Why does the old design of my client's website appear broken for some visitors?

A broken or outdated version of your client's website may appear to certain visitors due to caching issues, DNS propagation delays, or incorrect asset loading. Here's how to troubleshoot and resolve it:

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1. Check for Local Browser Caching

• Visitors may be seeing an older, cached version of the site stored in their browser.
• Ask users to clear their browser cache or open the site in incognito/private mode to test.
• Use tools like Chrome DevTools > Network tab, then check "Disable cache" and reload the site.

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2. Verify DNS Propagation

• If the site was recently moved to Webflow or DNS records were updated, full DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours.
• Use tools like whatsmydns.net to check A records and CNAME records globally.
• Ensure you’ve correctly pointed the domain to Webflow:
• A Records: (a) 75.2.70.75, (b) 99.83.190.102
• CNAME: your Webflow subdomain (e.g., proxy.webflow.com)

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3. Confirm You Published to Both Domains

• In Webflow, you may have multiple domains connected (e.g., root domain and www).
• Make sure you’ve published the latest version to all connected domains:
• Click Publish in the Webflow Designer.
• Select both yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com, then click Publish to selected domains.

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4. Inspect Asset Hosting and Delivery

• Sometimes, assets (CSS, JS, images) are cached from the old site.
• Use Chrome DevTools to inspect whether assets are loading from Webflow CDN (assets.website-files.com).
• Clear the Webflow CDN cache if needed by republishing the site.

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5. Look into Proxy or CDN Layers

• If you're using an external CDN (Cloudflare, for example), it might be serving a cached version of the old site.
• Purge the CDN cache and ensure it's pulling fresh content from Webflow.

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6. Validate No Split-Domain Issues

• Ensure both the root domain and www version redirect to the same version.
• Set the default domain in Webflow by going to Project Settings > Hosting, then enabling the primary domain (typically the www version).

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7. Disable Service Workers (if any)

• If the old design included a service worker, it might still be cached on visitors’ browsers.
• These can persist and override fresh content unless explicitly cleared or updated.

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Summary

The outdated or broken appearance is typically caused by browser or CDN caching, DNS not fully propagating, or publishing mistakes in Webflow. Clear caches, confirm proper publishing, and ensure domain settings are fully aligned with Webflow’s recommendations to resolve these inconsistencies.