The Beginners Guide To Dealing With Website Downtime

26 September 2019

According to recent research, the average website is down for about three hours per month as a result of downtime to web hosting servers. The 99.9% uptime guarantee and refund policies offered by most to hosting provider, won’t matter if you have lost traffic as a result of downtime. On average businesses can lose $10.6 million a year as a result of website downtime.

What Are The Major Causes Of Website Downtime?

Website downtime occur for reasons,some of them include:

Website code issues: poor programming can cause heavy loads on servers which leads to database error then eventually, makes the site unresponsive

Hacker attacks: a website can be brought down by attack from hackers in various ways – the server can be overloaded with DOS attacks, or malicious code is injected to steal security credentials – either way, the website owners are often forced to shut down the site in order to resolve the problem.

Data Centre issues: downtime can be caused by the hosting company itself. In this instance, uptime monitoring tools come in handy because they allow you to track the reliability of your web hosting company.

Increased traffic: increased traffic is probably one of the leading causes of website downtime. The only way to keep your site up and running even when there is a traffic surge is to engage the services of a reliable web hosting provider – a fully functional optimized website would be useless if your web host is unreliable.

How To Protect Your Website From Downtime

It’s been established, website downtime can negatively impact an online business bottom line, therefore it is important to have protective measures in place to safeguard your business. Some of these methods include:

DNS management: is a service that automatically reroutes traffic from the affected server to a secondary server.

Backup recovery: setting up a secondary hosting account with a different hosting provider on a different server is a great backup option, that makes it easy for you to get your website online if your primary server experiences downtime

CDN: this network will basically store and deliver all cached content from your website and will protect it, in the occurrence of any short time downtime.

The combination of DNS management, a content delivery network (CDN) and a backup host- backup listing will go a long way in protecting your website from experiencing short or long-term downtime.

How To Avoid Prolonged Downtime With A Great Website Recovery Plan

Website downtime is unavoidable -site updates, extreme weather or equipment upgrade can cause website downtime. A website recovery plan and backup are are important to keep unplanned downtime from adversely affecting your business. Before setting up a website backup and recovery plan, you would need to put up – website monitoring systems in place to track website uptime. These monitoring tools provide vital information regarding website performance and availability.

With these tools, you can create a different test (checks on your website), to accurately narrow down the root cause of the problem and take adequate steps to correct it. These checks have to be set up outside of the basic HTTPS check the include-checking against known databases of virus and malware sources, record changes to DNS records and so on.

Set up a downtime page

The best time to set up a downtime page is when you still have access to your website. It comes in handy when there unplanned downtime or planned downtime. This page informs your visitor that you are on top of the situation. Putting up a ‘service unavailable’ or a ‘website undergoing maintenance’ message on a page is a great way to keep credibility and show that you have control of the situation.

How To Handle Website Downtime

1. Confirm site downtime: before taking any major step, you need to verify that your website is really down – that is, make sure it isn’t a problem with your Internet connection or browser. To be extra certain, use a different computer to test out your website.

2. Find the cause: you should try to ascertain what caused the downtime -hardware issues, a programming error, expired domain or a DNS problem?

3. Get in touch with IT support: get in touch with the support of your web host and get assistance for the issue. if you choose a great web host, you should have ready support available.

4. Inform your website users about the downtime: it is imperative that your website visitors are not left in the dark. Put out messages on your social media account to keep your customers informed about what is going on and that your business is taking steps to address the problem. If it is a planned all downtime, it is good practice to send out a warning message detailing the date and time of site maintenance.

5. Check-in with IT: communicate regularly with IT and offer any information they may need regarding the web server or your website. You should also get an estimate of how long it would take for the problem to be solved.

6. Remain calm: this is tough to do but it is important to remember that website downtime can affect anyone and it is not the end of the world. Keeping calm is a great way to stay on top of the situation and resolve it quickly.

In Conclusion

A website is an integral part of a business’s online success. Because of the great number of website downtime, it is imperative that downtime is dealt with swiftly to avoid long-term repercussions -loss of clients loyalty, the revenue.

Thankfully, major search engine websites like Google have put measures in place to help website owners mitigate SEO ranking damage by providing a way out.

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Why Should You Look Into Google Drive Alternatives?

