Downtime is an integral part of a website. Your business website, or even a WordPress blog, is not working one hundred percent of the time – periods of downtime can happen for one reason or another.
Still, it would help if you didn’t let that deter you from doing what you can to avoid your WordPress site’s downtime. There’s a difference between a site that’s down a few hours a year and one that’s only up a few hours a year.
This article should help you ensure that your site falls into the first category. Let’s show you:
What causes website downtime?
So, just because it’s not listed on the website doesn’t mean there’s something wrong. Server maintenance is usually essential and can cause website downtime. So, website maintenance is another cause of website downtime, and you can do it even if your website is healthy.
Still, even these benign reasons for uptime can become a problem if they happen too often. A server that is down for maintenance for more than a few hours a year is no good. A website that requires a lot of care can benefit from analysis and troubleshooting.
So there are ruinous things that can happen to your website and make it inaccessible. First, you may suffer a DDoS attack. It may face a crippling plugin incompatibility issue. Finally, you can put a piece of code on your website that – breaks it.
Sometimes, the belongings you do to save you a few reasons for web page downtime can be reasons for rest. For example, you could use a CDN to save DDoS assaults or lower server load.
CDN applies to your internet site. However, you could optimally use them, and they are wrongly available. It takes skill, patience, and now and again trial and blunders to manipulate an internet site well. However, downtimes can happen, and you could reason them.
Why is website downtime critical?
The most straightforward and most apparent reason why time is essential on a website that is down can’t perform a function you’ve given it when what it is because, on a website, you can function.
A business website that is down does nothing for your business. An online store cannot sell when it is not online. So, people can’t read your blog if they can’t get there.
But even if you’re sure your visitors will come back later after they discover your site is down; which you still want that your site probably shouldn’t be working; you’re up and running as much as possible.
A website that doesn’t work also doesn’t speak well to the working person or entity. On the other hand, suppose you don’t worry about making sure your site works well. In that case, you’ll look a little unprofessional and uncompromising, and you will lose your visitors’ willingness to stick with you in whatever problem your website may be experiencing.
Downtime is an integral part of your website. Unfortunately, even business websites, online stores, or WordPress blogs aren’t 100% up and running. Downtime can occur for any reason.
How to avoid website downtime
So, now that you know that some website downtime is good, but a lot of it is awful, let’s see what you can do to minimize it. Some of the steps may be obvious, but they are worth repeating because there is nothing as easy or embarrassing as ignoring something undeniable.
So, use a good hosting provider and an appropriate service package.
Every self-respecting hosting provider will offer some server uptime guarantee. It is typically 99.9% – the gold standard, which means that they ensure that downtime does not exceed the limit of eight and a half hours within a year.
One of the ways to spot an incomplete hosting provider is to look at what they promise – whether they offer no guarantees or guarantees. For example, not having a single minute of downtime for a year is slim, so no provider should offer a 100% server uptime guarantee.
A hosting provider shouldn’t be able to offer perfect packages at meager prices. This is another red flag and one that you should take very seriously because your service package can affect downtime.
If your site doesn’t have the resources to function correctly under the load it usually operates under, it will go down. So, therefore, you should choose a hosting provider that allows you to switch to better and more expensive packages quickly. When more visitors start arriving, it would be better to have the option to upgrade – the alternative is to switch to another hosting provider, and that can be a hassle.
Monitor your website uptime
So, to avoid downtime on your WordPress website, here’s one of those obvious advice we mentioned before: you need to know that your site is down to prevent it from going down in the future. You have to see the problem exists to try to solve it, right? With a website, that means monitoring your uptime.
So, there are several monitoring options you can choose from. Some options, like the famous Uptime Robot, are freemium. Other options, like Pingdom, are paid only. While price is an important thing to consider as these services with small fees tend to pile up after a while and come at a considerable expense, it is much more vital that you get the kind of service you need.
So, for example, a free service might check your site several times a day; and send you an email if something goes wrong; or a report that informs you of the status of your site for the day. Great, if it’s okay for you. But if that’s not enough and you need things like push notifications; or SMS alerts and more frequent checking, you should make sure you get those service;, even if it means spending a few extra bucks on your website every month.
Be careful with plugins and themes
So, plugins and themes are a big part of using WordPress great. They can transform your site from a collection of bland, featureless web pages into a powerful tool for growing a business, earning money, or finding new ways of self-expression.
That said, plugins and themes are a common culprit for site downtime. Because? So, because they have code, some code doesn’t work well with other code. Incompatibility issues happen all the time. So, it would help if you caught them before they do any real damage.
You may do some matters to keep away from troubles with plugins and themes. The simplest could be to undergo the plugin or subject matter documentation, reviews, or guide tickets – if you may get right of entry to them – and notice if there are any recognized issues.
So, you can also create a staging site – a copy of your site that is not publicly available – and test any plugin or theme or even a configuration before implementing it on your live site. Lastly, choosing premium plugins and themes will sometimes give you access to support staff so you can get help with troubleshooting.
Keep your site fully optimized
To avoid downtime on your WordPress website, your site might be working, but people might still have trouble accessing it. Slow load times can make people think the site is not active. Wrong internal links can make some people think parts of the site don’t work. Poorly optimized websites can contribute to some client-side errors that can cause people not to be able to access the website.
In general, speed is a big issue if you run a WordPress site or any other site. Visitors may not want to wait too long for a slow website to load, so you need to load your website quickly and easily.
There are other reasons to optimize your website. But the bottom line is that this part of the job helps keep the site running smoothly and directly or indirectly reduces downtime.
It’s safe
Ultimately, you need to do your best to keep your website safe, not just for your own benefit; however, it is for the benefit of all who use it. For example, when storing sensitive data or processing payments on a website, oversights by the security department can cause actual noticeable harm to those who rely on you to keep information safe.
So, having a malware-free website is a good thing, and it is not necessary to emphasize that using security plugins is a proper allocation of resources. If your website is subject to frequent DDoS attacks, like some CDNs, services that provide DDoS protection can keep your website online in the event of an attack.
You should also follow security best practices. For example, you can limit login attempts against brute force attacks as a countermeasure. You can also back up your website regularly. If something happens, it’s much easier to restore your website if you can use a backup. Finally, you can prevent suspicious traffic by installing a firewall. You can do many things, and you should do everything you can to keep your website safe.
Let’s close!
While WordPress site downtime is reliable, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t do as much as you can to get your site online as often as possible. People often create websites to bring them online, and if yours is not an exception to the rule – you will have to take steps to prevent and reduce downtime.
However, keep in mind that managing a website well is a balancing act, and there’s one good thing too. Overdoing security plugins – installing too many of them – can cause downtime in its own right. Therefore, try to cover all corners and evenly distribute downtime combat measures.
