In this guide · 8 sections
- 01Step 1: Is the website down for everyone or just you?
- 02Step 2: The 10-minute website down checklist
- 03What Cloudflare 5xx errors mean
- 04The most common causes in small business websites
- 05What to send your host or developer
- 06Preventing the next outage: monitoring and renewals
- 07Do it yourself or get help?
- 08Frequently asked questions
Short answer
First confirm it is down for everyone, not just you. Then check, in order: domain expiry, DNS records, your host's status page and account, the SSL certificate, and anything changed in the last 24 hours. The exact error message (for example Cloudflare 521 or 522) points to which one.
Step 1: Is the website down for everyone or just you?
Before changing anything, rule out a local problem. Many 'website down' reports are a single office network, a stale DNS cache or a browser extension.
Try mobile data
Turn off Wi-Fi on your phone and load the site. If it works, the problem is your office network, DNS cache or firewall.
Use an online 'is it down' checker
These test from servers in other locations. If they reach it, the site is up.
Try a private window and another browser
This rules out cached pages, cookies and extensions.
Note the exact error
Screenshot the full error page. 'This site can't be reached', a certificate warning and a Cloudflare error code each point somewhere different.
Step 2: The 10-minute website down checklist
If the site is down for everyone, work down this list. The order goes from the causes that are quickest to check and most damaging to miss.
| Check | How | What it looks like if this is the cause |
|---|---|---|
| Domain expiry | WHOIS lookup on the domain; check your registrar account | Site and email both down, or a parked 'domain expired' page |
| DNS records | Look up the A or CNAME record; compare with what your host says it should be | 'Server not found' or the wrong site loads |
| Hosting status | Your host's status page and your account for suspension or unpaid invoices | Host error page, 'account suspended', or timeouts |
| SSL certificate | Click the padlock or warning; check the expiry date | Browser security warning instead of the site |
| Recent changes | Ask who changed what in the last 24 hours: plugins, theme, DNS, firewall | White screen, critical error, or errors after an update |
| CDN or firewall | Cloudflare or other proxy dashboard and error code | Branded error page with a 5xx code |
Two of these have their own guides: domain expired and SSL certificate expired. If you changed DNS recently and only some people see the site, read how long DNS propagation takes before changing anything else.
What Cloudflare 5xx errors mean
If your site sits behind Cloudflare, the error page usually says whether the problem is at Cloudflare or at your server (the 'origin'). Definitions below are from Cloudflare's 5xx error documentation.
| Error | Meaning | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| 502 / 504 | Bad gateway or gateway timeout | Usually the origin server or its upstream; check host status |
| 520 | Web server returned an unknown or empty response | Origin server crashing or misconfigured |
| 521 | Origin web server refused the connection | Server down, or its firewall blocking Cloudflare IPs |
| 522 | Cloudflare timed out contacting the origin | Server overloaded, offline, or network blocked |
| 523 | Origin is unreachable | Wrong IP in DNS, or routing problem at the host |
| 524 | Connected, but no HTTP response before the 125-second timeout | Slow script, heavy page or overloaded database |
| 525 / 526 | SSL handshake failed / invalid certificate on the origin | Certificate on your server expired or wrong SSL mode |
Cloudflare's own page also has a list of the details a hosting provider needs when you report these errors. If Cloudflare itself is having an incident, its public status page will say so, but most 52x errors point to the origin server.
The most common causes in small business websites
Most outages follow a change, even if nobody remembers making one.
- Automatic plugin or theme update on WordPress, causing a white screen or critical error. See our WordPress white screen guide.
- Unpaid hosting or domain invoice, often because renewal emails went to a former employee or the old developer.
- DNS edited during an email or website move, overwriting the record that pointed to the site.
- Expired SSL certificate where auto-renewal failed after a DNS or hosting change.
- Traffic spike or bot attack exhausting a small hosting plan.
- Hacked site taken offline by the host, or redirecting visitors elsewhere. If the site loads but shows strange content or redirects, follow our website hacked guide instead.
What to send your host or developer
Support tickets that say 'website is down' get the slowest replies. Include enough for them to start immediately.
Support ticket checklist
If you do not know who hosts the site or who controls the domain, that is the first thing to fix once it is back up: put the logins in a company password manager, with renewals on a card and email address the business controls.
Preventing the next outage: monitoring and renewals
The cheapest fix is hearing about the problem before customers do. Uptime monitoring checks your site every few minutes and alerts you by email or app.
- Free monitoring: UptimeRobot's pricing page lists a free plan with 50 monitors at a 5-minute interval, including SSL and domain expiry monitoring, as of October 2026. Its paid Solo plan starts at about US$9 a month billed annually, with 60-second checks.
- Domain and SSL renewals: turn on auto-renew, and make sure the renewal email goes to a shared address.
- Backups: daily, off-site, tested. A restore you have never tried is not a backup.
- Updates with a safety net: update plugins on a staging copy or right after a backup, not blind auto-updates on a busy shop.
Do it yourself or get help?
The checks above need no technical access and will identify the cause most of the time. The fix may be as simple as paying an invoice or renewing a domain. Get help when the cause is on the server itself, such as 52x errors, a broken update, or a possible hack.
For a one-off problem, a Quick Fix (S$119) covers up to an hour of remote work with a written summary, and we quote before continuing if it needs longer. To stop it happening silently again, Monitor (S$29 a month) checks uptime every 5 minutes, alerts on SSL and domain expiry, and watches email blacklists, with a monthly health report.
Frequently asked questions
Load it on your phone with Wi-Fi turned off, and use an online website down checker that tests from other locations. If both fail, it is down for everyone. If they work, the problem is your network, DNS cache, browser or firewall.
Cloudflare error 521 means your origin web server refused the connection from Cloudflare. Common causes are the server being offline or its firewall or security plugin blocking Cloudflare's IP addresses. Contact your hosting provider with the error, time and URL.
Error 522 means Cloudflare timed out while trying to connect to your origin server. The server may be overloaded, offline or blocking Cloudflare at the network level. It is a hosting-side issue, so check your host's status page and contact their support.
Usually something did change without anyone noticing: an automatic plugin update, an expired domain or SSL certificate, an unpaid hosting invoice, or a DNS edit during an email move. Check domain expiry and hosting account status first, then recent updates.
Use an uptime monitoring service that checks the site every few minutes and alerts you by email or app. Free plans exist; for example, UptimeRobot lists a free plan with 5-minute checks and SSL and domain expiry monitoring as of October 2026.