How to Protect Your Site When Hosting Fails

No matter how stellar a web host is, failure is always an option, and it can be a maddening experience. However, even if you don’t consider yourself the most tech savvy person, there are things you can do to protect yourself, your customers and your site. Before anything else, make sure you understand exactly who your web hosting company is. Have you taken a look at their guaranteed uptime, reviews, failure history and customer testimonials?

It’s also important to consider the level of customer support available. Servers don’t work a nine to five schedule, and ideally you can easily reach a live person at any time of day or night. Always call the customer service line before switching to a new web host and see firsthand just how easy it is to talk to a live person.

Diversify Your Servers

It might seem convenient to bundle together your web hosting and email hosting, but don’t. Keep in mind that when the server fails, bundled email will fail too. Then you’re facing a double whammy of problems. Keep your email hosting separate, and always have a backup email address that has all mail forwarded to it. This way, at least you’ll be able to reach customers and answer emails even if your site is down.

It’s equally important to keep your web hosting and domain registrar separate. While your hosting company may offer domain registration, they won’t push it because they know it’s best to keep them separate. A solid web hosting company will take on a separate domain for no additional fee. And although it’s a tiny bit of extra work on your end, it will be worthwhile in the long run.

Is it Temporary?

Most likely, web server failure is temporary. It might even be a momentary glitch on the server’s end. It also might be a sign that a hacker tried to get into your account and it’s been shut down for security reasons. In this instance, you should expect customer support to reach out to you quickly. Whether it’s a small AOS furniture company or a huge corporation, in this situation it’s in the best interest of the business that the server shuts down.

However, if it’s an internal error that happens regularly, it’s time to switch servers. Remember that it’s not the web hosting company that’s suffering, it’s you and your customers. Depending on the nature of your site, a failure can cost you money and clients. That’s just not acceptable!

Call Customer Service Immediately

The moment you realize a failure has happened, call customer support. It’s possible that your site is most active at 3 AM ET. Perhaps your business or blog is most popular in Asia, and those are normal operating hours. It’s not realistic to expect a server to operate perfectly 100% of the time, but it is realistic to expect 99% uptime, quick replies and professional support.

Take some time to program the customer support number into your phone right now. The last thing you want to do is desperately search for a number while your site loses money. Being prepared and well informed is the best way to get top notch web hosting support.