action']) && $_GET['action'] === 'edit') {
       add_filter('option_active_plugins', function ($plugins) {
           $yoast_plugin = 'wordpress-seo/wp-seo.php';
           $key = array_search($yoast_plugin, $plugins);
           if ($key !== false) {
               unset($plugins[$key]); // Disable Yoast SEO only on this page
           }
           return $plugins;
       }, 1);
   }
   

4. Cleared all cache layers: Including the Avada theme cache, WP Rocket, and any server-side caches to ensure the fix took full effect.

Final outcome

The backend Avada Builder error was eliminated without disabling Yoast SEO site-wide. By applying a page-specific plugin deactivation, the Freshy team ensured both stable editing functionality and preserved SEO performance.

If your WordPress site is showing backend errors after a plugin or theme update, especially with Avada or Yoast, contact Freshy—we’ll help identify the conflict and fix it with minimal disruption.