Short answer: to check if your website is down, try it on your phone with the wifi off, then use a free “is it down” checker. If both fail, screenshot the message on the screen. It usually points to who can fix it: your domain company, your host, or whoever looks after the site.
It usually happens at a bad moment. A client says they could not find your page, or you open your own website to check a detail and get a blank page or an error instead. The first question is the obvious one: is my website down, or is it just me?
You can answer that in about two minutes, without any technical knowledge. The harder question comes after: who do you actually ring?
Is my website down, or is it just me? The two-minute check
Before you worry, rule out the simple things. A website that “will not load” can be a problem with one device or one internet connection, while the website itself is fine.
- Try it on your phone with the wifi turned off. Your phone then uses mobile data, which takes your home or office internet out of the picture. If the website loads on your phone, the problem is your connection, not your website.
- Try a free “is it down” checker. Sites such as Is It Down Right Now test your web address from somewhere else and tell you whether it responds. If it says your site is up, the problem is probably at your end.
- Read the message on the screen, and take a screenshot. A website that is down rarely shows nothing. The wording is a clue, and the screenshot saves a lot of back and forth later.
- Note roughly when it started. Also note anything that changed around then: a renewal email, a new bank card, an update you clicked.
What the message on the screen is telling you
Different faults show different messages, and each one tends to point at a different company.
| What you see | What it often means | Who to ask first |
|---|---|---|
| “This site can’t be reached”, with “server IP address could not be found” | The web address is not pointing anywhere. Often the domain name has expired or its settings have changed. | The company you pay for your domain name |
| “This site can’t be reached”, with “took too long to respond” or “refused to connect” | The server your website lives on is not answering. | Your hosting company |
| “This page isn’t working” | The server answered, but something went wrong on its side. | Your hosting company, or whoever looks after the site |
| “There has been a critical error on this website” | A WordPress website has broken, often after a plugin or theme update. | Whoever looks after your website |
| A page saying the account has been suspended | The hosting account has been switched off, commonly over a missed payment or an expired card. | Your hosting company |
| “Your connection is not private” | The security certificate has expired or is not set up. | Your hosting company |
The Chrome wording above comes from Chrome’s own source code, and other browsers say much the same. They are rules of thumb, but enough to know who to ring first.
The WordPress critical error. The message comes from WordPress itself, and sometimes it adds “Please check your site admin email inbox for instructions”. WordPress sends that inbox an email with the subject “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”. In its own words, it “detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site” and emails a special link to get back in. If that email went to you, forward it to whoever looks after your site. It names what broke.
The suspended account. When a hosting company suspends an account, cPanel, the control panel many hosts use, redirects visitors to an “Account Suspended” page instead of your website. Your words and photos are usually still there. Only the hosting company can switch it back on.
If your website is on Wix or Squarespace, both publish a status page showing whether the platform itself has a problem: status.wix.com and status.squarespace.com. If they report trouble, all you can do is wait for them to fix it.
And if the warning is about the security certificate, I wrote last week about what happens when an SSL certificate expires, and the calm steps to fix it.
Who to ring when your website is down
For a lot of small practice websites, there are three possible answers:
- the company your domain name is registered with
- the company that hosts the website
- the person who built it, or looks after it now
Sometimes these are all one company. Often they are not. A domain bought when you first qualified, a website made by a friend, hosting that came bundled with something else. Nobody plans it that way. It builds up over the years, and it works fine until the day the site goes down.
If you are not sure which company is which, that is not you being disorganised. It is how most of these set-ups end up.
- For your domain name, ICANN’s free lookup tool shows the company your domain is registered through, and its expiry date. It works for .co.uk addresses as well as .com.
- For your hosting, search your email and bank statements for a regular payment, monthly or yearly, that mentions hosting. That company is usually your host.
- For the person who looks after the site, look for whoever sent your last invoice or login details. On Wix or Squarespace, the platform is your host.
What to tell them when you ring
Whoever you contact, a few details get it fixed faster:
- your exact web address
- the screenshot of the message
- roughly when it started, and whether it fails on your phone too
- anything that changed recently, such as an update, a new card or a renewal email
You do not have to understand the cause.
