First: is it down for everyone, or just you?
When your site will not load, the first question is whether the problem is with the site or with your connection to it. Try a free checker such as downforeveryoneorjustme.com — type in your web address and it will tell you whether the site is reachable from elsewhere. You can also try your phone with wifi turned off, so it uses mobile data instead.
If the site loads for everyone else but not for you, the site itself is fine — the issue is somewhere between you and it, such as your wifi, your office network, or a security system being overly cautious. That is still worth a ticket; it is just a different kind of fix.
The three kinds of down
Down is not one single thing. In plain words:
- Address problems (DNS). Your browser says it cannot find the server at all. DNS is the internet’s address book — it turns your domain name into the location of your site. These issues usually follow a recent change to your domain or email setup.
- Server problems. The page tries to load and eventually gives up, or shows a bare error page. The machine hosting your site is unreachable or struggling.
- WordPress problems. You see a plain white page, or the message: There has been a critical error on this website. This usually means one piece of software on the site — often a single plugin — has hit a bug. WordPress may also email the site’s admin address when this happens; forward that email to us, because it often names the culprit. These are usually the fastest to fix.
You do not need to work out which kind it is — that is our job. But knowing the categories makes it easier to describe what you are seeing.
What to put in your ticket
- What you saw — the exact wording of any error, ideally as a screenshot.
- When it started, as best you know.
- Everyone or just you — what the checker told you.
- Which page — the whole site, or one specific address.
- What changed recently — an edit you made, a new plugin, a domain or email change, a renewal notice. No judgement here; recent changes are simply the best clue we have.
A ticket with those five things is often solved in a single reply, because we can start fixing instead of asking questions.
Site down or acting strangely? Open a support ticket with what you saw and when — we will take it from there.