Google Drive has skyrocketed in popularity since its release over a decade ago, and the numbers prove it. Recent research indicates that its databases hold an enormous two trillion files across 190 countries. This is an impressive achievement for a platform allowing users to store and access files from any device with an internet connection. Google Drive is an incredibly convenient service for personal and professional use. However, with the rise of cloud-based computing, businesses and organizations are increasingly turning towards Google Drive alternatives to better store and manage their data. These solutions provide superior security measures and offer a wide range of features, such as file sharing, collaboration tools, real-time editing, and more, that cater to any team's needs. Top Alternatives to Google Drive Here are some top Google Drive alternatives: Sync.com Sync.com is a Canadian cloud storage solution that offers up to 5GB of free storage with the primary account and more for an additional fee. It also has vigorous security features, such as zero-knowledge encryption and two-factor authentication. In addition, it allows syncing between connected devices and provides collaboration features like file sharing, versioning, and commenting. It also offers third-party integrations with a variety of applications. Dropbox Dropbox is a cloud storage service developed by Dropbox, Inc. that provides users with a simple way to store and share files. It offers 2GB of free storage with the primary account, and more can be purchased for an additional fee. It also has robust collaboration features and allows syncing between connected devices. For those who want more than just file storage, Dropbox also offers document scanning, calendar sharing, photo galleries, password management, remote wipe capabilities, and third-party integrations. iCloud Drive iCloud Drive is Apple's cloud-based file hosting platform that lets users securely store documents in the cloud. It is preinstalled on iOS devices like iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers so that users can access their files from any device. It also has a decent level of security and is compliant with GDPR, PPED, HIPAA, and SOC 2 standards. Microsoft OneDrive Microsoft OneDrive is Microsoft's cloud storage solution that comes preinstalled on Windows and Xbox consoles. It offers 5GB of free storage with the primary account and more available for an additional fee. It also enables syncing between connected devices and supports collaboration features like file sharing, versioning, co-authoring documents in real-time, and rich media integration. In addition, it also includes advanced security features, such as encryption at rest, data loss prevention (DLP), malware scanning and detection, and two-factor authentication. Why Should You Look at Google Drive Alternatives? Here are some advantages of using different online storage solutions compared to Google Drive for efficient management of business documents. Better Security Google Drive is a popular file storage service, but its security measures may be lacking compared to other alternatives. Consumers seek data storage services prioritizing privacy and security, and many are turning to competitors to ensure their sensitive information stays safe. For example, OneDrive is an invaluable tool for people who need quick access to their data at any place or time. This cloud platform allows users to start editing an MS Office document on one device and view it from another device, like a mobile phone or tablet on the go. Offline Availability Google Drive's offline access and ability to edit documents without the internet are beneficial features. However, users can encounter difficulties when their connections are reliable or entirely available for an extended period. Alternatively, Sync is a cloud storage service that stands out in the industry. It features full-time access and secure protection of a company's files, with dedicated encryption key security, automatic backups, and version tracking for files once they have been uploaded. Its ability to allow users to access offline storage from any device provides an additional layer of convenience when using its cloud service. It allows users to keep their data safe even if their online access gets interrupted or unavailable, giving them the added confidence of knowing that their data will remain secure and easily accessible. Privacy While Google Drive is a convenient way to store, share, and collaborate on files with others, there is an important security consideration when deciding to use the cloud service. It is widely believed that Google can browse data in the cloud. At the same time, the company assures that it cannot open or read this data. Therefore, many users are only willing to put sensitive documents in their Cloud storage if they have robust privacy policies. Alternatively, Sync provides a secure way to store and access files, utilizing its zero-knowledge security feature. Even its free 5GB account offers superior protection, and thus, it makes sense why many cloud storage users highly recommend Sync. Wrapping Up Google Drive is an excellent tool for saving and sharing documents with colleagues, but other alternatives offer better security and privacy protection. Deciding which cloud storage solution to use requires a detailed analysis of each service's features and benefits to determine which one best suits the needs of a business or organization. Additional: How To Delete A Page In Google Docs What Data Does Google Analytics Prohibit Collecting? How Does Google Ads Generate Responsive Search Ads? When Does The Tracking Code Send An Event Hit To Google Analytics?

