Short answer
A timeout means the request was sent but nothing came back in time. If only one page times out, a script on it is running too long; if the whole site does, look at DNS first — a domain pointing at a dead address times out rather than failing cleanly.
Learn more
- Website not loading? Start hereA quick way to work out why your website won’t load: check the exact error, whether it’s DNS, SSL, the server or your site, and go to the right fix.
- “Maximum execution time exceeded” PHP errorWhy PHP stops long-running scripts, how to work within the limit with batching and cron, and when raising max_execution_time is appropriate.
- Domain not resolving: “This site can’t be reached”Fix DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN and ‘server not found’: check the domain is registered, nameservers are set, records exist and DNSSEC isn’t broken.
Step-by-step
- Diagnose a DNS problem step by stepAdvanced · 30 min · 7 steps
- Diagnose a 500 Internal Server ErrorIntermediate · 20 min · 8 steps