In this web-centric economy, your website is likely the lifeblood of your business. If it goes down, for whatever reason, it will inevitably cost you money. Website disasters range in severity, and the longer you are down, the more money you stand to lose. It helps to be aware of some of the more popular website disasters to avoid for this next year. Here are six common business-sinking website disasters you can begin to prepare for before it is too late.
Nonexistent Backups
Your website just bit the bullet and, for whatever reason, your IT expert thought there was no need to worry about backing up website and database files. Depending on how elaborately designed your website and its supporting database happen to be, this could translate to weeks or months of downtime. Always make sure you are frequently backing up such data on a remote server to ensure the best recovery plan possible.
Recovery Plan Testing
It is one thing to have a website recovery plan in place. It is another thing to actually test it in action. If you do not actively test to make sure every aspect of your website recovery plan works, then your recovery plan could create a larger IT disaster for your business than you want to have to endure. This is one time when knowing what will work to bring you back up and running in a timely fashion truly is half the battle.
Denial of Service Malware Attack
Heading into 2016, denial of service attacks are once again on the rise, knocking out websites and other network resources along the way. Sometimes these attacks will involve the execution of malware that will cause significantly more damage to a network, making it next to impossible to get a website back up and running in a timely fashion. It is important to constantly be on the lookout for malware activity on your servers to prevent extensive disruptions of this nature.
Password Vulnerability
The last thing you want to do is visit your own website and realize that someone has just hacked your admin password and wiped your servers and backup files clean. One way to prevent this type of website disaster is to employ the use of a long, complicated, alphanumeric admin password that would be next to impossible to hack.
Traffic and App Issues
If your website is offering important applications that could be streamed to clients, having too many users can get overly pricey when it comes to onsite maintenance costs. Lacking sufficient funding will inevitably impair your business. Moving user clients to cached operations on their own machines will help to put the strain of application needs for resources on the client’s end, thus helping you to avoid the associated maintenance costs on your end. In addition, a solution of this nature will help to avoid the problem of your website apps not running on older machines if you support access to an upgraded operating system in course of client-side app deployment.
Mobile-Unfriendly
A few years ago, websites could get away with having a desktop-only design. Now, however, times have changed and a mobile-unfriendly site could cost you both visibility and business. In April of this year, Google altered their ranking criteria to take mobile-friendliness into account. This is symptomatic of the changing behavior of web users. Most people rely on their smartphones and other mobile devices for internet access, so it is important to have an adaptable site design. This, according to a specialist from MBJ Integrated Technologies, should transition smoothly from web to mobile, allowing users to access your site on the go.
Slow Loading
Your website does not have to actually go down to create a website disaster. Websites that have lagging loading speeds will tend to perform with just as poor results as a website that is not accessible. In this situation, it may be the hosting company you are using who is sabotaging your website’s performance. If you realize this is happening, it is critical to shop around for a hosting company that can deliver on a faster loading speed for your website traffic and make the switch.
Website disasters come from all different angles. With a competent IT professional running your website, disasters should tend to be at a minimum in 2016; however, even with professional IT personnel managing the performance of your site, various problems can arise. It never hurts to continue to make yourself aware of how these types of disasters can occur and take measures to guard against them accordingly.