9 Tools To Test If Your Website Is Mobile Friendly

Nowadays mobile traffic has extended as more and more people are using mobile devices to access the internet. And their choice of searching required information on Google ranking websites has also increased because of their mobile-friendliness. Hence to maintain such wide users is essential to develop and provide a fully functioning mobile-friendly website regardless of the screen size or device they are using. Before moving ahead it is important to understand what exactly we mean when we say a website is mobile-friendly and what Mobile Friendly Test is? Website mobile-friendliness is the overall performance of a website on mobile devices that provides a quality experience to mobile users. Thus enhancing website performance on any mobile is crucial because mobile device usage is growing day by day. Checking mobile friendliness without any assistance is difficult. That is why Google has introduced search calculation guidelines. With the help of this, it becomes easier to find out how user-friendly your website is and whether it is easily accessible or not. Mobile-Friendly Test is a special tool that helps to see how friendly your website is operating on different devices. It allows you to easily carry out a mobile site test and tells a website’s score in terms of its performance on all mobile devices. The test score will enable you to have an idea of whether your website is providing a good mobile user experience or not. It also says that the website falls into the mobile-friendly category and shows good results in the mobile-friendly test. With the help of this test, you will also get specific instructions on what on your site needs to be updated, fixed, or modified to make it work better on all mobiles. Making the site fast and good only on desktop but slow and not so good on mobile will not only lead to poor ranking but also to reduced traffic which ultimately causes less revenue. By making a website mobile-friendly, you will not only please your users, but you can also remarkably improve your search engine ranking by appearing higher in search engine positions. Google search calculation parameter has been confirmed as a part of the overall ranking criteria. This is a set of factors provided by Google that help in determining how convenient your site’s mobile version is to users. Previously Google has put a fine on sites that offer a poor experience to mobile users and gives much importance to the websites that take relatively less time to load and look good on all mobile devices. The more quickly you make your site mobile-friendly and ensure that Google recognizes it, the faster it can be ranked applicable by Google. However, testing your site on mobile devices can be time-consuming and expensive due to the availability of a large number of different mobile devices. But there is a way out of that. There are Mobile-friendly testing tools available online that measure how adaptive a website appears on mobile. Most of these tools can suggest ways to make your websites look better and faster on mobile. They also suggest needed adjustments in particular areas. The testing score will also give you an idea of your website's appearance on mobile and its performance for mobile users. Nine Best 9 Tools To Test If Your Website is Mobile Friendly Here we will discuss 9 such tools that can give you a brief about your website's mobile-friendliness. 1. Google Mobile-Friendly Test This is the most popular and easy-to-use mobile-friendly tester. This tool is developed and managed by Google. You just need to put your website URL and this tool will analyze your site on mobile. It helps you find out issues that prevent your site from appearing in the google searches on mobile. If your site is mobile-friendly and meets google standards it gives you a green signal. And in case it does not pass the test and fails it announces it as not mobile-friendly. This tool tells you if Google sees your page as mobile-friendly or not. If it says "no" then the page will be set down in the mobile search results and approve similar pages from other sites that are mobile-friendly. 2. MobiReady MobiReady is a very innovative and useful website testing tool that shows how a particular page appears on different mobiles. You can see how your site performs on multiple sizes of mobile devices at once. It compares your sites against popular websites and gives specific recommendations of areas you need to do well and need improvement to climb up. This tool also provides a detailed report of scores between 0 and 5 with 5 being the highest. The higher the score the more the web page is capable of performing and giving a great user experience on any mobile device. A low score indicates that the webpage is slow to load having components that can break the quality user experience. 