“My website just stopped working. What do I do first?” Sooner or later, most site owners ask this, and rarely at a convenient moment. Part 1 covered how your site’s build shapes what you can edit, and Part 2 covered where doing it yourself gets risky. This last post covers what to do when something breaks, which accounts you should own, and how to decide how much to handle yourself.
Know What to Do When the Site Breaks
When a site breaks, the first few minutes should go to finding out what kind of problem you have. Panicking and clicking around can turn a small problem into a larger one, and a calm check will usually tell you whether the fault is yours, your visitors’, or somewhere in between.
Start with these checks, in order:
- Look at it from a different connection. Open the site on your phone using cellular data instead of Wi-Fi. If it loads there, the problem may be your network or a saved copy of the page in your browser.
- Try a private browser window. A private window skips saved copies of pages. If the site looks right there, clear your browser’s stored data and reload.
- Take a screenshot of what you see. Capture any error message in full, because whoever fixes it will want the exact wording.
- Check that your domain hasn’t expired. A lapsed domain name takes the whole site offline, and it’s a fix that takes minutes if you catch it early.
- Note what changed. If the problem started right after an update, a new plugin, or an edit, that’s the best clue anyone can have.
Some problems point to a hacked site. Warning signs include a red browser warning about the site, visitors being sent to pages you didn’t create, strange content in your search listing, or new pages and admin accounts you don’t recognize. If you see any of these, change your passwords, restore the last clean backup, and bring in someone who handles site security, because a restored site that still has the original weakness gets hacked again.
Don’t assume your host is watching your site. Hosting companies generally look after the server your site runs on, not the site itself, much like a garage that maintains the building but not your car. A plan that includes site monitoring and repairs might exist, but it’s a separate service, so find out what yours covers before you need it.
Each kind of site breaks in its own way. On a CMS, the usual sign is a blank white screen, a database connection error, or a layout that fell apart after an update. On a framework or hand-coded site, the typical problem is a change that never appears on the live site, or a page that fails to build, and the cause is almost always in the most recent change. A backup or version history, covered in Part 2, is what makes that quick to undo on any of them.
Keep Ownership in Your Hands
You can only update a site you have the keys to. If the person who built it holds the logins, or the accounts are in their name, then even a simple edit can turn into a request you have to make, and a falling-out can leave you locked out of your own business’s website. Checking this takes a few minutes and costs nothing.
Make sure each of these is in your name, or that you can get into it on your own:
- Your domain name. The domain is your address on the web, and the account it’s registered under should use your email and your business details. Turn on auto-renew, because an expired domain takes the site offline and the address can be bought by someone else.
- Your hosting account. Hosting is where the site’s files live. You should be able to log in, see what you’re paying for, and know when it renews.
- Your site’s admin logins. At least one administrator account should be yours. On a code-based site, the equivalent is access to the site’s files and the place they’re stored, often a code repository, so a future developer can pick the work up.
- A backup you control. Keep at least one recent copy somewhere other than the server the site runs on.
- A record of what you pay for. Write down which accounts exist, who they belong to, and when each one renews, so nothing lapses without anyone noticing.
Ownership comes down to what the contract says. Some arrangements are closer to renting than owning, where the site stays with the company that built it and disappears if you stop paying. What a Website Costs in 2026: How to Read a Quote covers the difference, and Choosing a Trustworthy Web Agency covers what to look for in a contract, including ownership and post-launch support.
A site you own can always be handed to someone else. That freedom is what makes every other choice in this guide reversible: you can do more yourself, hand off more, or switch who helps you, and none of it requires anyone’s permission.
Decide How Much to Do Yourself
You don’t have to pick one approach for good. Most owners land somewhere in the middle, and the right mix can change as the business does. There are three common setups.
- Do all of it yourself. This suits a small, simple site, an owner who enjoys the work, and a platform with little to maintain. You handle content, updates, backups, and monitoring, so the checklist from the ownership section matters most here, along with a backup kept away from the site.
- Edit the content, hand off the maintenance. For many small businesses this is the sweet spot. You keep the quick wins, like prices, hours, photos, and posts, and someone else handles updates, backups, security, and repairs. This is usually offered as a maintenance or support plan, where a regular fee covers that upkeep. Before you sign up for one, ask what’s included (updates, backups, security monitoring), how fast they respond when something breaks, and whether you can leave with everything you own.
- Hand off everything. This fits an owner whose time is better spent elsewhere, or a site with features like bookings, logins, or a store that carry more risk. You trade some speed and some cost for not having to think about it, and you should still know where your accounts and backups live.
A few questions point you to the right setup. How often does your content change? How comfortable are you with the editing tools on your site? What would an hour of downtime cost you? How would you feel opening a dashboard full of update warnings? If most of your answers lean toward “often,” “comfortable,” and “not much,” you can do more yourself. If they lean the other way, hand off more.
Whatever you choose, keep looking at your numbers. A few minutes with your stats each month tells you whether the site is doing its job, whoever is looking after it.
The goal isn’t to handle everything yourself. It’s a site that stays accurate, secure, and yours, and you can get there from any of these three starting points.