5 Helpful Tips for Preventing Website Crashes

Did you realize that there are over 1.5 billion websites on the Internet? That’s a pretty staggering statistic. With so many sites out there, it’s only natural that a large number would crash from time to time.

Unfortunately, if your website crashes, it can cost you money, and result in you losing customers. The good news is, when you get to know how to avoid crashes, you can also avoid losing money and customers.

Keep in mind, while using tools such as a syslog server and other software can help you know when issues occur, using the tips here will give you even more ammo to help you avoid a serious crash. Not sure what a syslog server is? Hop over to How To Network where you can read their Syslog Server 101 guide .

1. Make Sure You are Prepared

Be sure that you create a schedule for simulations and testing before you plan to launch your site. If necessary, hire a team to handle the testing for you.

It’s a good idea to use load testing tools to help and simulate the increase of web traffic you expect. It’s a good idea to do this when first launching a site, and when you are planning a big sale or another type of event. By doing this, you can find what’s loading the slowest and optimize the issues before the launch or big event.

2. Use a CDN (Cloud Delivery Network)

A CDN is a cloud-based data service that can scale itself automatically to help and optimize the delivery of all types of content from a basic website to heavier data things, such as video and software. The key here is reliability. This is why some of the bigger companies got into this realm, offering these services, such as Windows Azure, CDNetworks and Amazon.

It doesn’t matter which one you choose, make sure that you set it up and you begin to test it at least four weeks before your spike in traffic is going to occur. This will ensure it is prepared to handle the new load.

3. Maintain Daily Backups

The backups need to include things such as the files on the website, along with all of the databases that are being used. If your site happens to crash, then having a backup that was established recently can help ensure that your site’s content is still current.

4. Update Your Site’s Content

You need to make sure that you maintain all of your website software. This should include message boards, shopping carts, content management systems and more. Be sure that you update these things with the latest versions often.

The updates include fixes for security holes and bugs that are often present in older versions of the software. This can result in your website crashing or even operating unexpectedly.

5. Check Your Server

You need to contact your webmaster, or even take the time to check it out yourself, and make sure you don’t have the basic data caps in place with your current website host. There are some web hosts that put data caps in place, which will limit the ability to transfer data from or to your website.

Even though this may not present an issue during regular usage events, if you expect more traffic than usual, then you need to ask that these caps are removed. While this may be a service that comes with an additional fee, it is well worth it in the long run.

If you want to ensure your website doesn’t crash, then you need to use the tips and information here. Doing so will help to keep your website up and running, and ensure your users have a great experience on the site.