3. W3C Mobile OK Checker The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) works to develop web standards. They have a handy mobile checker that provides specific recommendations on how to make your site more mobile-friendly and lets you know what changes need to be done. You don't require any special skills to use this tool. You just simply need to enter your URL address and a series of tests will be run on your website to determine how mobile-friendly it is. After completion of the test, you will get detailed information and analysis of your site whether it is low, medium, or severely critical. This helps in making necessary changes to improve the mobile-friendliness of your site. 4. Page speed insight Use Google’s page speed insight tools to test the speed of your website for both mobile and desktop. It helps in providing specific recommendations to increase your website speed on different devices. It shows screenshots of how your website looks on mobile and desktop as well as gives you speed scores for both mobile and desktop as well. analyzing your website in PageSpeed Insights will give you a detailed analysis of what needs to be fixed and things that have already been done correctly. 5. Google AMP testing tool AMP means Accelerated Mobile Pages. This tool is developed by Google with the goal to make fast-loading pages that look good on mobile devices and deliver the best possible mobile experience to its users. In today's time having mobile-friendly websites is very important for your online presence. Using the AMP testing tool you can check the validity of an AMP page. This test will also enable you to create mobile-optimized content to load instantly on all devices no matter what type of mobile devices you are using. It also finds out issues related to AMP that are preventing your site's appearance in search results. 6. Google TestMySite Speed matters in ranking no matter how fast your site is on the desktop. If the site speed is slow on mobile it may affect your ranking position. TestMySite is a mobile testing tool from Google that analyzes how fast a website is on mobile and it also provides ways to make the site faster and enhance users' mobile site experience. With the help of this tool, you can see the load time of your site on mobile. It also generates a personalized report to each audience with all major and minor details and also tells the next step to be followed. 7. Varvy Mobile SEO Varvy Mobile SEO ( Search Engine Optimization) is one of the most simple and useful mobile-friendly mobile SEO testing tools. It will test your site and help to know whether it is mobile-friendly and is complying with Google guidelines and SEO practices or not. This tool is simple to use, you just need to enter your URL and Varvy will provide you with helpful insights like page load quickly, the right security and accessibility, paid links, a page displaying well on mobile, and many more. Additionally, it gives recommendations of what is exactly wrong and what adjustments are needed to be done 8. RankWatch RankWatch is a simple tool to check the mobile-friendliness of your website. It provides descriptive information on whether the site is mobile-friendly or not, it also provides you with precise rankings of your website in popular search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Testing with RankWatch will give you the page score of your website. You can easily get the result containing information about the mobile viewport, its content, the size of text and links, and whether the buttons on the website are mobile-friendly or not. 9. LambdaTest’s mobile-friendly checker LambdaTest is one the most widely used tools to test a website's mobile-friendliness. It offers you an extremely handy mobile site test that allows you to check the friendliness of your mobile device. It helps you to assess your website's friendliness on a cloud of more than 3000 real devices, browsers, and operating systems on a wide range of different resolutions. Using the LambdaTest platform you can test and debug your mobile website on multiple mobile handsets of different screen sizes connected to a live mobile network in different locations. Once you run your website mobile test you will be able to see how your website is performing on a mobile device. After completion, it generates a website performance report that helps in identifying underlying issues affecting your website's performance. Hence helping you in making the required changes. Additionally, it provides you with the feature of recording the entire test session in a single video and capturing screenshots so the other team members can get access to the entire test session easily. Moreover, LambdaTest’s LT Browser helps you to view your mobile testing of websites on different preinstalled mobile device viewports. LT Browser is a developer-friendly browser that is more powerful than the default Android and iOS browsers and helps you debug and test any mobile website flawlessly. Read Also: Understanding The Role Of SEO In B2B Digital Marketing: Optimising Your Website For Success Interactive Website Tools: Exploring Strategies For Engagement And Conversion What Are Piracy Websites? | Top 10 Pirated Websites In The World

