When your website stops loading it is tempting to assume the worst. Most outages are one of a small number of causes, and a few quick checks will tell you whether the problem is at your end, at ours, or with the site itself. This guide walks through them in order.
1. Check whether the site is down for everyone
Use an independent checker such as isitdownrightnow.com or down.com.
- If the checker reports the site as up, the site is reachable from the internet and the problem is likely local to your network, browser or device.
- If the checker also reports it as down, move on to the next steps. A checker can occasionally be wrong, so try one more before drawing a conclusion.
2. Rule out your own connection and browser
- Load the site on a phone using mobile data instead of your office or home Wi-Fi.
- Try a different browser, or a private window.
- Clear your browser cache and cookies: How to clear the cache and cookies in your web browser.
- Ask a colleague in another location to load the site.
If it loads everywhere except your usual connection, your internet address may be blocked by our firewall. Our guide to unblocking your IP address shows how to check and clear a block yourself from the client area.
3. Check for a known outage or planned work
Log in to the client area and open the Network Status page. It lists current issues, scheduled maintenance and recently resolved problems, and shows the status of each server.
If an open outage covers your service, you do not need to do anything else. Updates will be posted there.
4. Check whether the service is suspended
A suspended service will not load. The usual reasons are an unpaid invoice, a resource or policy issue, or a spam or abuse concern. Our guide Why was my website or email suspended explains each one.
Log in to the client area and check:
- Any unpaid invoices: How do I view and pay my invoices
- The service status on the product details page
- Any recent email from us about the account, including in the junk folder
Do not pay an invoice twice or open a second hosting account until you have checked the current invoice status.
5. Look at what the browser actually shows
The exact message narrows the cause:
- A certificate warning or "Not Secure" is an SSL problem, not an outage. See AutoSSL manually checking certificate status and Fixing Mixed Content warning on HTTPS sites.
- A blank page, a 500 error or a database error usually means the website software needs attention.
- A default hosting page or a directory listing usually means the site files or domain configuration are not pointing where they should.
- A timeout with no page at all can be a network, firewall or server problem.
6. Check account resources
If the site loads slowly or intermittently, or only some pages fail, check your usage in cPanel: How to Check Resource Usage. Accounts that consistently exceed their plan limits can be restricted. Our guide Why is my website slow covers the common performance causes.
If you have a VPS, dedicated WordPress server or Joomla server, check that it is running in the client area before opening a ticket: Managing my VPS and Managing my WordPress Server.
What to send us
If the site is still down after these checks, open a support ticket with:
- The exact URL that fails, including https or http
- The exact error message, or a screenshot
- When it started and whether it is constant or intermittent
- Whether other people in other locations see the same thing
- What you have already checked, including the Network Status page
- Whether the service shows as active or suspended in the client area
That information lets us start at the right layer instead of repeating checks you have already done.
