Why is My Website Not Displaying Correctly?

Website Errors

If you are not able to view your website after you upload your site content, here are a few things you can check.

1. Verify your upload directory

You must upload files to the appropriate directory in order for your website content to display. Depending on your FTP client, you may be asked for a “home” or “start” directory. Our hosting service does not require this information, so you should leave that field blank. If your client requires a value, enter a single forward slash (i.e., /) for Linux accounts or a single forward slash followed by your hosting name (i.e., /) for Windows accounts.

2. Verify your home page file name

When your domain name is typed into a Web browser, the default home page should display. This page must have a name that our hosting servers support. Depending on your account type, your order of precedence for default files may vary slightly. For Windows & Linux Hosting, default file names are as follows

Windows

  1. default.asp
  2. default.html
  3. default.htm
  4. default.aspx
  5. default.php
  6. default.shtml
  7. default.shtm
  8. index.html
  9. index.htm
  10. index.asp
  11. index.php
  12. index.shtml
  13. index.shtm
  14. home.html
  15. home.htm
  16. home.shtml
  17. home.shtm
  18. welcome.html
  19. welcome.asp
    20. Note: PHP files are not supported on IIS6 shared hosting account

Linux

  1. default.html
  2. default.htm
  3. index.php
  4. index.shtml
  5. index.html
  6. index.htm
  7. home.html
  8. home.htm
  9. index.php5
  10. welcome.html
  11. welcome.htm
    12. Note: Linux hosting file structures are case sensitive.

3. Refresh your Web browser

Browsers can cache Web pages. To clear the cache and refresh your page, press CTRL F5 for Internet Explorer, or press CTRL R for Firefox.


4. Ensure your DNS is pointed correctly

If you registered your domain through Hosting Column, your DNS records were updated when you set up your hosting account. If you registered your domain name elsewhere, confirm that you’re using the appropriate nameservers. The nameservers you use depends on when you set up your hosting account.

5. Solve Image Problems

If your images are not displaying, make sure that the directory where they are located and the image page specified in your code match exactly. Additionally, Linux accounts are case sensitive. For example, if the name of your image is MyImage.jpg and the path in your code is myimage.jpg, the server cannot locate your image.

6. Correct broken site links

If you developed your website locally, your code should adjust for the environment change that occurs when you upload site content. Web page URLs, image paths, and database names can all be environment-sensitive.

We recommend that you use relative URLs when referencing Web pages. Relative URLs identify a Web page in relation to, or in the context of, the current page. Because they do not reference the domain name, relative URLs do not require modification when changing environments.

Thanks for visiting. For queries and suggestions, emails are welcome at learnweb@hostingcolumn.com.

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