Why can my website not be reached?
When a check reports that a site could not be reached, it means the request either got no answer at all, was refused, timed out, or came back with an error status such as 500 or 503. Sometimes it is a passing blip, but if a scanner cannot reach the site, some real visitors and search engines probably cannot either. Try the address in a browser, then on a phone using mobile data rather than your own wireless.
Common causes
- The domain or hosting has expired; check the renewal emails.
- The DNS records point at the wrong server, often after a hosting move.
- The server is down or overloaded, giving a 500 or 503 error.
- A firewall or security plugin is blocking anything it does not recognise as a browser, which includes checkers and some search engine crawlers.
- The certificate has expired, so https connections fail.
- A maintenance mode or "coming soon" plugin has been left on.
How to check
Open the site on a device that is not on your own network: a phone on mobile data, or a friend's connection. If it loads for you but not for others, your browser may be showing a cached copy. Free tools such as downforeveryoneorjustme.com confirm whether it is down for everyone. If the site loads but our check cannot reach it, a firewall is probably blocking automated requests; that can also block Google, so it is worth checking in Search Console.
How to fix it
If it is down for everyone, contact your host; their status page or support will usually know. If the domain has expired, renew it immediately, as recovery gets harder after the grace period. If a firewall is blocking checkers, look for a setting to allow known crawlers, and test the site with Google's URL inspection tool to make sure it can still get in. A monitoring service that emails you when the site stops responding is cheap and worth having.
Not sure how your own site does on this? Run the free check: it takes about twenty seconds and reports on this and thirty other things.