Your trades website is down: an emergency triage guide

Step 0: confirm what's actually broken

Before you investigate, describe the symptom precisely, because each symptom points somewhere different.

Then check from a second device on a different network, such as your phone with Wi-Fi off. If the site works there, the problem may be local to your office. Write down what you see and take a screenshot. You'll need both whoever ends up fixing it.

Step 1: check the domain

An expired domain takes down your website and usually your email at the same time. It's one of the most common causes of a sudden, total outage.

1. Find your registrar: the company you pay for the domain name. Search your email and card statements for the domain name and the word "renewal".
2. Log in directly by typing the registrar's address into your browser. Don't click a link from an unexpected renewal email; fake renewal notices are a well-known scam aimed at small businesses.
3. Look at the domain's status and expiry date. If it has expired, most registrars allow a grace period for renewal. Renew it, and check the card on file.
4. If you can't log in, or the domain is registered to a person who has left, you have an ownership problem. That's covered in our access and ownership audit guide.

After a renewal, the site may take some time to come back as the internet's records refresh. Don't make other changes while you wait.

Step 2: check DNS

DNS is the address book that tells browsers which server holds your site and where your email goes. If someone changed or deleted a record, the site disappears even though everything else is fine.

Signs of a DNS problem:

• The domain is active and paid, but the site still won't load.
• The trouble started right after someone moved hosting, changed email providers or "tidied up" settings.

DNS is often managed at the registrar, but sometimes at the host or a separate service. If you know a change was made recently, the person who made it is the one to call. If you don't, this is a good point to ask for help, because guessing at DNS changes can create a second outage on top of the first.

Step 3: check hosting

Your host is the company whose server stores the site. Hosting fails in three common ways: unpaid bills, suspended accounts and server problems on the host's side.

1. Log in to the hosting account and look for notices about payment, suspension or resource limits.
2. Check the host's status page, if it has one, for a reported outage.
3. If the account is suspended for unpaid bills, paying the balance often restores the site quickly.
4. If it's suspended for malware or abuse, the host usually requires a cleanup before re-enabling it.

If the host is having a broader outage, there's little to do but open a ticket and wait. Note the ticket number.

Step 4: check the certificate

The security certificate is what puts the padlock in the address bar. When it expires or is misconfigured, browsers show a full-page warning that scares most customers away.

Certificates on most modern hosting renew automatically, but auto-renewal can fail after a DNS or hosting change. Many hosts have a button to reissue or renew the certificate in the control panel. If yours doesn't, the host's support team can usually reissue it.

Step 5: check the site software

If the domain, DNS, hosting and certificate are fine but the site looks broken, the fault is in the site itself.

Common causes:

• An automatic update to the site software, a theme or a plugin that conflicts with something else.
• A recent edit that removed or broke part of a page.
• A hack through an outdated plugin or a weak password.

If you know an update ran overnight, the fix is usually to roll back that update from a backup. If visitors are being redirected to spam, treat it as a hacked site: don't delete anything, change admin passwords, and get the site cleaned properly. Searchers may see a warning next to your listing until Google reviews the cleaned site, which can be requested through Google Search Console.

While it's down: protect your calls

The outage hurts less if customers can still reach you.

• Tell your office. Whoever answers the phone should know the site is down, so they can take details from confused callers.
• Check your Google Business Profile. Customers can still call from your listing. Make sure the phone number there is correct.
• Pause ads pointing to the broken site. Paying for clicks that land on an error page wastes money and can get ads flagged.
• Reply to messages promptly. If enquiries come in by text or social media, answer them, since your site can't.

A worked example of the cost

Suppose a roofing company's site produces 25 enquiries a week in spring, half of which become quotes, and a third of quotes become jobs averaging $9,000. That's about four jobs, or $36,000 of work, a week. If a domain lapses on a Friday and nobody notices until Tuesday, the business is offline for most of four days in its busiest season. Even if the phone listing on Google catches some of those enquiries, losing a third of a week's leads could mean one or two jobs, or $9,000 to $18,000 of revenue.

Your numbers will differ. The point is that a renewal calendar and a backup routine cost little compared with one bad week.

Mistakes that turn a small outage into a big one

• Paying a renewal through an unexpected email link. Always log in directly.
• Changing several settings at once. Make one change, then wait and check. Otherwise you can't tell which change helped or hurt.
• Restoring an old backup over a hacked site without closing the hole the attacker used.
• Rebuilding the site in a panic. Most outages need a repair, not a rebuild.
• Forgetting email. If the domain lapsed, your business email may be bouncing too. Customers and suppliers need to know.

After it's fixed

Write down what happened, what fixed it and what would have prevented it. Then put the prevention in place: a renewal reminder on a business card and inbox, a tested backup, two-step verification on admin accounts and a regular update routine. That is exactly what a maintenance plan does.

If you'd rather someone else did the diagnosis, our urgent website help service follows the same order as this guide. Call, text or email us through the contact page. We're in from 9 to 6 Pacific, Monday to Friday, and you'll normally hear back within one business day.