Why Is My Website Down? The 5-Minute Checklist

Your website just stopped loading and your stomach dropped. Breathe. Most "the site is down" panics turn out to be something small and fixable, and half the time the site is not even down for anyone but you. Work through this checklist in order, top to bottom, because it is arranged from most likely to least likely. Each step has a 60-second test. You will usually find the cause before you hit the bottom.

Step 1: Is it down for everyone, or just you? (60 seconds)

Do this first, because it splits the whole problem in half.

• Open the site on your phone using cellular data, not your wifi.
• Or use a "is it down right now" checker that loads your site from other locations.

If it loads for others but not you, the site is fine and the problem is on your end: your browser cache, your network, or your local DNS. Flush your DNS (ipconfig /flushdns on Windows, sudo dscacheutil -flushcache on Mac), try a different browser, or switch your DNS to 1.1.1.1. Done.

If it is down for everyone, keep going. Now it is a real outage and one of the next four steps is your answer.

Step 2: Did the domain expire? (60 seconds)

This is the single most common "site is totally down" cause, and the most embarrassing, because it is entirely preventable. If your domain registration lapsed, the whole site vanishes and visitors get a DNS error.

• Log into your registrar and check the domain's expiration date and status.
• If it expired, renew it right now. It can take a little while to come back to life after renewal.

Auto-renew and a current credit card on file prevent this one forever. Set it and forget it.

Step 3: Are the DNS records broken or still changing? (60 seconds)

If the domain is active but the site still will not load, the next suspect is DNS not working, meaning the domain name is no longer pointing at your server correctly. This happens after a migration, a host change, or an accidental edit.

Check your DNS records for the domain:

Windows:

nslookup yourdomain.com

Mac:

dig yourdomain.com

• If you get "NXDOMAIN" or "dns lookup failed," the name is not resolving at all. Check that your nameservers are correct and that an A record exists pointing to your server's IP.
• If you get an IP address but it is the wrong one (an old host, for example), your A record is pointing at the wrong place. Fix the record.
• Did you change something recently? DNS changes take time to spread, from minutes to a couple of hours. If you just edited records or nameservers, it may simply be propagating. Give it time and recheck.

Step 4: Is the hosting or server down? (60 seconds)

If DNS looks right (the domain resolves to the correct IP) but the site still will not open, the server itself may be down.

• Log into your hosting control panel. If you cannot even reach it, that points at a host outage.
• Check your host's status page or their social account for a reported outage.
• If you are on a small plan, a traffic spike or hitting a resource limit can knock the site offline temporarily.

If it is a host outage, there is nothing to fix on your end but wait and, if it drags on, open a ticket.

Step 5: Did the SSL certificate expire? (60 seconds)

Sometimes the site is not "down," it just throws a scary security warning that stops visitors cold. That is usually an expired SSL certificate (the thing behind the https padlock).

• Look at the exact error. "Your connection is not private" or a certificate warning points here, not at DNS.
• Check your certificate's expiration in your host or SSL provider. Renew or reissue it.
• Most modern hosts auto-renew SSL. If yours lapsed, that auto-renewal broke and needs a look.

Step 6: Is a firewall, security plugin, or CDN blocking it? (60 seconds)

Last and least likely, but it happens. A security plugin, a firewall rule, or a CDN setting can block your site, sometimes only for certain visitors or regions.

• If you can reach the admin area, check for a recently updated or misconfigured security plugin and temporarily disable it to test.
• If you use a CDN or proxy, check its dashboard for a blocking rule or an error state.
• A recent plugin or theme update can also white-screen a site. Rolling back the last change often fixes it.

The fast recap

Run it in order and stop at the first one that is wrong:

1. Down for everyone, or just you? (fixes half of all cases instantly)
2. Domain expired?
3. DNS records broken or still propagating?
4. Host or server down?
5. SSL certificate expired?
6. Firewall, plugin, or CDN blocking it?

Most outages are step 1, 2, or 3. If you would rather not run commands and read raw DNS output, check your site through the Valla DNS troubleshooter. It runs the domain, DNS, and connection checks for you in one pass and points straight at the broken link in the chain, so you spend your five minutes fixing the problem instead of hunting for it.