You go to your website, or a customer calls to say it’s not loading, and instead of your homepage you see an error, a blank page, or something that isn’t yours at all. It’s stressful. If you’re wondering what to do when your website is down, the best first step is to take a breath and work through a few simple checks in order.
This post walks through how to confirm the site is actually down, the most common causes, what you can safely check yourself, and when it’s time to hand it off.
Step one: make sure it’s really down
Sometimes the problem is on your end, not the website’s. Before anything else:
- Try another device. Load the site on your phone using cellular data, not your office Wi-Fi.
- Try another browser or a private/incognito window.
- Use an online “is it down” checker. Search for “is my website down checker” and enter your address. These test from outside your network.
- Double-check the address. A missing letter or the wrong ending (.com vs .net) happens more than you’d think.
If the site loads on your phone but not on your office computer, the issue is likely your office network or that computer, not the website.
Step two: read the error message
The message you see often points toward the cause. Some common ones in plain English:
- “This site can’t be reached” or “server not found”: Often a domain or DNS problem. The address isn’t pointing anywhere right now.
- A page from your domain registrar or a “this domain is for sale” page: Your domain may have expired.
- 500 Internal Server Error: Something went wrong on the server, often a plugin, theme, or code issue.
- 503 Service Unavailable: The server is overloaded or down for maintenance.
- A security warning about the connection: Your SSL certificate may have expired or isn’t set up correctly.
- A blank white page: Commonly a WordPress plugin or theme problem.
Take a screenshot of whatever you see. It will help whoever fixes it.
Step three: check the usual suspects
Most outages for small business websites come down to a short list of causes. Here’s what to look at, in rough order:
- Your domain. Log in to wherever you registered your domain and check the expiration date. If it lapsed, renewing it quickly is usually the fix, though it can take some time to come back.
- Your hosting account. Log in to your host. Look for notices about unpaid bills, suspended accounts, or outages. An expired credit card on file is a common culprit.
- Your host’s status page. Many hosting companies have a status page or post updates on social media about outages. If they’re having a problem, you’ll mostly need to wait.
- Recent changes. Did anyone update plugins, change a theme, edit settings, or change DNS records recently? A recent change is often the cause.
- Your SSL certificate. If you’re seeing security warnings, check whether it expired. Many hosts renew these automatically, but not always.
What you can safely try yourself
A few things are low risk for most business owners:
- Renewing an expired domain or updating a payment method on your hosting account.
- Contacting your host’s support team and asking them to check the server.
- If you use WordPress and just updated a plugin, some hosts offer a way to restore a recent backup from their dashboard.
What I’d avoid unless you’re comfortable: editing site files directly, changing DNS records you don’t understand, or deleting things to “see if it helps.” It’s easy to make a fixable problem worse. If you’re not sure, stop and get help.
What to do for customers while your website is down
While the site is down, customers still need to reach you. A few quick steps help:
- Make sure your Google Business Profile has your correct phone number and hours, since many people will find you there.
- Post a short note on your social media if the outage lasts more than a little while.
- If you take online orders or bookings, let regular customers know how to reach you in the meantime.
How to prevent the next outage
You can’t prevent every problem, but a few habits make outages rarer and shorter:
- Turn on auto-renew for your domain and hosting, and keep the card on file current.
- Keep your contact email current with your registrar and host, so renewal notices actually reach you.
- Have regular backups stored somewhere other than the website server. More in why website backups matter.
- Use uptime monitoring. Free and low-cost services can email or text you when your site stops responding.
- Keep a simple list of where your domain, hosting, and website logins live.
- Stay on top of updates, ideally testing them rather than clicking “update all” and hoping.
Questions I hear a lot
How do I know if my website is down for everyone or just me?
Try loading it on your phone using cellular data and use an online website status checker. If both fail, it’s likely down for everyone.
Why is my website down when I didn’t change anything?
Common causes include an expired domain or hosting account, a problem at your host, an automatic update, or an expired SSL certificate. Check those first.
Will my website being down hurt my Google rankings?
A short outage generally isn’t a big deal. Extended or frequent downtime can cause problems, so it’s worth fixing quickly and preventing repeats.
If you’re stuck
If you’d rather have hosting where someone else keeps an eye on these things, that’s what my web design and hosting services cover. And if your site is down right now and you can’t tell where the problem is, you can ask me directly and tell me what you’re seeing.