Why is My Website Not Displaying Correctly?

Website Errors

If you can’t see your website after uploading your site content, consider checking the following items.

1. Verify your upload directory

To display your website content, you need to upload files to the correct directory. Depending on the FTP client you are using, it may prompt you for a “home” or “start” directory. However, our hosting service does not necessitate this information, so you can leave that field empty. If your client requests a value, input a single forward slash (e.g., /) for Linux accounts or a single forward slash followed by your hosting name (e.g., /) for Windows accounts.

2. Verify your home page file name

When you enter your domain name into a web browser, the designated home page should be shown. This page needs to have a name that is compatible with our hosting servers. Depending on the type of account you have, the order of priority for default files may differ slightly. For both Windows and Linux Hosting, the default file names are outlined below.

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 obtained your domain through Hosting Column, your DNS records were modified when you created your hosting account. If your domain name was registered through another provider, ensure that you are using the correct nameservers. The nameservers required will depend on when you established your hosting account.

5. Solve Image Problems

If your images are not visible, ensure that the location of the images and the specified image page in your code correspond precisely. Furthermore, Linux accounts are sensitive to case. For instance, if your image is named MyImage.jpg but the path in your code is myimage.jpg, the server will be unable to find your image.

If you created your website on your local machine, your code will need to adapt to the changes in the environment when you upload the site content. URLs for web pages, paths for images, and the names of databases can all be sensitive to the environment.

We suggest utilizing relative URLs when linking to web pages. Relative URLs locate a web page in relation to the current page rather than using the absolute path. Since they omit the domain name, relative URLs remain unchanged when transitioning between different environments.

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

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