A website is typically the first interaction of a prospective customer with your brand. What he sees, hears, and experiences directly translate to what he expects from your brand. If you have a physical store and a customer walks in, you would want to be well-stocked, clean, and functional. Similarly, your website should function at full speed with minimal downtime. A down website can lead to a loss of revenue and brand image. In this article, we will share five best practices to help you improve your website’s uptime.
A web server will have scheduled downtime for maintenance and repairs. However, you should aim for 99.99 per cent uptime. Here are some tips that you can follow:
#1. Use a Good Hosting Provider
If you are looking for maximum uptime, then you need to pay special attention to the hosting service used by you. What kind of hosting plan are you using? Is your website frequently down? If you are facing problems, then the best thing to do is to assess your hosting options. Talk to your hosting provider about uptime assurances. Good hosting providers generally offer VPS Hosting plans and Cloud Hosting plans with 99.99{6f8b61c7d8fa25d540b0965ebb5969324b5e2bb819e4ad11a45fb06bced71dc6} uptime assurance. The one-click scalability and high uptime of such plans make them a reliable option to minimize downtime.
#2. Optimize your site for speed
If a visitor lands on your site and abandons it due to long loading times, it is as good as a down website. Hence, it is important to optimize your site for speed. You do this by using a caching software and optimizing images and videos. Usually, more than half the weight of a website is in the form of images and videos hence optimizing them for speed should help improve the loading time of your site.
#3. Upgrade DNS
DNS or Domain Name System translates a website’s name into an IP address. Being a function of the web host, most website owners tend to overlook it. However, it is important to not ignore it since a down DNS, results in a non-responsive site. Hence, check with your hosting provider for an upgrade to a premium service.
#4. Use a CDN
A CDN or Content Delivery Network is a network of servers that are interconnected and enhance the speed of delivery of files to the website. A CDN makes copies of your site’s databases, content, media, etc. across all the webservers on the network. When a user visits your website and requests information, the webserver closest to the user gets into actions and fulfills the request. This helps in improving the loading time of your website.
#5. Manage JavaScript Files
One of the best ways to improve your website’s performance and subsequently its uptime is by keeping it clutter-free. Ensure that you compress the JavaScript files and reduce the size of the files. Also, ensure that all the third-party JavaScript files load asynchronously. Hence, if the third-party server faces downtime, your website does not get affected.
Summing Up
We hope that these tips help you improve the uptime of your website. Remember, a website that is frequently unavailable can lead to a loss of revenue and future business. Ensure that you take all measures to keep your website reliable.