Nginx Shows Welcome Page Instead of My Site - Fix

What the error looks like

You visit your domain and instead of your site you get the stock page:

Welcome to nginx!
If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and
working. Further configuration is required.

Why it happens

Nginx is running, but it is not using your site config. It falls back to the default one. The usual causes:

• The default server block is still enabled. On Debian and Ubuntu it lives at /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default and serves that welcome page.
• Your site config is not symlinked into sites-enabled. You wrote it in sites-available but never enabled it. See includes and sites.
• server_name does not match. Your block exists but its server_name does not match the domain you typed, so the default block answers instead. See listen and server_name.
• You forgot to reload. The config is right on disk but nginx is still running the old one.

How to fix it

1. Remove the default site's symlink so it stops answering:

sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

2. Enable your own site by symlinking it from sites-available into sites-enabled:

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/example.com /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

3. Check that your server_name matches the domain you are visiting:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name example.com www.example.com;
    root /var/www/example.com/public;
}

4. Test the config and reload. A reload is required for any change to take effect:

sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Common mistake

Editing the config but never reloading. Nginx keeps running the previously loaded config until you reload it. Every fix in this lesson ends with sudo systemctl reload nginx for that reason.

A trap worth knowing: sites-available and sites-enabled are a Debian and Ubuntu convention, not nginx itself. If you installed from the official nginx.org repo, nginx.conf usually includes conf.d/*.conf instead, and there is no sites-enabled in the include path at all. You can symlink sites forever and nothing changes, because nginx never reads that directory. Run nginx -T to see which files are actually loaded.

The default_server catch

If two blocks listen on port 80 and neither is marked default_server, or the default one is, nginx uses the first matching or the default block for a request whose Host does not match any server_name. Making sure your server_name matches, and removing the default site, sends the request to the right place.

FAQ

I deleted the default file but still see the welcome page. Why?

You probably deleted it from sites-available, not sites-enabled. The active one is the symlink in sites-enabled. Remove that, then reload nginx.

Do I edit sites-available or sites-enabled?

Edit the real file in sites-available. sites-enabled holds only symlinks that point back to it. Enabling a site means creating the symlink, disabling it means removing the symlink.

My domain works but a subdomain shows the welcome page. Why?

The subdomain does not match any server_name, so it falls to the default block. Add the subdomain to a server_name, or point it at the right server block, then reload.