Website down? What to check and who can fix it
A website that will not load feels urgent, and for a business it is. The good news is that most outages come from a short list of causes, and you can narrow it down in a few minutes without technical skills.
1. Confirm it is really down
- Open the site on your phone using mobile data, not your office Wi-Fi.
- Ask someone elsewhere to try it.
- Try the address with and without "www".
If it loads for others but not for you, the problem is likely your own device or network, not the site.
2. Check the two things that most often lapse
- Your domain. Log in to the company where you bought your domain name and check the expiry date. An expired domain takes the whole site offline, and email on that domain may stop too.
- Your hosting. Log in to your hosting account. Look for unpaid invoices, a suspended account notice, or a status page reporting an outage.
Both are usually fixed by renewing or paying, and the site returns once the change takes effect.
3. Read the error
- "This site can't be reached" / "server not found": usually domain or DNS. Contact your registrar.
- An error page with a number in the 500s: usually the server or a recent change on the site. Contact your host.
- A blank white page or a message about a "critical error": often a recent update or plugin. Your host or developer can roll it back.
- A security warning: could be an expired certificate. Your host can usually renew it.
Screenshot whatever you see. It saves time with support.
4. Contact the right people
- Registrar for domain problems.
- Host for server errors, suspensions and certificates.
- Developer for anything caused by custom code or a failed update.
5. Tell your customers
While you wait, post a short note on your social profiles and your business listing: you are open, here is your phone number. Customers mostly want to know how to reach you.
6. Prevent the next one
- Turn on auto-renew for your domain and hosting, and keep the payment card current.
- Keep login details for your registrar and host somewhere safe that you, not just a former contractor, can access.
- Keep a recent backup.
Where Yulpo fits
Yulpo is an AI agent that keeps your website current. It works with WordPress sites first; Yulpo's connector publishes the changes, so you never edit WordPress yourself.
What Yulpo offers is about improving and updating a website that works, not getting a down site back online. If your site is down, the steps above and your host are the right place to start.
Once the site is back, take an honest look at it. If it is out of date, unclear, or hard to contact you from, that is a different problem. That is where Yulpo comes in:
- It sharpens your existing website: a better hero, a better lead capture section and better design. Not a redesign.
- It keeps the site current through a chat window.
- It costs $99/month.
Related: How to fix a broken small business website fast and Website maintenance: what you pay for and what you get.