An account suspension by a hosting provider such as GoDaddy can result in downtime for your website. This is to say, a Godaddy site suspension makes your website inaccessible to visitors. Non-payment of dues is the most common reason for account suspension, however, it isn’t the only one. Malware, spam, resource abuse are some other reasons that result in Godaddy site suspended.
Now, tackling an account suspension may not be as easy for an average user to deal with. Hence, we have come up with this article to help you understand and revert this effortlessly. Here we’ll explain in simple terms how to deal with the GoDaddy site suspended message. We will discuss the causes, restoration process & prevention techniques on how to avoid this message. Let’s get started then.
Godaddy Site Suspended Examples
Having to deal with the GoDaddy site suspended message can be a frustrating experience but you are not alone. A large number of sites every year get suspended by GoDaddy due to various reasons. When the users visit the website from the internet, a message like the one given below is displayed.
Thereafter, when you try to login to your GoDaddy account using your credentials. You will see a message like the one given in the image below.
To confirm it further, you can check your email for any messages from GoDaddy which would further highlight the causes for your GoDaddy site’s suspended message.
Causes of Godaddy Site Suspended message
Payment Pending
It is quite possible that while you may be worrying that GoDaddy site suspended message has occurred because of a compromised site but in reality, it could be a reason as small as your payment is pending. Before considering all other serious scenarios, make sure to check this one first.
Although GoDaddy sends email reminders before due dates to remind you of payment it is possible that you might not have checked your mail. Or worse, they could be ending in your spam folder. Or it could be some other reasons like changing your email address.
To avoid such issues, it is recommended to use the option of automatic billing. However, non-payment issues can still arise if the credit card info is outdated.
Violation of Terms of Service
GoDaddy site suspended due to violation of Terms of Service covers a large number of situations. GoDaddy has a universal TOS agreement which can be read here. This universal agreement contains a large no of violations ranging from hosting copyrighted material to hosting fake pharma pages, sending bulk spam, etc. If your site is found to be an offender of any such offense, GoDaddy is most likely to suspend your site and in some serious offenses, legal action may be taken. However, the reasons for your GoDaddy site’s suspended message will be conveyed via email. So, it is advised to get in touch and start towards the removal of suspension.
Abuse of Allocated Resources
When you use the shared hosting plan of GoDaddy, your site is allocated a specific amount of resources i.e. webspace, processing power, etc. At times, due to reasons known or unknown, your site may exceed the quota of resources. This can create a burden on the shared server and hence lead to a GoDaddy site suspended message. However, when your site exceeds the resource limit, GoDaddy may send a warning email before suspending your account. However, if such issues are frequent with your site, it is now time to upgrade to a VPS or dedicated GoDaddy hosting program.
Website Compromised
Is your payment for GoDaddy account up to date and still your site is suspended? Did you use the server resources within your share and still the site is suspended?
Well in such cases when everything seems to run smoothly, the malicious actor is often hidden behind the scenes. In the above-given cases, it is highly likely that your site has been hacked. Moreover, the hacked sites are often used to:
- Link Farming
- Distribution of Spam
- DDoS
- Cryptocurrency mining
- Malware Distribution
- and much worse things!
The worrying part is that all this would have been going on behind the scenes. You may be unaware of the malicious scripts running in the background as they are designed to be stealthy. However, the scanners of GoDaddy pick up such illicit activities and then block your account for TOS violations. In some serious scenarios, no prior notification about GoDaddy site suspended may be provided!!
Fixing Godaddy Site Suspended message
Pay Your Dues
In case your GoDaddy site has been suspended due to no payment of dues, firstly login to your GoDaddy account. Thereafter, visit the payment section and pay your dues. In case you use automatic payment, make sure to update your payment info. Once the payment is done, contact the customer service to restore your site.
Limit Your Resource Usage
In order to minimize the usage of resources, look out for the defaulters using heavy resources. They could be:
- A new upgrade to the site.
- New plugin installed on the site.
- Background job running on the server.
In case, you still need more resources for your expanding site, upgrade to a different plan.
Malware Removal
Malware removal is a meticulous process and requires expert supervision. Firstly you need to identify the infected scripts. Thereafter, those infected scripts need to be manually removed. In case the infection is in core files, they need to be replaced by fresh ones. And worse, the infection may still reoccur!
Check also: Website malware scanner and backdoor removal plugin
To make the process of malware removal smooth, it is recommended to use a malware scanner and remover. Astra can do this job for you very easily. Its interface is designed to be used by an average user. Moreover, it can automatically identify the infected files and repair them. Once Astra is done with its cleanup process, contact the GoDaddy customer support. Explain them in detail (through mail or otherwise) the steps taken by you for malware removal. This would restore your site in some time.
Use A Firewall
To make the security of your site rock solid and to avoid messages like GoDaddy site suspended, it is recommended to use a security solution of some sort or a firewall. This would protect the site from such messages in the future. To make your GoDaddy hosted site secure, use a resource and user-friendly firewall like Astra.
Preventing GoDaddy Site Suspension
- Use different passwords for different components on Godaddy i.e. Cpanel, MySql, etc. Make sure to use a random and secure password.
- Always keep your CMS updated on GoDaddy.
- Opt for regular security audits of your site hosted on GoDaddy. This will help uncover vulnerabilities beforehand.
- Hide sensitive files and error messages.
- Use safe coding practices to develop your webpages.
- Get an SSL certificate for your site on GoDaddy. Use of HTTPS is preferred over HTTP for security reasons.
- Use a GoDaddy malware scanner to scan site regularly.