Are These Common Server Problems Affecting Your Website?

From slow loading pages to a complete site crash, common server problems can spell disaster for your business.

When clients cannot access your service, they quickly move on to the nearest competitor. Studies have shown that slow loading pages damage brand perception, increase page abandonment rates and can even leave users feeling physically stressed.

Downtime is extremely expensive and can hurt your company’s reputation, and interruptions to the working day can reduce your employees’ overall productivity.

If you want your business to perform well, you need to be able to count on your IT networks at all times.

5 Common Server Problems That Can Affect Your Website

One of the most effective ways to prevent common server problems is to entrust the running of your web services to a respected managed host.

When trouble strikes and a server goes down, a managed hosting provider knows just how to get things back on track. Often, they can head off the problem before it takes effect – leaving your web service users none the wiser!

Let’s take a look at the five most common server problems and how to reduce the risks to your business.

1. Slow Page Loads

Over half of visitors say they will abandon a web page if its loading time exceeds three seconds.

This may seem excessive, but with faster web speeds and better access, consumers are more demanding than ever before. Lots of things can contribute to slow page loading, including image rendering, complicated forms, videos that autoplay and site usage at the time of visiting. Sometimes it may just be that the client’s web browser is to blame! However, the problem often lies with the website being accessed. If your web service is running slowly, you could start to see a real loss in revenue and your business could suffer.

With round the clock IT support available through Liquid Web, you can count on us to figure out the cause of your slow page loads and get the issue quickly fixed.

Having a fully managed web service such as Liquid Web’s Sonar Monitoring ensures that even when unexpected issues strike, there is a specialist waiting to resolve the issue. Using state-of-the-art data centers and leveraging incident resolution specialists, a fully managed solution will keep your web service active and page load time fast.

2. Cyber Attacks and Viruses

Security is a concern for every business; you need to keep yourself, your company, your employees and your clients safe at all times. Online services can carry some risk, especially when dealing with personal details or payment information. Netcraft’s recent web server survey highlighted that cyber attacks on data centers are still common – these varied attacks aim to disrupt a service, or to steal and abuse personal information.

Protection against cyber attacks and viruses is a vital part of online security for any business, and should be considered when discussing your managed web solutions. Choose a managed host who can closely monitor your systems for vulnerability, and who will step in with a solution if a potential breach of security is noted.

3. High Traffic Problems

The primary goal of almost every website, online profile, and all associated web services is to generate leads. An increase in traffic is therefore usually a positive thing, signaling that one of your marketing campaigns is working well and that your brand is being well received. However, when high traffic to a website is sudden and unexpected, this can cause issues with functionality. Too much traffic can cause pages to load slowly, features on the site to stop working, and, in some cases, the whole web service can crash.

This can be seen in action during national and international online events. For example, during the Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales, retailers and merchants such as Target and PayPal became unavailable as large volumes of shopper attempted to access the websites. If something causes a spike in your Internet traffic, your server may not be able to cope with the added pressure – shutting everyone out of your web service.

Having a managed hosting provider on hand to support you prevents high traffic becoming an issue for you. Even at times when incoming visitors run high, a dedicated managed server can manage the impact and prepare for potential problems. Whether the rush of visitors was expected or has come as a surprise, your provider can make changes as the need arises and ensure a consistent level of service for you and your clients.

4. Hardware and Software Failures

At some point, every business is likely to experience problems with their hardware. Having a team you can rely on means that when disaster does strike or when an issue starts to look likely, a fix can be applied and downtime can be avoided.

Having a fully managed web service, such as Liquid Web’s Sonar Monitoring, ensures that even when unexpected hardware and software issues strike, there is a specialist waiting to resolve the issue. Using state-of-the-art data centers and leveraging incident resolution specialists, a fully managed solution will keep your web service active at all times.

5. Site Outages and Downtime

The biggest problem that can affect a server is a total crash. A physical problem such as a fire or flood might cause you to completely lose your server. A cyber attack may cause your server to shut down completely. Hardware and software failures can also lead to a full shutdown. Or, even worse than suffering through slow server performance, your web service could become entirely unavailable – and without a proper backup, you could be out of action for quite some time.

The cost of downtime varies depending on company size and the extent to which web services make up the business, but fair estimates across the industry suggest site outages can cost large companies $5,600 USD every single minute. Scale that down for smaller companies and you are still looking at a very large loss – particularly when your online sales and services are the mainstay of your work.

By taking on the services of a leading managed hosting provider such as Liquid Web, you can avoid many of the issues relating to server management. Don’t let common server problems catch you out – put a trusted team on the job and let us ensure that incidents are resolved as soon as they happen. Contact us today for more information on our managed hosted solutions.

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