Most Common Reasons for Website Downtime And How Can You Prevent Them

An accessible website is crucial for all businesses, especially in today’s competitive market, where customers expect seamless online experiences and minimal downtime. As of 2024, 85% of customers expect a seamless online experience.

However, when a website experiences downtime, it’s unavailable or not functioning properly, disrupting users’ ability to complete tasks or find information. On average, a 1-minute delay in page load time can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.

When a site isn’t always accessible, it not only inconveniences users but also damages a company’s reputation, So, it’s really important to understand why websites go down and figure out ways to stop it from happening.

This article will explore the common reasons behind website downtime and provide strategies for mitigating its impact.

What Happens When Your Website Is Down?

When your website is down, it becomes inaccessible to users. This means that people trying to visit your site won’t be able to do so. As a result, you may lose potential customers, experience a drop in website traffic, and damage your online reputation.

Additionally, extended downtime can lead to missed opportunities for sales or engagement with your audience. Therefore, it’s essential to address website downtime promptly to minimize its negative impact on your business.

• CMS Issue

Creating websites is made easy with a content management system (CMS) offering a user-friendly interface for website control. CMS enhances functionality by employing plugins, extensions, themes, and third-party integrations.

However, compatibility issues can arise with updates. For example, updating a theme must be compatible with your CMS to avoid unexpected downtime.

To prevent this, avoid outdated themes/plugins. Instead, opt for reliable, regularly updated integrations compatible with your CMS.

Furthermore, maintaining a website backup is crucial. Before any upgrades, ensure you have a backup to revert to if issues arise. Automated backup tools can help ensure you always have a recent copy available for restoration in case of website problems.

• Expiration Of Domain Name

After purchasing a domain, it must be renewed before expiration to ensure your website remains active.

There’s usually a grace period of 30-45 days for renewal. After that, it enters a redemption period, typically lasting 30 days, during which you can still renew it, but with extra fees.

If you still haven’t renewed after the redemption period, the domain becomes available for anyone to register, and your site will be lost permanently.

• Mismanaged Website Maintenance

Regular maintenance is crucial to prevent websites from becoming inaccessible. This involves checking and maintaining both hardware and software components.

Hardware maintenance includes cleaning and updating outdated hardware, while software such as plugins, themes, and CMS should be updated promptly to avoid issues.

Website Maintenance Is Vital To Keep Your Website Running Smoothly, For Which You Can Follow These Tips

1. Make sure the website is hosted on a reliable server. Find our Reliable Web Hosting Service here.
2. Always keep your website updated; it includes installing the latest security patches and updates.
3. Regularly clean your website’s cache and files to keep it running fast.

• Incorrect Setting in DNS

Linking your web hosting account with your domain via DNS (Domain Name Server) is crucial for accessing your website using the domain name.

Small errors in DNS settings, like mistakes in nameservers, can render your website inaccessible. Ensuring that the DNS record correctly points to the server’s primary IP address is essential.

Additionally, setting a CNAME for your www record to point to your primary domain ensures that both www.xyz.com and xyz.com display the same content.

Add separate A / CNAME records for each subdomain to maintain accessibility.

• Coding Error

Coding mistakes are worrying when your site won’t open. Even a small error in the code can cause big problems.

These mistakes can stop your site from loading right, which means you could lose customers, and your site might even get shut down.

Using a coding error detection tool is essential for identifying and fixing website coding mistakes early on, preventing them from becoming major issues.

• DDOS Attacks

DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks represent a significant cyber threat to websites and systems. ackers flood a website with fake requests, making it crash or not work. This happens because there are too many requests, which use up all the website’s resources.

As a result, the website goes offline for a while.

Even if your website is not the main target of a DDoS attack, it can still be affected if it’s on the same server as the target.

This can cause problems like disrupting your business, stopping visitors from reaching your site, and making your data less safe. This shows how serious DDoS attacks can be.

• Hardware Issue

Website infrastructure relies heavily on physical servers. Any disruption to these servers can lead to unpredictable website downtime, which can occur due to various reasons such as outdated hardware, manual errors, or natural disasters.

If your website experiences downtime, it is crucial to contact your hosting provider for assistance. A reliable hosting company will ensure the upkeep of hardware and promptly address any issues, making it essential to choose a trustworthy provider to minimize downtime risks.

• Network Issue

You might also encounter difficulties connecting to the server hosting your website over the network. While you can access other sites, your particular server may be unreachable due to network connectivity issues.

Caching problems, browser issues, or other factors could cause this.

When a website is inaccessible, users may be unable to reach it and may see a blank page. If this happens, contact your hosting provider for help resolving the issue.

Alternatively, your website visitors may still access your site, but you might not be able to access it.

This could happen if your IP address is blocked due to security measures triggered by repeated failed login attempts. If this occurs, contact your hosting provider for assistance and guidance.

Conclusion

Your website is the first impression of your business that can attract potential customers. Therefore, in today’s digital age, protecting your website is more important than ever.

We have listed some of the most common reasons a website could be inaccessible. I also shared the solutions to avoid such issues to ensure impeccable uptime for your website.

Choosing a reliable hosting provider can avoid most of these issues. Furthermore, it will help your business websites create a dynamic online presence to support your business’ growth.