Website not working? What to check first.

Three different problems get called "my website is not working", and they have different fixes. The site is completely unreachable. The site loads but something on it fails, such as a form, a checkout or a menu. Or the site loads, but painfully slowly. Decide which one you have before you touch anything.

Open the address on your phone using mobile data, not your office wifi. If it loads there, the fault may be your own network or a cached copy in your browser. If it fails everywhere, it is the site, the hosting or the domain.

Start with the boring ones, because they are the most common. The domain registration expired. The hosting plan lapsed or was suspended for non-payment or for using up its resources. The security certificate expired, so browsers show a scary warning instead of your page. Log in to your registrar and your host and look at the renewal dates and any notices. Nobody can fix an expired domain from the outside, so this check can save you a day.

If those are fine, look at the error. A white screen or the message "there has been a critical error on this website" on WordPress usually means a plugin or theme is failing, often right after an update. A 500 error points at the server or a broken configuration file. A "database connection" error means the site cannot reach its data. Each of these is a specific job, and the exact wording helps whoever fixes it.

A full hosting account is another quiet culprit. Backups, logs and old uploads fill the disk, and the site stops being able to write anything.

This is the expensive one because nobody notices. A contact form that has not delivered an email in a month looks exactly like a quiet month. Submit your own forms, run a test checkout, click the phone number on mobile and try the booking widget. If a form submits but nothing arrives, the cause is often email delivery rather than the form itself, so check the spam folder and ask who sends the mail.

Think back to the last change. A plugin or theme update, a new plugin, an edit to the header or a change at the host all show up as breakage within a day or two. If you can say "it worked until Tuesday when we updated X", the fixer is halfway to the answer.

Do not update everything in the hope that it cures itself, and do not delete plugins at random. Do not reinstall WordPress over the top of the live site. Each of those can turn a one-hour problem into a data problem.

If you have a recent backup, leave it alone and note its date. If the site is hacked, with strange pages, redirects to other sites or a host warning, change your passwords from a clean computer and tell whoever hosts you. Do not keep logging in and clicking around on the infected site.

A screenshot of the error, the address, when it started, what changed just before, and who the domain and hosting are registered with. Keep the logins ready, or be ready to add a temporary user. That short message usually lets us give a price without a call.

It also helps to say how much the problem is costing you. A shop that cannot take orders is a different priority from a brochure site with a broken footer link.

Do it yourself if it is a renewal, a certificate that needs reissuing at your host, or a form that just needs a spam-folder check. Hand it over when the error mentions code, the database or the server, when you suspect a hack, or when you have already tried one thing and it got worse.

We fix sites we did not build, on WordPress, Shopify and custom code. Bug fixes start from $120, most are finished in 24 to 72 hours once you approve the written price, and each fix has a 14-day warranty: if it breaks again for the same reason, we fix it again. Small content changes are $90. If the cause turns out to be an expired domain or a suspended host account, we will tell you that plainly, because the repair is a payment, not a developer.

If the fault was repeated, ask about a care plan so the next failed update is caught by a monitor instead of a customer. The website maintenance packages guide covers what to compare.