Top Web Hosting Trends for 2020

Every industry has its own set of trends and the web hosting industry is no exception. Every year, new trends and developments are discovered to help keep with the ever-changing demands of the industry, and web hosting providers struggle to be among the first to offer these experiences to their customers. If you already own a website, it is certain that you already host one web hosting company or another, and if you intend to build one in the coming year, you will also require the hosting services of a web hosting company. This article focuses on some of the top trends you should be on the lookout for from your web host, as they will help optimize your website’s performance, while significantly impacting the internet landscape. Top Web Hosting Trends for 2020: 1. Green Hosting: Running a website, blog, or internet application on an eco-friendly and energy-efficient server is bound to appeal to a lot of people, particularly now that more people are becoming increasingly aware of their environment and are conscious of reducing their carbon footprints. In 2020, we will be seeing lots of web hosting companies invest in eco-friendly schemes and participating more in eco-friendly initiatives that aim to minimize damage to the ecosystem. Green web hosting here means running hosting infrastructure on servers, routers, and equipment that runs on low energy, while at the same time implementing policies that encourage recyclable energy. This trend will greatly contribute to the recovery of the environment and as a website owner; you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are indirectly contributing to a healthier and better environment. 2. Cloud Hosting: Cloud computing is not a new concept and is a technology that has come a long way in recent years. However, not many people understand what cloud computing is, and even fewer people make use of it. However, this state of affairs is bound to change in 2020 going forward. In the first place, cloud technology has already entered into the web hosting industry, providing better site performance than website owners are used to. Unlike other forms of hosting that relies on a physical server, cloud hosting stores data on a cluster of servers, making it virtually impossible to experience downtime, server errors, or any of the other problems experienced with traditional web hosting. The beauty of this system is that you only get to pay for the resources you use, meaning that you can scale up down your website resources to fit your immediate website needs. Suffice it to say that the benefits of cloud hosting mean that a lot of websites will take advantage of this trend in the coming year. 3. Better Authentication Protocols: Security has always been one of the major concerns of website owners, with the recent rise in the level of cybercrimes, particularly those targeted at small businesses. As a website owner, one of your primary responsibilities is to make sure that the personal and financial details of your users are safe and secure. But this can be a difficult assignment if your web hosting provider is not up to the task. Thankfully, the coming year will see more in the areas of website security. Already, Google has made it compulsory for websites to have an SSL certificate installed if they want to get the search visibility they deserve, but 2020 will bring with it improvements in how websites are accessed and secured. For example, two-factor authentication (2FA) will become a popular feature for website owners as more and more web hosting companies will integrate this feature into their security systems. Other security features to look out for include compliance checks for common CMS vulnerabilities and encrypted storage. 4. Website Builders: Not too long ago, WYSISYG website tools were popular on the internet, giving anyone with an idea the opportunity to design their website without any technical or coding experience. But the rise of content management systems relegated these tools to the background until they all but disappeared. Thankfully, web hosting companies are again seeing the benefits of these tools and have developed a better version. Enter online website builders. Just like the WYSIWYG of old, website builders allow you to design, publish, and promote your website in just a few clicks and with no coding experience or technical skills. But this time around, these online tools can build even advanced websites. For small businesses nursing their finances, this means that they too can develop and run a website without spending scarce financial resources on a website designer. If the signs on the ground are anything to go by, we should expect to see highly developed website builders from almost all web hosting providers by 2020. 5. Domain research tools: Domain research tools have been available for years, with Nameboy being one of the oldest on the internet. But these days, it is becoming increasingly difficult to come up with the perfect domain name, especially because almost all the good.COM domain names are taken. Of course, if the.COM of the domain name you are searching for is taken and your website is a target at a country like New Zealand, you can always opt for the .CO.NZ alternative and immediately register it with a registrar like Domain Names From Freeparking NZ but in the coming year, finding your ideal domain name will no longer be a difficult thing. To ease the process of creating and registering domain names, domain name registrars, most of which also double as web-hosting providers will integrate domain research function in their domain search tools. With this system, if the domain name you want is already taken, you will have hundreds of similar suggestions to choose from across a variety of popular and not so popular domain name extensions. 6. Automated Backups: Already, many web hosting providers offer automated backup to their customers, but for most of these providers, this feature is an extra add-on feature that attracts an extra fee. With the increasing popularity of CMS applications like WordPress, automated backups will soon become a common feature in web hosting. Not only as backups on CMSs easy to run, but they also tend not to take up lots of space as only the files needed to run the site will be backed up, meaning that you will be able to get your site up and running in no time, should your site suffer damage for any reason. This automated backup system can be configured to run monthly, weekly, daily, or at any interval the site owner prefers. Conclusion: While it is true that some of these developments are already available today, they are not as common as they should be, but in the coming year, these and many more developments will come up in the web hosting industry and lots of site owners will be able to take advantage of them. And best of all, this change will significantly improve how you run your website. Read More: Top 9 Factors To Keep In Mind Before Choosing A Web Host 6 Things To Consider Before Choosing Web Hosting For Your Ecommerce Website Things You Should Know About Web Host Providers What Makes A Web Hosting Good?

The Beginners Guide To Dealing With Website Downtime

What Are The Major Causes Of Website Downtime?

How To Protect Your Website From Downtime