Having a stable, secure website is a must in the digital age. With so much competition online, website visitors are becoming more savvy about their information online. Not only do they expect your website to be a safe space, but they also expect a certain level of experience. You only have a few seconds to make an impact online.
If your website takes more than a few seconds to load, it crashes regularly, or it seems insecure, you’re going to lose traffic quickly. Website maintenance is an issue that goes beyond choosing the right host. Whether you’re starting a new website or your current website is in need of a tune up, this guide will share the best ways to ensure your site stability.
Stability Starts with Hosting
One of the biggest web dilemmas is which hosting provider you should trust with your website. Whether you’re running an online business, a blog, or a development site, you need to trust your host is reliable and secure. Choosing the wrong host can leave your website prone to security breaches, crashing, or the loss of data.
The first step to choosing the right hosting is knowing what type of hosting you need.The cheapest options is known as shared hosting which involves the sharing of a dedicated server amongst several customers. It’s generally simple to use, inexpensive, and not complicated. This type of hosting can be great for those who don’t have extensive hosting needs. They’re great for new or small websites with not a lot of traffic or security needs.
The next step up in hosting is known as VPS. This stands for Virtual Private Server and it’s when a dedicated server is divided into virtual machines which each act like independent dedicated servers. This means each customer has a larger portion of the server and more control. VPS hosting generally comes with managed services, high-speed SSDs, and monitoring. Finally, for the highest level of support and security, dedicated servers provide big power to big websites that need extra support.
Choosing the right hosting plan will create the foundation for your stable website. Without the right hosting plan, you’ll likely run into continuous problems with your website performance. Now that you understand the importance of great hosting, we can discuss other steps you can do to increase your website stability.
Website Health and Maintenance Tasks
Maintaining a healthy and secure websites means knowing what tasks to do periodically to ensure your website is at its peak performance. There are a few different ways to check in with your website to prevent problems before they start. Well it’s impossible to prevent all problems, these steps will help secure and stabilize your website.
Backup Your Data
Having a secure system for backing up data is at the foundation of your website stability. Things happen, and it’s hard to plan for problems. Having a backup saved is the best way to prevent losing data or content. While many web hosts provide automated backups, you can use an inexpensive plugin like UpdraftPlus which will do the hard work for you.
Check Broken Links
Broken links cause issues and need to be avoided. It’s time consuming to review each and every page of your website for broken links, especially if you have a large website. Luckily, there are free tools that will review your links for you. BrokenLinkCheck.com will review your website in minutes!
Website Speed Test
If your website is taking too long to load, there are steps you can take to speed it up. Regularly run your website through Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool to check just how long your page takes to load. It’ll also provide helpful ideas for speeding your website performance up!
Performance Analytics
Ultimately, the best way to review your website stability is to stay on top of your analytics. Google Analytics is an easy tool to review where your traffic comes from as well as how your website is currently performing in search engines and beyond. AppOptics is another powerful tool that focuses more on the developmental side of performance. Create a system for reviewing your own website analytics to prevent future problems.
Is your website performing as well as it should? Website maintenance doesn’t have to be complicated. Create a system and stick to it to avoid problems with your website performance or stability. Your users expect the best experience when they visit your website, so make sure things are running properly every time.