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GoDaddy Help

My website isn't displaying

If your website is not displaying, we're here to help! Follow these steps (in order) to troubleshoot some of the most common causes.

Note: While we're happy to provide general information on troubleshooting your site, we do not support site clients, scripts, applications or content. For more information, view the Statement of Support.

1. Clear your caches

Clear your web browser cache, and then check if your website will display. If you're using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) or Virtual Private Network (VPN) you may need to clear those caches as well.

2. Check if your domain registration or hosting is expired

  1. Go to your GoDaddy Renewals & Billing.
  2. If your products or services are expired, you may need to add or update your payment method, and then manually renew.

We recommend you add a backup payment method and turn on auto-renew to avoid future expirations.

3. Make sure your domain's DNS is pointed correctly

Before troubleshooting your website files and code, make sure your DNS is configured correctly. If you notice an issue and make a DNS change, it'll usually show within an hour, but can take up to 48 hours to update globally.

4. Make sure your website files are in the correct directory

5. Check the name of your default file

Make sure your default file has an appropriate name. If you have multiple default files, make sure your desired one has the correct priority:

6. Check your file and directory permissions

Overly strict or incorrect file permissions can make your website inaccessible. Consult your developer or Content Management System (CMS) requirements on what permissions should be set for your files and directories:

7. Check your file and directory ownership

If you've built your site locally or moved from another server, you may need to update your ownership. Updating file and directory ownership uses chown and should be performed by an expert. Consult your developer on what ownership should be set for your files and directories:

8. Create a test file and check its accessibility

  • Web Hosting (cPanel): Using your file manager, navigate to the appropriate root directory, and then create a test file (for example, /public_html/test.txt). Enter some text in the file, save your changes, and then try to view it in a web browser (for example, mycoolexample.com/text.txt).
  • Windows Hosting: Using your file manager, navigate to the appropriate root directory and create a test file (for example, httpdocs/test.txt). Enter some text in the file, save your changes, and then try to view it in a web browser (for example, mycoolexample.com/text.txt).
    test-file

If you can view the test file, this means your domain is technically accessible.

9. Troubleshoot your site

If you've reached this step, it's likely your developer will need to review your site files, code, applications, database, etc. to determine the cause of your site not displaying. This is not covered in the Statement of Support, but some common troubleshooting steps can include:

  • Temporarily disabling plugins and widgets
  • Changing to a default theme
  • Temporarily disabling the .htaccess file
  • Updating your CMS version
  • Updating URLs, image paths and database names from hard coding to relative paths
  • Updating your image paths to match exactly (case sensitive)

More info