Website down or not loading? What to check, in order

First: is it down for everyone, or only for you?

Before you call anyone, rule out your own setup. It takes two minutes and avoids a false alarm.

1. Open the site on a phone using mobile data, with Wi-Fi off.
2. Try a private or incognito browser window, which ignores most cached data and extensions.
3. Ask someone elsewhere to open it, or use a public uptime checker.
4. Note the exact address you typed. www.yourbusiness.com and yourbusiness.com can behave differently if only one is set up.

If it loads everywhere except your office, the problem is probably local: your router, a firewall, browser cache or a security tool. Google's guide to fixing connection and loading errors in Chrome walks through the common browser-side causes.

Read the error message, it tells you which layer failed

The wording on screen is your best clue. Take a screenshot before you do anything else, because it's the first thing your web person will ask for.

MDN keeps a plain reference of HTTP response status codes if you want to understand a specific number.

Check the domain hasn't expired

An expired domain is one of the most common causes of a sudden outage, and one of the most avoidable. Renewal emails often go to an old address or a former staff member.

• Look up your domain on ICANN Lookup and check the expiry date and the registrar listed.
• Log in to that registrar and confirm the domain is active and set to auto-renew with a working payment card.
• If it has expired, contact the registrar immediately. ICANN's page on renewing an expired domain explains that a lapsed domain may eventually be released for anyone to register.

If you can't log in, or the domain is registered in someone else's name, read our guide to domain ownership and registrar access before that becomes urgent.

Ask whether anything changed in DNS

DNS is the address book that points your domain to your host. If someone recently changed hosts, set up a new email service or "cleaned up" records, a single wrong entry can take the website offline while email keeps working, or the other way round.

• Ask everyone with access: did anyone change DNS, nameservers or hosting in the last few days?
• Changes can take time to reach everyone, so a site may work for some people and not others for a while.
• Public resolvers cache records. Google Public DNS offers a flush cache tool that can help after a correct fix has been made.

Don't delete records you don't recognise. Some are there to keep email delivery or service verifications working. Our page on hosting, SSL and backups covers what to ask your provider.

Rule out an SSL certificate problem

If browsers show a security warning, the certificate may have expired or may not cover the address visitors use, for example it covers www but not the bare domain. Most hosts now renew certificates automatically, but renewal can fail after a DNS change. Your host can usually see the certificate status and reissue it. Don't tell customers to click past the warning; fix it instead.

Then look at the hosting

If the domain, DNS and certificate all check out, the problem is likely the server or the site itself.

• Check your host's status page and your email for suspension or billing notices.
• Ask your host for the error logs from the time the outage started.
• Think about what changed: a plugin update, a new form, a theme change or a large traffic spike.
• If you have a recent backup, ask whether restoring it is the fastest safe route while the cause is found.

While it's being fixed

Customers still need to reach you. Pin your phone number on your Google Business Profile and social pages, and make sure calls are answered. If the outage will last more than a short while, a simple page that returns a 503 status is better than a broken site. Google's guidance on temporarily pausing a website recommends a 503 only for a short period, a few days at most.

Stop it happening again

• Keep the registrar, DNS and hosting logins in a shared password manager the business controls.
• Send renewal and billing notices to a shared inbox, not one person.
• Set up uptime monitoring that emails or texts you when the site stops responding.
• After any change, run through a short launch QA checklist, including the contact form.

A website care plan can cover monitoring and renewals, but read what is actually included. No provider can promise a site will never go down; what you can control is how quickly someone notices and who acts.

Questions

Sources and further reading

• fixing connection and loading errors in Chrome support.google.com
• HTTP response status codes developer.mozilla.org
• ICANN Lookup lookup.icann.org
• renewing an expired domain icann.org
• flush cache tool developers.google.com
• temporarily pausing a website developers.google.com

Official documentation changes. Check the current version before you rely on a rule, limit or setting.