When your website won't load, the cause is usually one of six things, and you can rule most of them out in five minutes. Work down the list in order.
Work through the six checks
- Is it down for everyone? Try the site on your phone with Wi-Fi off, so you're on mobile data. If it loads there, the problem is your office network, browser or computer, not the website.
- Has the domain expired? A parked page, registrar ads, or email stopping at the same time all point to this. Log in to your registrar, check the expiry date and renew straight away. A lapsed .nz domain can usually still be renewed for a short time, but don't wait.
- Is there a security warning? "Your connection is not private" or "Not secure" usually means the SSL certificate has expired or doesn't cover this address. The site underneath is often fine. See connection not private on your own site.
- Has the hosting stopped? Look for emails from your host about an unpaid invoice, a failed card payment, a suspension or an outage. A suspended account usually says so when you log in.
- Did something change just before it broke? If you see "There has been a critical error on this website", a blank white page or "Error establishing a database connection" after an update, the update is the prime suspect. See a plugin update broke my site or database connection errors.
- Is it showing the host's default page? A generic "Welcome" or "under construction" page means a server answered but your site files are missing, in the wrong place, or the domain points at the wrong server. This often follows a hosting move. See website shows the hosting default page.
Check where the domain points
For checks 4 and 6, it helps to know which server your domain points at. Look up its A record with Google Admin Toolbox Dig and compare the IP address with the one in your hosting panel.
When to get help
If none of these explain it, or you'd rather not dig through hosting and registrar panels, hand it over. Most outages come from something nobody was watching: an expiring domain, a failed certificate renewal or an update gone wrong.
If it's down now, talk to us.