What You Can Do to Minimize WordPress Downtime

Its necessary for a website thats trying to build traffic to always be accessible (thats pretty much all websites!). In this post, well see what you can do to minimize WordPress downtime. But before that, well understand why it happens and the damage it causes.Were not talking here about planned downtime the time when the site is not accessible due to something that you are doing in the backend. There can be many other occasions when your website is down and youll not even be aware of it. Thats the kind of downtime that well discuss here.What happens if your website is down?When a Google bot or a visitor cannot find you on the internet, it sends out the wrong signals. As a result, your website can suffer many consequences:Revenue loss: Every second of downtime translates into loss of traffic.   Its estimated that Amazon suffered a loss of over $66,000 dollars per minute during a half hour outage in 2013. The loss can be huge for websites that cannot afford even a few seconds of do wntime, like banks or high traffic e-commerce websites.Dip in SEO: But financial loss is just the start. No visitor likes to see the Website Cannot Be Found message flashing on the screen. If your site is doing the disappearing act, it sets off warning bells. Think about it, whod want to transact with a website that cannot stay accessible?Its not only visitors who dont take kindly to website downtime, Google frowns on it too. If a Google bot finds your website down frequently, thats no good for your search engine rankings. However, Google does make an allowance for occasional downtime.Loss of credibility: And to top it all, youll lose credibility if you have a website thats not accessible. Itll blunt your competitive edge and mark you out as an unreliable destination. When visitors attempt to reach your website and cannot find it, youll also lose new leads.How Do You Know That Your Website is Experiencing Downtime?To fix issues relating to downtime and minimize WordPress downtime, y ou first need to be aware that your site is experiencing downtime. For this purpose, its necessary to monitor your website  using a plugin or an external service. These plugins and services continuously monitor your website and report any outage immediately. Some also provide analysis of downtime.Jetpack (Monitor Module): Jetpack is a free plugin from Automattic that checks on your website every five minutes and notifies you if the site is down. Its free and easy to use. Jetpack by WordPress.com Author(s): AutomatticCurrent Version: 7.8Last Updated: October 1, 2019jetpack.7.8.zip 78%Ratings 145,415,907Downloads WP 5.1+Requires Real User Monitor by Pingdom: Real User Monitor  is also a free plugin, and checks site accessibility from different locations around the world. Real User Monitoring by Pingdom Author(s): Pingdom ABCurrent Version: 1.0.4Last Updated: October 10, 2019real-user-monitoring-by-pingdom.zip 80%Ratings 15,091Downloads WP 2.1+Requires Uptime Robot for WordPress: Uptime Robot is an external solution, and it requires you to open a free account before you can use their plugin. Works great, though. (Its what we use at ThemeIsle.) Uptime Robot Plugin for WordPress Author(s): DownNotifier. It  checks your site every 10 minutes for free, and every one minute if youre a paying customer.Pingdom: Pingdom is a premium service, with customers like Google and Apple.In case you want a wider choice, Monitis,  Service Uptime and Uptrends  are also popular services worth considering.What causes downtime and what you can do to minimize WordPress downtime?Well list the possible causes of WordPress website downtime and then well see what we can do to minimize their impact.1. Has Your Domain Name Expired?Domain name registrations  are not forever, so check if youve overlooked renewing your domain. Check this by typing your domain name at who.is, or just go to your original registrar and see if there arent any missed invoicesLook up   the expiry date, and renew the registration if required. Go for the auto renew option, if its available with your domain name registrar.2. Is Your Name Server Configured Correctly?Even if your domain name registration is valid, not setting it up properly can cause WordPress website downtime.We surf the internet by typing in URLs in the address bar of the browser. Search engines translate these URLs into IP addresses (a string of hard-to-remember numbers) to find the physical location of the domain on the server. If the domain path is not configured correctly, search engines can lose their way.You can use DNS Check Test  to check if the DNS path is configured correctly. Many domain name registrars offer this service, so you can also check this with the registrar from whom you purchased the domain.One way to eliminate WordPress downtime on account of misconfigured DNS is to use  a secondary DNS service that you can fall back on when your primary DNS service is down. The secondary DNS complements the existing service and can take over seamlessly from this service.3. Sub-standard HostingThere are many hosting options like Virtual Private Servers, Dedicated servers, managed hosting and shared hosting, but the first two options are generally out of reach for smaller websites.When it comes to shared hosting, these are the probable issues that may arise,Hardware constraints:  There maybe many hardware constraints in the host server which affects your website. The host may allocate insufficient disk space or processing resources for your domain, the hardware used maybe outdated or it maybe kept in a physically unsafe environment.Software issues: Web server software  like Apache Web Server, MySQL, SQL Server, MariaDB  and PHP are necessary for smooth functioning of servers. The software on the servers may not be updated regularly, and this can also result in WordPress downtime.Other server-end vulnerabilities:  A good host should include firewall protection and protection against DDoS attacks. DDoS attacks are distributed denial of service thats a situation where hackers swamp a website with so much traffic that its unable to handle visits from regular users.Generally, as far as hosting services go, its mostly a case of what you pay is what you get. Most hosting services now offer 99.99% uptime, but you should check the track record of the host before you move into their servers. Check particularly for the quality of support.If you do not want to be hands on maintaining WordPress, look for a managed hosting service provider who specializes in WordPress. These service providers can take over the complete task of monitoring and maintaining your website.Here are some of our hosting reviews that might come handy when its time to select a better host for your site:FLYWHEEL REVIEW FOR WORDPRESS: A RELIABLE MANAGED HOSTING OPTION?A2 HOSTING REVIEW FOR WORDPRESS: FASTEST HOSTING YOUVE HEARD OF?INMOTION REVIEW FOR WORDPRESS HOSTING: A DARK HOR SE AMONG THE PACK?4. Is Your Website Secure?All webmasters know that keeping a website secure is not a one-time fix, its a constant vigil. Weak security for your website leaves it open to phishing and brute force attacks and many other security risks. Improving the security of your website will prevent malware and hackers from taking down your site.There are many small and big things you can do to improve site security. You can enforce strong passwords, improve security on the login page, update WordPress regularly, scan regularly for malware and much more.  Keep your websites security up-to-date at all times.Not only that, you can also rely on quality plugins like Wordfence  or services like Sucuri. Wordfence Security Firewall Malware Scan Author(s): WordfenceCurrent Version: 7.4.0Last Updated: August 22, 2019wordfence.7.4.0.zip 96%Ratings 135,846,747Downloads WP 3.9+Requires 5. Plugin/theme issues on your endOther reasons for WordPress downtime can be software issues at your end. New themes, plugins or any other software that you introduce may be incompatible with existing plugins/themes on your system.Its best to try out new plugins/themes in a staging environment after taking a backup, rather than on a live site and have it break.For a concise presentation on website downtime, take a look at this infographic from Kissmetrics.Minimize WordPress downtime: ConclusionIn spite of all the precautions you take, it may happen that your website goes down anyway. This is when youll fully understand the importance of a backup. With WordPress its easy to save your entire website, so you always have a copy from which you can restore.Even with the best safeguards in place, downtime can happen to any website, big or small. Stay calm and keep your visitors informed via alternate channels of communication such as social media. Give them a time when you expect the site to be up again. And work with your host to see how you can overcome the problem as quickly a s possible.Struggling to minimize WordPress downtime? Feel free to speak up in the comments.