Something's wrong with my website: what to check first

Applies to: all Rhythm Digital clients

Most website worries turn out to be one of a handful of things, and several of them you can sort out yourself in a couple of minutes. Have a look through before you email, especially if it's after hours and you'd rather not sit and stew on it.

"My change hasn't appeared"

This is far and away the most common one, and it's almost never your site being broken.

1. Did you publish? Making a change saves it as a draft. It doesn't go live until you click Publish. This catches everyone at least once.
2. Do a hard refresh. Your browser saves a copy of pages to load them faster, and sometimes shows you the old one. Press Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, or Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac.
3. Try a private or incognito window, which ignores anything saved from earlier visits.
4. Check on your phone with wi-fi turned off. If it looks right there, your computer was showing you an old copy.

If it's still not showing after all of that, send it through.

"My enquiry forms have stopped coming through"

Before assuming the form is broken, check these in order.

1. Look in your junk or spam folder. Form notifications land there surprisingly often, especially after a mail provider change.
2. Is the inbox full? A full mailbox silently rejects new mail. This one catches out a lot of small businesses.
3. Has anyone changed the email address recently, or has a staff member left and their address been closed?
4. Send yourself a test. Fill in your own form as a customer would and see what arrives.

If your test doesn't arrive, email us and say so. Tell us the date you last remember receiving one, because that helps us narrow it down quickly.

"My website is down"

First, check it's actually down for everyone and not just you.

1. Try it on your phone with wi-fi off. If it loads on mobile data but not on your computer, the problem is your internet connection or your office network, not the website.
2. Try a different browser.
3. Check the address carefully. It's easy to end up on a slightly wrong address from an old bookmark.

If it's genuinely down for everyone, that's urgent. Email support@rhythmdigital.com.au and say "site down" in the subject line so it's obvious at a glance.

"My site says Not Secure"

This usually means the security certificate needs renewing, which we handle. Send it through and mention when you first noticed it.

Don't panic about it. It doesn't mean anyone has broken into your site, and it's normally a quick fix.

"An image looks stretched, squashed or badly cropped"

Almost always the shape of the image rather than the site. A tall photo dropped into a wide space gets cropped to fit, usually from the middle.

Try a photo that's a similar shape to the one you're replacing. There's more in Getting images right before you upload.

"Something looks wrong but I can't explain it"

Send a screenshot. Genuinely, that's the fastest thing you can do. On Windows press the Windows key plus Shift plus S, and on a Mac press Cmd plus Shift plus 4. Paste it into your email.

Also tell us what device and browser you're on, because occasionally a problem only shows up in one place.

Still stuck?

Email support@rhythmdigital.com.au. Tell us what you tried from this list, which saves us asking you to do it all again.