There are few things as stressful as typing your company's web address into your browser and seeing an error screen.
If you are currently running a marketing campaign, or expecting a client to review your portfolio, every minute your site is down costs you money and credibility.
Your first instinct is to call your web developer. But often, the developer does not actually control the part of the internet that just broke. A website relies on a chain of different services: the domain registrar, the DNS provider, the hosting server, and the code itself. If any one link in that chain snaps, the site goes offline.
Before you spend hours shouting at the wrong person on WhatsApp, look at the specific error message on your screen. Here is a simple decision tree to tell you exactly what broke, and whose job it is to fix it.
1. The screen says: "This site can't be reached (DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN)"
If you see this error, your browser is saying, "I looked up this name, and it does not exist."
What broke: Your domain name (yourbusiness.com.ng) has likely expired.
Whose job it is to fix it: Your domain registrar (the company you pay your annual domain renewal fee to, such as NiRA, Whogohost, or Namecheap).
How to fix it: Log into your domain registrar account and check your billing status. In most cases, paying the renewal fee will bring the site back online within a few hours. If your developer registered the domain under their own personal account, you will have to contact them to renew it.
2. The screen says: "Your connection is not private (NET::ERR_CERT_DATE_INVALID)"
Google Chrome displays a massive, terrifying red warning screen when this happens. Visitors are told that attackers might be trying to steal their passwords.
What broke: Your SSL Certificate has lapsed. The SSL certificate is what puts the little secure padlock next to your URL. They usually expire every 90 days or every year. Whose job it is to fix it: Your hosting provider or your developer.
How to fix it: Most modern hosting accounts include free auto-renewing SSL certificates (like Let's Encrypt). If the auto-renewal failed, your developer needs to log into your hosting control panel and manually reissue the certificate. This usually takes less than five minutes.
3. The screen says: "500 Internal Server Error" or "Error Establishing a Database Connection"
This is a code-level or database-level failure. The server is online, and your domain works, but the software running your website has crashed.
What broke: A recent plugin update might have conflicted with your theme, your database credentials changed, or your server ran out of memory. Whose job it is to fix it: Your web developer.
How to fix it: Your developer needs to investigate the server error logs. If it was a bad plugin update, they can disable it via FTP. If the database crashed, they may need to restore the site from yesterday's backup.
4. The screen says: "Account Suspended" or "Bandwidth Limit Exceeded"
This is usually a plain white page with bold black text, clearly stating that the account has been suspended.
What broke: You did not pay your monthly or annual hosting bill, or your website received too much traffic and exceeded the limits of your cheap shared hosting plan. Whose job it is to fix it: You (by paying the bill) or your hosting provider.
How to fix it: Check your email for overdue invoices from your hosting company. Pay the invoice, and the site will usually come back online automatically. If you exceeded your bandwidth limit, you will need to pay to upgrade to a larger hosting plan.
5. The screen is black, has foreign text, or redirects to a gambling site
You type in your URL, and you are instantly redirected to a strange offshore betting site, or the screen is covered in unfamiliar text.
What broke: Your website has been hacked. Whose job it is to fix it: Your web developer (urgently).
How to fix it: Your site must be taken offline immediately to contain the damage. Your developer must change all passwords, find the vulnerability, and restore the site from a clean backup. We have written a step-by-step guide on exactly what to do in the first 24 hours of a website hack.
The real problem: You shouldn't have to guess
If you are running a business in Port Harcourt, you should not be spending your afternoon trying to decode DNS errors.
The fact that you do not know who to call when your site goes down is the problem. It means your digital infrastructure is fragmented. Your domain is with one company, your hosting is with another, and the developer who built the code disappeared six months ago.
When you purchase one of our website hosting and maintenance plans, that fragmentation ends. We manage the domain renewals, we configure the SSL certificates, we monitor the server uptime, and we patch the code.
If something breaks, you do not have to guess who to call. You call us.
We publish our maintenance rates transparently on our pricing page. If you are tired of playing technical detective every time your website goes offline, contact us today to move your site under professional management.
Have a project in mind?
Get a fixed quote from a Port Harcourt team.