After any change to hosting, files or the domain, check the site from outside the office, on a phone using mobile data. The office often sees an old copy while customers see the host's placeholder.

Your address, someone else's page

The site was moved to a new host, or the plan was upgraded, or a new design was uploaded. At the office everything looks right.

Customers see something else: the host's coming soon page, a list of file names, a test page saying the server works, or a page of advertisements for other businesses.

Nobody at the office notices, because the office is not looking at what customers see. The first sign is usually a customer asking whether the business has closed.

What visitors may see instead

The fourth is the one that costs most. A parked domain carries ads chosen to match its name, and for a local business they can include its competitors.

Why the office still sees the old site

When a domain moves to a new server, the change spreads through the internet's address system over hours, sometimes a day or two. Computers and office routers remember the old answer until it expires.

Browsers keep their own copies of pages too, and may show a saved version without asking the server at all.

And during a move, whoever did the work may have set their own computer to look at the new server directly. Their screen is then the one place where everything certainly works.

Cause one: the domain points to the wrong place

A domain's settings say which server answers for it. Change them to the new host before the site is set up there, and the new host answers with its default page.

A mistyped setting does the same, and so does pointing the domain at a new account set up for a slightly different name, with or without the www.

The old host may still be serving the real site perfectly. Nothing sends visitors there any more.

Cause two: files in the wrong folder

A hosting account shows visitors one folder for each domain, often called public_html or www. Upload the site one level up, or into a subfolder, and visitors get whatever was already in the right folder.

Usually that is the host's own placeholder. It can also be an empty folder, which some servers display as a list of its contents.

If the host's placeholder file is left beside your new home page, the server may show it first, depending on which file name it looks for. Deleting it is part of the upload.

Cause three: a plan or domain that lapsed

Hosting plans and domains renew on a schedule, and the reminders go to whatever email address was on file when they were bought. If that belongs to a former employee, nobody sees them.

When a card expires or a renewal fails, the host suspends the account and shows its own notice. An expired domain usually goes to the registrar's parking page, and recovering it after a grace period can cost an extra fee.

A worked example

A compost delivery business with two trucks brings bulk compost and garden soil to homes and community gardens from March to June, and takes most orders through its website.

Last winter its web designer moved the site to a new hosting plan and changed the domain's settings. The files went into a subfolder rather than the folder the server shows visitors.

The designer checked it through the host's temporary preview address, where it worked. The owner looked once from the office that day, before the change reached her computer, and saw the old site on the old plan.

Within a day, everyone else saw the new host's coming soon page. Nobody at the business looked again in the quiet weeks, until a customer phoned to ask whether it had closed.

The files were moved to the right folder and the host's placeholder deleted.

The designer then loaded the site on a phone over mobile data, had someone in another town do the same, and set up a monitor that watches for the phone number.

Check from outside the office

After every change, look at the site the way a customer would. The simplest way is a phone with Wi-Fi switched off, so it uses mobile data and asks the internet afresh.

Check the address with and without the www, and the inner pages that search results send people to, not just the home page.

Then ask someone in another town or on another network to load it too. A private browsing window helps with the browser's saved copies, but not with the office's address lookup.

Keep watching after the change

Problems often appear days later, when the old plan finally ends or a forgotten renewal comes due.

Monitoring services can load your home page every few minutes and email you if it fails or stops containing a phrase you choose, such as your phone number. That catches placeholder pages, which a simple up-or-down check would miss.

Keep the old plan running for a few weeks after a move, and put both renewal dates in a calendar that more than one person reads.

Who does what during a move

Most of these failures happen between people. The designer uploads, the owner changes the domain, the host sets up the account, and each assumes someone else checked.

Write down who changes the domain settings, who uploads, who checks from outside, and when the old plan may be cancelled. Then the check has a name beside it.

The counter-case

Some confusion is normal for a few hours after a domain change, while the address system catches up. Visitors may see the old site or the new one, depending on where they are.

That is not a reason to keep changing settings. Make the change once, wait, and check from outside again later in the day.

What is not normal is a placeholder still showing the next morning. After any change, keep checking from outside the office until customers see what you see.

After every change

  1. Turn off Wi-Fi and load the site on a phone.
  2. Check the address with and without the www.
  3. Open the pages people reach from search.
  4. Ask someone elsewhere to load it too.
  5. Keep the old plan for a few weeks.
  6. Send renewal notices to an inbox someone reads.
  7. Set up monitoring that looks for your phone number.

Step one takes a minute and catches most of these problems. A phone on mobile data sees roughly what a stranger sees, which is the only view that matters.

Saved copies in the browser can hide a change from the person checking, as covered in files the browser downloads again on every page.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the site look fine at the office?

Office computers and routers remember where the domain used to point, and browsers keep saved copies, so the office can see the old site while customers do not.

What causes a host's default page to appear?

Usually the domain pointing at a server with nothing set up for it, files uploaded to the wrong folder, or a hosting plan that lapsed.

How do I check what customers see?

Turn off Wi-Fi on a phone and load the site on mobile data, with and without the www, and ask someone on another network to try too.

Why did a folder listing appear?

Some servers show the contents of a folder that has no home page in it. It usually means the site's files went into a different folder.

What happens when a domain expires?

It usually goes to the registrar's parking page, often full of ads. After a grace period, recovering it can cost an extra fee on top of the renewal.

How can I catch this automatically?

Use a monitoring service that loads your home page every few minutes and emails you if a chosen phrase, such as your phone number, disappears.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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