When your website won't load, the fault sits in one of four layers: the domain registration, the DNS records that point the domain somewhere, the hosting server, or the website software itself. Each layer belongs to a different company, so the quickest fix is to work out which one has failed before you call anyone. The error message on the screen tells you more than it looks, and a few checks take about ten minutes.
Is it down for everyone, or only for you?
Open the site on your phone with Wi-Fi switched off, so it uses mobile data instead of your office network. Try a private browser window too. If the site loads there, the problem is local: your office network, a browser extension, or an old cached DNS answer on your computer. Restarting the router or the computer is the first thing to try.
If it fails on mobile data as well, it's down for other people. Write down the time you noticed, then move on.
Read the error, then go to the matching layer
Don't skip this step. The browser or server is telling you which layer stopped answering.
| What you see | Layer to check first | Who can fix it |
|---|---|---|
"This site can't be reached", "server IP address could not be found", DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN |
Domain, then DNS | Registrar or DNS host |
| A parking page, an ad page or "this domain has expired" | Domain | Registrar |
| "Connection timed out" or "refused to connect" | Hosting | Web host |
| "Account suspended" or a host's default page | Hosting account | Web host (often billing) |
| A white page, "critical error", 500 or 503 | The site itself | You, your developer, or the host if every site on the account fails |
| A Cloudflare page with error 521 or 522 | Hosting behind Cloudflare | Web host |
| A certificate or "Not secure" warning | Certificate | Host or whoever issued the certificate |
On the Cloudflare row: Cloudflare's 5xx error pages describe 521 as the web server being down and 522 as the connection to it timing out, and they tell site owners to contact their hosting provider first. Cloudflare is only the messenger there.
One more clue: check your email. If mail to name@yourbusiness.com has stopped arriving at the same time, the website and the mailbox are failing together, and the domain or its DNS is the thing they share. If email works and only the website is down, look at hosting and the site first.
Layer 1: the domain registration
Look your domain up in a registration lookup such as ICANN Lookup. Note three things: the expiry date, the registrar's name, and the nameservers.
If the expiry date has passed, that's your answer. ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires registrars of generic domains (.com, .net, .org and similar) to interrupt the domain's DNS for a period after it expires and before it is deleted, which takes the website and email offline. Renew it at the registrar, then read the guide to expired domains for the next steps.
If you don't recognize the registrar, someone else may have registered the domain for you: a former web designer or a colleague who left. Find out who holds that account before anything else; you can't renew or change anything without it.
Layer 2: DNS, the records that point the domain at your server
The nameservers from the lookup tell you which company holds your DNS records. That might be your registrar, your web host, or a service such as Cloudflare. Log in there and compare two things:
- the A record for your domain (and the
wwwrecord) against the server IP address shown in your hosting control panel; - whether anything was changed recently: a hosting move, a new email provider, someone "tidying up" old records.
A wrong or missing A record sends visitors to the wrong place or nowhere. A nameserver change made in the last day or two may still be spreading, which can make the site work for some people and not for others.
Nameservers can also fail on the host's side. Nameservers are themselves names, and if the host's own nameserver domain or DNS service has a problem, every site that uses it goes down at once, yours included. If your settings look right and the host's status page reports a DNS problem, the fix is theirs.
Layer 3: the hosting account and server
Check your inbox for messages from the host: unpaid invoices, a suspension notice, a warning about resource use or a reported abuse issue. A suspended account shows the host's own page instead of your site, and only the host can lift it. Paying an overdue invoice is the fast route; a suspension for resource use or a security problem needs a ticket.
Then look at the host's status page or support announcements for an outage. If the control panel itself won't open, or every site on your account is down at once, it's the server.
If you're on a plan where traffic or scripts hit the account's limits, the site can slow down and then return errors at busy times. The guide to slow sites and hosting limits covers how to read the resource graphs.
Layer 4: the website itself
If the domain resolves, the server answers and you get an error page or a blank page from your own site, the problem is in the site. Think about what changed last: a plugin or theme update, a new plugin, an edited file, a PHP version change at the host. For WordPress, recovering after a broken update walks through getting back in without the admin panel.
If the site loads but shows pages you didn't write or redirects visitors elsewhere, treat it as a security problem and follow the steps for a hacked site instead.
What to send the company that can fix it
Support tickets get answered faster when they contain the checks you've already done. A message like this works for any of the four:
Our site yourbusiness.com has been unreachable since 09:40 today (UK time). It fails on mobile data and in other browsers. The browser shows "connection timed out". The domain is active until 2027 and the A record points to 203.0.113.10, which matches the IP in our control panel. Email is working. Can you check the server?
Include a screenshot of the error. If you've been sent from the host to the registrar and back, the table above and this message are how you show which side it's on.
Before the next outage
Three small things make the next one shorter:
- An uptime monitor. A free external checker that tests the site every few minutes and emails you when it fails, so you hear about it before a customer does.
- A list of logins. Registrar, DNS host, web host and website admin, with which company does what. Keep it outside the website and outside the business mailbox.
- Auto-renewal on the domain, with a payment card that won't expire before the renewal date.
If outages keep coming from the same host, that's a reason to change hosts, and the hosting move guide shows how to do it without another one.