Your organization created a virtual page to strengthen the brand and used all best practices to avoid failure. However, one day a bad surprise appears. THE WEBSITE IS DOWN!
This can generate a big problem for the business as potential customers will find it difficult to visualize the company’s information and can opt to go to a competitor. To avoid this situation, it is very important to understand the main causes why a website goes down.
Top Reasons Why a Website Is Down
The main causes of this problem can be due to the construction, the domain status or perhaps the hosting of the website.
DOMAIN EXPIRATION
A domain needs to be renewed annually, otherwise the site will become unavailable. If another company decides to buy your domain during the time you haven’t renewed, it can be aggravating to lose it since you’ve spent so much time attracting traffic to it. Therefore, it is very important to be aware of when your domain will expire.
Often, the domain owner receives an email alert about expiration, but if you forgot about it even for a few days, that’s it! You will have your website down!
WEBSITE PROGRAMMING ERRORS
When you look for a developer to create just one page for the company website, he or she might do considerable changes to the source code. Small errors, such as a misplaced number or symbol, can lead to incompatibility and could cause malfunctions on the website. If this happens and the developer can’t resolve it, talk to whoever created the site and request a review of the codes.
Finding an organization with expertise and credibility to develop the website is the best way to avoid this type of situation.
SERVER FAILURE
A website that receives large volumes of hits and is not prepared for it may become overloaded and crash. Therefore, before announcing an offer that could potentially increase traffic, verify first that the server is prepared for a large amount of visits and transactions.
Also, it is very important to analyze the uptime (server uptime). The higher this index, the less chance of having a site down. Therefore, give preference to choosing a hosting server with an uptime of 99.9%. If the chosen company has this number, it means that the website may be unavailable for a total of only 8 hours a year.
URL ERROR
The 301 redirect status is a protocol that serves to inform you that a page has moved. So it indicates that address A has now become B, for example, and redirects the user to the new link.
This strategy can be used when you want to redirect the page for a marketing action or due to official URL change where the previous page is now deleted. The problem occurs if this process is not done properly leaving a webpage, which is visited often, become unavailable. Properly do 301 redirects so visitors to a deleted page will be sent to a new page.
HOSTING RESOURCE LIMIT
The information processing capacity and the memory space of a website are contracted with the chosen hosting plan. If your page reaches the resource limit, it may become unavailable.
How do you use the entire feature? Pages with lots of simultaneous access, plug-ins, or using FTPS ((File Transfer Protocol with support for Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS))) can cause this problem. If you think that your hosting lacks the power needed to support your site, ask the company that provided the hosting service for a more suitable recommendation for your profile, such as expanding your plan.
Strategies to Avoid a Website Down
A website is the main “gateway” for customers. If it’s unavailable for too long, it can cause you to lose rankings on Google and affect your brand’s reputation. Therefore, it is critical to prevent this from happening. Follow the recommendations below:
QUALITY HOSTING SERVICE
Look for a reliable service provider who understands your company’s needs. Opt for a dedicated server and a service of specialists who are always available to answer your questions.
SAFETY AND EFFICIENCY
Prioritize robust information security policies for your site. This is a way to ensure the website’s smooth functioning and to avoid the loss of customer data.
