Maintaining a good online presence is essential for a business of any size in the 21st century. Not only is it a great resource for your clients and customers, most businesses rely on their websites for direct sales, dissemination of crucial information and the bulk of their public relations work; many new or smaller businesses don’t even have bricks and mortar offices or shops anymore and solely conduct their business online. Online stores, social media connections and blogs are essential to keep any modern business going. So if your website crashes, you’re in big trouble. To prevent this happening there are several simple steps you can take.

Do Your Research
You have to choose your provider wisely; ask around, read reviews and look at how the size of your business compares to others that are hosted on their server. The golden rule is that the cheapest host may not always be the best one; many will try to lure you with special offers such as three months’ free use or promises of unlimited bandwidth, but you need to find out more about the specifics of their equipment and maintenance services.

Back It Up!
Try to find a host that automatically backs up daily and one where you have the ability to back up your own site whenever you choose to. As with any important document you’re working on, make sure you back it up regularly to avoid losing updates. In the event that there is a problem with your equipment, or even if you mistakenly delete your entire website, the host will be your first port of call to restore your files. If your site does crash and there are no backups, you can use Google to find the cached version of your site – the last version that was saved. This may be slightly out of date but it’s better than having to rebuild from scratch.

Run Performance Testing
A common problem for growing businesses is that a sudden spike in traffic overloads the server and the site crashes; your business looks unprofessional and you end up losing sales and customers because they can’t access your information. This sounds like an enviable position to be in, but it can happen: maybe your vintage clothing store is featured in a national magazine, or your IT services company gets a big boost from your appearance at a large convention. In this event, running a performance test will highlight these problems before they arise.

Starting a business is an exciting venture, but it is not without its headaches; a good website is a vital part of getting your message out there, so choosing a good host, backing up your files and conducting performance testing is essential to keep it running smoothly.