Someone says your site isn't loading. You open it on your phone — and it works. So is it down or not?
"Is my website down?" is one of the most searched phrases about website problems. The answer isn't always obvious. Sometimes it's just you. Sometimes it's your host, your DNS, or a bad deploy. This guide walks you through how to check if your site is really down, rule out local issues, and fix the most common causes.
Step 1: Check From Outside Your Network
Your own browser and Wi‑Fi can lie. If the site works for you but not for others (or the other way around), you're seeing a local or regional issue, not necessarily a global outage.
Use an independent uptime checker
Use a tool that checks your site from multiple locations on the internet, not from your own network:
- Uptime monitoring services — They ping your URL from several regions and report up/down and response time.
- "Is it down?" style sites — Public pages that test a URL from their servers (e.g. isitdownrightnow.com, downforeveryoneorjustme.com).
If these say your site is down, it's likely a real outage. If they say up but you can't reach it, the problem is probably on your side (Wi‑Fi, ISP, DNS cache, VPN).
Try from a different device and network
- Turn off Wi‑Fi and use mobile data (or the opposite).
- Try from another device or ask someone in another place to open the URL.
- If it works on mobile data but not Wi‑Fi, the issue is likely your local network or ISP.
Step 2: Rule Out DNS Issues
Often the site is up, but DNS is wrong or slow. Your browser can't find the server, so the page "doesn't load."
Check DNS resolution
Use dig or nslookup (or an online DNS lookup tool) and query your domain:
dig yourdomain.com
- No results or wrong IP — DNS is misconfigured or not propagated. Check your DNS provider (e.g. Cloudflare, Route53, your registrar) and fix the A/AAAA records.
- Slow response — DNS might be slow or overloaded; consider a faster DNS provider or CDN.
Flush local DNS cache
Your computer or router might be caching old DNS:
- Windows:
ipconfig /flushdns - macOS:
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder - Router: Reboot or clear DNS cache in admin panel.
Then try loading the site again.
Step 3: Check SSL and HTTPS
If the site loads over HTTP but not HTTPS (or shows a certificate warning), the problem is SSL/TLS, not the server itself.
Certificate expired or invalid
Browsers block or warn on expired or invalid certificates. Check:
- Your hosting or SSL provider (Let's Encrypt, Cloudflare, etc.).
- Whether auto‑renewal is enabled and actually ran.
- That the certificate matches the domain (e.g. no
wwwvs non‑www mismatch).
Fix by renewing the certificate or correcting the domain. Use SSL monitoring (e.g. from an uptime tool) so you get alerted before expiry.
Mixed content or redirect loops
- Mixed content — Page is HTTPS but loads scripts/images over HTTP; some browsers block them and the site can look "broken."
- Redirect loop — HTTP → HTTPS or
www→ non‑www (or vice versa) misconfigured, so the browser gives up.
Check the browser console and Network tab for blocked requests or repeated redirects, then fix your links and redirect rules.
Step 4: Check Your Hosting and Server
If DNS and SSL look fine but the site is still down, the issue is likely hosting or the application.
Host status page
Check your host’s status page (e.g. status.aws.amazon.com, status.cloudflare.com) for incidents in your region or service.
Server and application
- 500 errors — Bug or misconfiguration in your app; check logs (e.g. PHP, Node, Django) and recent deploys.
- 502/503 — Server overloaded or app not running; restart the app or scale up.
- Timeout — Server too slow or unresponsive; check CPU, memory, database, and slow queries.
Use uptime monitoring that checks your live URL (and key pages) every 1–5 minutes so you see exactly when it went down and when it came back.
Step 5: Recent Changes That Often Cause Outages
Quick checklist of usual suspects:
| Change | What can go wrong |
|---|---|
| DNS change | Wrong or old records; long propagation. |
| SSL renewal | Expired cert, wrong domain, renewal failed. |
| Code deploy | Bug, crash, or missing env vars. |
| Plugin/theme update (WordPress) | Conflict, white screen, 500 error. |
| Hosting migration | DNS not updated, wrong config, firewall. |
| CDN/firewall change | Blocked traffic, wrong origin, cache issues. |
If the site went down right after a change, revert or fix that change first (e.g. rollback deploy, restore previous DNS, fix SSL).
How to Avoid "Is My Site Down?" Panic Next Time
Reacting only when someone reports a problem means you're always one step behind. To get ahead:
- Use uptime monitoring — A service that hits your URL from multiple locations every few minutes and alerts you (email, SMS, Slack) when it's down or slow.
- Monitor SSL — Get alerts before your certificate expires so you never go down due to expiry.
- Use a status page — When something does go wrong, a status page (e.g. status.yourdomain.com) lets you say "we know, we're fixing it" instead of leaving users guessing.
With monitoring, you know the site is down before users have to ask "is my website down?"
Quick Checklist: Is My Website Down?
- Check from an independent uptime/down checker (multiple locations).
- Try from another device and network (e.g. mobile data).
- Verify DNS (dig/nslookup) and flush local DNS cache.
- Confirm SSL is valid and not expired; check for redirect loops.
- Check host status page and your server/app logs.
- Review recent changes (DNS, SSL, deploy, plugins, hosting).
- Set up uptime + SSL monitoring so you're alerted next time.
Final Thoughts
"Is my website down?" doesn't always have a simple yes/no answer. Check from outside your network, rule out DNS and SSL, then look at hosting and recent changes. Once you know the cause, you can fix it — and with monitoring in place, you'll know about the next incident before your users do.