5 most popular reasons why your website might not be working
1. **Code errors**
Your site may stop working because someone carelessly modifies the web code. This often happens during technical maintenance or website updates. If you can identify that a colleague or partner recently worked on the code, contact them to pinpoint the exact reason.
2. **Virus attacks and hackers**
Attacks on a website can be caused by real people or bots maliciously attempting to hack your site. The internet is full of bots with virus software – if one hits your site, other viruses may also target it, leading to more severe consequences. Hackers, on the other hand, deliberately and analytically choose their targets. One of the most popular hacker attacks is DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service), where the hacker overwhelms the site with all kinds of traffic.
3. **Plugin/extension errors**
Plugins or extensions are software added to a website “from the outside” to provide additional features. If a plugin or extension isn’t updated or is improperly built, adding it to the site can cause a crash.
4. **Hosting error**
The issue could be a server outage, though service providers typically restore and restart their servers quickly. Sometimes a website may not work because the data traffic plan isn’t large enough. For example, as your website grows and gains more traffic from Google, Facebook, or similar advertising, your hosting plan should scale accordingly. If your hosting plan is too small and many people try to access your site, it will shut itself down. This error is easily fixable – just contact your hosting provider and upgrade to a larger plan.
5. **Domain error**
A domain can disconnect if its validity expires or the domain usage bill simply isn’t paid. Therefore, it’s a good idea to set a reminder to pay the domain bill once a year.
What to do to prevent a website crash?
Regardless of the potential cause, we first recommend contacting your hosting provider (e.g., Hostnet), then your IT support service if you have one. They should be able to help you identify all issues, especially if they’re hosting-related problems.