If your website takes more than two seconds to load, 14% of your customers will leave and find another place to shop.
Imagine what your customers would do if your website was unavailable for more than two seconds.
That’s why a website crash simply isn’t an option for online businesses.
Take a look at the most common causes of website crashes so you can stay on top of them and keep your website running.
1. Code Errors
Sometimes your website crashes because you, or someone else who has access to your website, accidentally broke the web code.
This usually happens because someone messes something up while they’re doing maintenance or updating the website. If you experience a website crash after you know someone was working on it, then it probably crashed because of a code error.
2. Virus Attacks
Attacks are the other extreme a website crash. These attacks could be from bots or actual people maliciously trying to hack into your website.
There are a lot of bots on the internet, and a lot of them carry virus software. They are like the insects of the internet. They crawl around the internet and try to find websites they can break into.
If one gets attracted to your website, the rest will swarm, usually causing your website to crash. The bots don’t even have to even break in to make the site shut down.
3. Hackers
Another type of website attack comes from hackers, people deliberately trying to break into your website.
One of the easiest hackers attacks is called a DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service attack. This means the hacker overwhelms your website with traffic from all kinds of sources. If the hacker is successful, your website will crash.
There are many other kinds of hacker attacks that can also cause damage to your website.
4. Plugin/Extension Errors
A plugin or extension are pieces of software that add onto your website and give it additional features. In other words, they let your website display content and functions that weren’t originally part of your site.
Think of it this way, you buy a new phone, but it doesn’t have any way to store or play music. So you download a music app, and now your phone can play music, something it wasn’t able to do before.
The problem with plugins and extensions is that they’re made by other people you don’t know. Some of those creators may make one that isn’t very stable and others may make a great plugin but fail to update it.
Whether the plugin or extension is just not made very well or not updated, they can sometimes give out. When that happens, your whole website can crash.
5. Service Provider Error
This error is one of the most frustrating to sit through because you can’t do anything about it.
A web hosting service providers are what make your website show up on the internet. You can’t have a website unless it is being hosted, or in the simplest way to put it stored, by a service provider.
Unfortunately, even service provider websites can go down, meaning your website will go down also. It could be for any number of reasons, including maintenance or any of the same things that could happen to your website.
The same applies to SMTP servers, which are critical for sending and relaying emails. If these servers experience downtime, email functionality can be disrupted, leading to delays in communication.
Service providers always get their servers up and running again, usually pretty quickly too, but until they fix it, you just have to wait patiently.
6. Hosting Error
This kind of fits right in with the last error, but sometimes your website can go down because you don’t have a large enough hosting plan.
Maybe you forgot about your plan and haven’t updated it since you started your website, or maybe your website just had a sudden growth.
Either way, as your website continues to develop and get more traffic, your hosting plan should grow with it. If your hosting plan is too small and a lot of people try to get onto your website, it will shut itself down.
Fortunately, this error is a simple fix. Just contact your hosting providers and select a larger plan.
7. Domain Error
Your domain may be a few small words, but it is one of the biggest parts of your website.
Your domain name is the address to your website. If you invited someone over to your house but didn’t give them the address, they wouldn’t be able to find the house. The same thing happens with a domain name. If people can’t find your domain, they can’t find your website.
And domains do expire.
If your domain expires, your website will no longer appear online.
Make a habit of checking the expiration date of your domain to make sure it never expires.
Besides, keep tabs on the SEO status of your online platform. Basically, it refers to eCommerce image optimization and your text content.
8. Traffic Error
This just means too many people tried to visit your website at once.
You know on Black Friday when so many people rush into a store at once things end up breaking and people get hurt? When too many people visit your website at once, it kind of becomes its own little Black Friday.
You probably remember back in 2015 when the theater websites crashed because so many people were trying to buy tickets to “The Force Awakens.” It’s the same thing for your website.
If too many people try to look for exterminators reviews near Rock Hill SC and the Go Forth website isn’t ready, it could crash. Make sure that your server can handle a sudden rush of traffic so that doesn’t happen to you.
What Can I Do to Fix a Website Crash?
Generally speaking, no matter what problem you’re having, you should contact your web hosting service provider.
They should be able to help you figure out any problem you’re having, especially if it is a problem hosting problem. That being said, they should help you with other website problems as well.
Stay on Top of It and Stay Patient
Every website crashes at some point. It is unavoidable. When it happens to you, stay calm and be patient. Work with your service provider to get your website back up and running, and if they can’t help you, find someone else who can.
To key to dealing with a website crash is to get your website back up as soon as possible.
Looking for some ways to improve your website? Don’t forget to check out these 5 networking tips!
