When a visitor types your website into the search bar, they intend to see your website and not a broken link/webpage.
In a digital world where we want everything right now, a website that is not available right now is a website we probably will not go back to in the future. That much should be obvious to everyone.
If you are not careful, your website could be sending your visitors to your competitors. So how do you keep track of your website 24/7?
One answer is to use an uptime monitoring service. Most webmasters and businesses don’t understand the importance of uptime monitoring. We’re going to help explain the reasons why you need an uptime monitoring service and what they actually do.
Without any further ado, here are a few reasons why you need uptime monitoring.
You Have Your Own Personal Security System
When a website goes down, it can be from any number of factors, including but not limited to:
· Bad Code
· Web Host Issues
· Webhost Limitations
· Hacking Attempts
· DDoS Attacks
· Expired Domains
· Expired Certificates
For the most part, you can control these factors. You can control bad code, you can control web host limitations, you can control expired domains and certificates. But you cannot control hacking attempts; you can only limit them and/or mitigate them.
Hackers will attempt to shut down websites for a number of reasons. Sometimes is for a database dump (payload), while other times it may be as simple as being a nuisance.
One of the most common, and most successful, hacking attempts are DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks are “denial of service” attacks that attempt to overwhelm the web host server until it stops responding to any request (both good or bad). DDoS attacks are also becoming more common. In fact, DDoS attacks are up 2.5 times more than they’ve ever been in the past three years. And it seems that these attacks will continue as the tools to do this have become more powerful. In most instances, the website owner will not know that the website is down until a customer contacts them via social media, email, or by phone. But, by this time, the damage done could be too much.
An uptime monitoring service keeps watch for you, alerting you to the issues before they become a problem. Think of an uptime monitoring service as your own personal security system. But, does an upset customer here and there really matter that much? The answer is a very definitive yes, because...
Upset Visitors Turns Into Lost Revenue
Visitors that run into the dreaded “Server Not Found” tend to get upset. They will try clicking on the refresh button a few times, but that does not work. Then they will make sure they typed the URL in properly, which they did. Then they will try looking for another website that can provide what they want right now.
All of this also happens in less than 15 seconds. That is why you need to use an uptime monitoring service. While you may think you can keep an eye on your website all of the time, you can’t.
In a hypothetical scenario, let’s assume for a moment that each customer that visits your website spends approximately $25.00 each time they visit (wouldn’t that be nice). And let’s assume that you receive approximately 50 visitors per hour to your website that converts and spends money.
In this scenario, in one hour, your website could potentially bring in roughly $1,250. Now, let’s assume that your website goes down for one hour.
That’s right, you just lost over a grand. Do you want to throw away that much money because of something as simple as a web hosting failure? Would you even know the reason for the drop in sales without an uptime monitoring service?
But, while a website being down can be frustrating, a slow website is almost just as bad. A slow website is like a tease without end. Remember before when we said that you have about 15 seconds to get a customer to stay on your website?
Well, you have about three seconds for a page to load before visitors are running to the competition. That is why you need to use an uptime monitoring service. You don’t want slow loading times to cost you thousands in profits.
So, what can you do to avoid website downtime? Here are a few suggestions that will help.
Top Ways To Avoid Downtime
Here are the top ways you can avoid downtime:
1. Use An Uptime Monitoring Service
Uptime monitoring services are designed help to keep track of your website 24/7.
They monitor everything from:
· Server Uptime/Downtime
· Server Response Time
· Server Stress
· Database Stress
· Domain Expirations
· Certification Expirations
· And more …
Depending on your needs, you could get all of this for as little as $5/month. When you remember the lost revenue from the earlier example, $5/month is nothing.
2. Use A Trustworthy Web Host
Make sure you use web host with local data centers to ensure your website stays up and running. They have reviewed multiple hosting providers and use data from more than ten years to determine which ones are great and which ones are just barely enough. Then they break it all down into an easy-to-read format where you can decide for yourself which one is the best option.
A good web host will have more than enough capacity for your website, your files, your traffic, etc. Just because a web host claims to be “unlimited” doesn’t mean that they are truly unlimited.
3. Make Sure That Your Website Security Is Up-To-Date
Too many webmasters and businesses tend to skimp on website security. They think “it will never happen to me” … and then it does.
When it does, your website can be hacked, changed, modified, redirected, stripped of everything (including customer data), and so on. If this were to happen to you, you could lose all of your credibility with your current customers, all the major search engines, and any future customers.
Conclusion
Ultimately, an upset customer is a lost customer in most cases. There are plenty of other competitors out there that offer what you offer (or close enough).
If your website is down, or slow, you run the risk of leaving profits on the table. With an uptime monitoring service, you’ll be able to see the problems as they happen, if not before they happen.
Needless to say, if you want to maintain your competitive edge, you have to stay ahead of the problems.
By Dan Fries
