In today’s times, website owners need to ensure that their sites are almost always up and running. Online users have a low tolerance for sites that are frequently down and often turn to competitor sites. Also, in the age of social media, if any user/s have a bad experience on your site, your business reputation can take a beating. Additionally, search engines don’t like sites that are regularly down too. They want search engine users to trust the fact that the link they click on the search engine results page is working. Hence, they dock SEO points for sites that are regularly down.
Web hosting services play an important role in ensuring the uptime of your site. There are various types of hosting services available, like Shared Hosting, Cloud Hosting, VPS Hosting, etc. In this article, we will share four tips to help you avoid website downtime.
How to avoid website downtime?
Table of Contents
1. Invest in a high-quality platform
Since your website resides on the webserver, one of the first things that you need to keep in mind to avoid website downtime is choosing a good and reliable hosting plan based on the hosting needs of your site. Every web host offers certain uptime assurance for each hosting type. This assurance is based on the infrastructure and server upkeep measures taken by the host. Ensure that before you choose the hosting provider and plan, you compare the uptime assurance offered. Look at a plan and provider that offers 99.5% + uptime guarantee.
2. Boost Site Security
In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of online attacks on websites, like malware attacks, DDoS attacks, hacking attempts, etc.. Usually, hackers try to gain access to the sensitive data of your site by forcing it to crash. Hence, you must ensure that your site is secure and protected against online threats. You can even opt for third-party cloud-based security tools like SiteLock to further fortify your website.
3. Take a Backup
Most hosting providers use the latest tools and deploy the best measures to ensure the security of your site. However, there can be times when a malicious code or virus or malware gets through the defences and crashes the server, leading to downtime. However, if you have the latest backup of your site available, then you can ensure that in the event of a security attack, you instantly restore your site and minimize downtime of your website. You can also supplement your manual backup efforts with automated backup tools like CodeGuard.
4. Uptime Monitoring
There are many tools that allow you to monitor your website regularly for availability. These tools try to access your site at regular intervals and intimate you if it is down. This is important since it allows you to immediately take corrective action and ensure that the downtime is minimized.
Summary
Remember, with most businesses having an online presence, competition is at an all-time high. Hence, as a site owner, you cannot leave any stone unturned to establish your site as reliable and trustworthy. One of the primary things that you need to ensure that your site has maximum uptime so that you can optimize every opportunity to establish your business. With a direct impact on business and revenues, avoiding website downtime is essential to your success. Follow the tips mentioned above and ensure that your site is accessible 24×7. Good Luck!