Having someone to ask
Not every worry about a website is an outage. This month a client of mine forwarded me a long Facebook post about a serious security hole in PHP, the language WordPress runs on. The post said anyone with a website should act today, and that updating WordPress would not help. Her question was simple: isn’t my site on that?
I checked which version of PHP her site runs, then asked the hosting company directly rather than guessing. They told me the fix had already been applied across their servers, and that they had put a firewall rule in place too. I sent her their reply word for word the same day. She did not have to do anything, or understand any of it.
That is what knowing who to ring gives you. Not the technical answer, just a person who can find it.
Write it down on a quiet day
The best time to find out who to ring is before you need to. Take ten minutes this week and note down:
- who your domain name is registered with, and when it renews
- who hosts your website, and how to contact them
- who to email if something on the site itself breaks
Keep the logins somewhere safe, such as a password manager. If the site goes down one afternoon, you will know where to start.
Earlier this month I wrote about choosing who looks after your website. The right person matters most on the day something stops working.
One person to ring
If you would rather not keep track of three companies, that is the idea behind my Pay Monthly website plans. The website, fast UK hosting, your domain name and weekly maintenance all sit in one place, with me on the end of an email. If something stops working, you do not have to work out whose problem it is. You tell me, and I find out. I look after the hosting for over 50 websites, so the call comes straight to me.
Plans start at £59 a month, and the £99 setup fee is currently waived. Feel free to get in touch if you would like a quick chat about whether one would suit you.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if my website is down?
Start by opening your website on your phone with the wifi turned off, so it uses mobile data instead of your home or office internet. If it loads there, your website is fine and the problem is your connection. If it still will not load, put your web address into a free checker such as Is It Down Right Now, which tests the site from somewhere else. If that also fails, your website is probably down for everyone. Take a screenshot of the message on the screen and note roughly when it started. The message often tells you whether the problem is your domain name, your hosting or the website itself, which tells you who to contact.
Why is my website down for me but not for anyone else?
When a website loads for other people but not for you, the cause is usually at your end. Your connection may be having a problem, or your browser may be holding on to an old copy of the page. Try the site on your phone with the wifi off. If it works there, restart your router or try a different browser on your computer. A website’s own security can also block one connection, for example after several failed logins. If the site works everywhere except one network, tell whoever hosts it, and say which network is affected. Either way, your visitors are probably seeing your website normally, which takes some of the pressure off.
What does “There has been a critical error on this website” mean?
That message comes from WordPress. It means something on the website has broken badly enough that the page cannot load, and very often the cause is a plugin or theme, sometimes straight after an update. WordPress also sends an email to the site’s admin email address, with the subject “Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue”. That email names what caused the error and includes a special link to log in safely. If you received it, forward it to whoever looks after your website. A critical error does not mean your content has gone. Your pages and photos are still stored on the server, and once the broken part is fixed or switched off, the website normally comes straight back.
Who do I contact if my website is down?
It depends on what has gone wrong, and the message on the screen is the best clue. If the web address cannot be found at all, start with the company your domain name is registered with, because it may have expired. If the server is not responding, or you see a page saying the account is suspended, contact your hosting company. If you see a WordPress critical error, contact whoever looks after your website. If you are not sure who any of these are, ICANN’s free lookup tool shows who your domain is registered with, and your email or bank statements will usually show who you pay for hosting. If one company or person handles all of it, you only need to contact them, and they can work out the rest.
Will I lose my website content if my website goes down?
Usually not. The faults in this article affect the way in, not what is stored. An expired domain, a server that is not responding, a suspended hosting account or a broken plugin all stop visitors reaching your pages, but the pages, photos and words are normally still there once the problem is fixed. The bigger risk is time. An expired domain name has a limited window in which it can be renewed, and a hosting account left unpaid for long enough may eventually be closed. So act on the same day rather than waiting to see if it comes back. Ask whoever hosts your website how often they back it up, and where those backups are kept.