A website error does not automatically mean a business’s site is down for everyone. The failure may be limited to a DNS lookup, an HTTPS certificate, the host or network path, a Googlebot fetch, or a particular visitor’s device or connection. Check the exact URL and error, then compare access from another device or network before calling it a site-wide outage.
How to tell a site-wide outage from a limited failure
Sort the report along four lines: scope (one visitor, one network, a crawler, or many users), failure layer (DNS, TLS, host/origin, CDN, or local network), symptom (name-resolution error, certificate warning, timeout, refused connection, or HTTP status), and reproducibility (continuous or intermittent). Those clues narrow the investigation; none alone proves that the site is unavailable to everyone.
Start by recording the exact URL, time, browser, error text, and whether the person reporting it can reproduce the problem. Test the same page yourself, then compare another device and another network. A failure on one visitor’s connection and a failure seen across several unrelated networks are different findings and should be described differently.
Five common cases that can look like a dead website
1. The hostname does not resolve
Messages such as “This site can’t be reached,” “Can’t find the server,” err_name_not_resolved, DNS_PROBE_POSSIBLE, or DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN can indicate that the hostname did not resolve to an address. Causes include a misspelled domain, a missing DNS record, or an incorrect record for the apex domain or www. A resolver or local-network issue can produce a similar symptom for just one visitor.
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Check that the URL is spelled correctly, then test the apex domain (for example, example.com), www, and any relevant subdomain separately. In the domain or DNS provider’s settings, confirm that the records point to the intended origin. Make DNS changes through the provider that manages those records; if that is a hosting partner, ask that provider to make or confirm the correction. Cloudflare defines DNS_PROBE_POSSIBLE as meaning “the resolver could not find DNS records for the requested hostname” in its DNS troubleshooting guidance. Its guides also explain common DNS issues and NXDOMAIN errors.
2. HTTPS is blocked by a certificate problem
A site’s server can be running while a browser blocks its HTTPS connection or displays a security warning. A certificate may be expired, untrusted, corrupted, not yet valid, or fail to cover the hostname in the URL. Compare the exact hostname that fails with the names covered by the certificate. Ask the hosting provider or certificate administrator to correct the problem; do not tell customers to bypass a security warning. Google describes the warning behavior and hostname matching in its SSL certificate guidance.
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3. The host or origin is unavailable or overloaded
A timeout, refused connection, 5xx response, or unusually slow dynamic page can point to a server, hosting, or network-path problem. Check the host’s service status and the server or application logs, and examine the response for the exact URL that failed. Then test from another network or location. One failed request does not establish that every visitor is affected.
Google’s list of possible URL-unreachable causes includes server downtime or load, DNS routing, excessive response time, and crawler blocking. Its URL-unreachable documentation describes the range of fetch failures; its hosting guidance covers general hosting failure modes.
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4. Search Console or Googlebot cannot fetch a page
A Google crawler’s failed fetch describes that fetch attempt; it does not, by itself, show that human visitors cannot open the page. Possible causes include DNS errors, timeouts, network errors, an inaccessible robots.txt file, or a host blocking Googlebot. Inspect the specific Search Console error, try the page in a normal browser, and check crawler access separately. Google lists possible failure categories—including 5xx responses, DNS issues, failed connections, no response, truncated responses, and connection refused—in its URL-unreachable guidance.
Google’s Search Status Dashboard guide says the dashboard is intended to report issues affecting many sites or users. A problem not listed there may be isolated or limited in scope, so the dashboard is useful context, not a test of your particular site.
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5. Only some visitors see an intermittent connection or TLS error
If the problem comes and goes or affects visitors on only certain networks, compare their devices, browsers, and connections before declaring a global outage. Visitor-side DNS, network interference, device or browser compatibility, and protocol behavior can all matter. For example, Cloudflare documents HTTP/3 as one possible cause of intermittent ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR when some networks or devices mishandle UDP traffic. That is a troubleshooting branch, not a diagnosis without tests. Ask affected visitors for the precise error and network details, and consult Cloudflare’s SSL protocol troubleshooting guide.
A practical check sequence
- Capture the report. Record the exact URL, time, browser, full error text, and whether the person can reproduce it.
- Verify the hostname. Check the spelling and test the apex and
wwwhostnames, as well as any relevant subdomain. - Compare access. Try the same URL on another device and another network. Note which users or networks fail and whether the issue is continuous or intermittent.
- Check DNS. Confirm with the domain or DNS provider that the relevant records point to the intended origin. If a partner manages DNS, coordinate changes with that provider.
- Check HTTPS coverage. Verify that the certificate is valid and covers the exact hostname that produces the warning; route corrections to the host or certificate administrator.
- Check the host and edge. Review provider status and server logs, and inspect the response for the exact failing URL to help distinguish an origin problem from a provider or CDN issue.
- Check crawler access separately. If Search Console reported the issue, use its specific error details and compare Googlebot access with normal browser access.
Report only what the evidence shows
Be precise when telling staff or customers what is happening. Depending on the checks, say “one visitor is affected,” “Googlebot could not fetch this URL,” or “multiple networks are receiving a 5xx response.” Reserve “the whole site is down” for evidence that supports that broader claim. For future detection, an uptime-monitoring service can provide another way to notice availability problems; it does not replace checking the affected URL, error, and visitor scope.
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