A high-performing website is a huge necessity for expanding the audience and outranking the competitors. The major issues occur when sites have a significant percentage of downtime, which directly impacts all the performance characteristics.

Downtime is extremely frustrating, especially for the readers of specific news websites. Long waiting times are tiring, and no one wants to wait when there are plenty of other options with no such problems.

Here in the article, we will talk more about the effects of the server downtime and some helpful recommendations to prevent it. However, if you want a quick way to solve the problem with your site, you can just switch to a reliable hosting provider and choose cheap Linux VPS hosting with minimal downtime.

Server downtime and its effect on news websites

• Reputation losses. Any issues with the user experience are immediately spread, and that directly impacts the brand reputation. When the server is not functioning, it is a huge problem for the website that can lead to a loss of credibility and trust. Inability to get access to the needed information makes users search for more reliable websites.
• Unsatisfied users. Any small change in the website or issues can lead to huge dissatisfaction among the users. A website that is not properly functioning can keep users from getting valuable information in time. When downtime is repeated several times for a specific client, this person might not return to this resource and search for competitors. A good online experience is definitely valuable for lots of users.
• SEO ranking. One more huge impact that can be done with the downtime is the impact on SEO ranking. Search engine crawlers immediately detect timeouts and can rate a website as unreliable, which will significantly drop its ranking. In case of prolonged downtime and broken links, the news platform can experience a worsening in online presence and online visibility.

How to minimize server downtime?

Here are a couple of recommendations that can help minimize server downtime: 

• Conduct regular test performance in order to detect vulnerabilities and bottlenecks. Such tests usually include monitoring of uptime, loading, and stress testing that are necessary for checking the responsiveness and resilience.

The tests are necessary not only for dealing with the urgent problems, but also for proactive decision-making and minimizing downtime risks. With proper performance testing, it is possible to optimize content delivery, settings, and even coding strategy.

• Usage of CND. A Content Delivery Network can drastically impact the minimization of downtime risks. This is especially helpful practice for news websites with a global audience. CND functions by caching content and spreading it to various locations so that users can access information from the nearest server and have a shorter loading time.

This technology definitely boosts the reliability of the news website and improves responsiveness.

• Choose a scalable hosting solution. Scalability is a key factor that is necessary for coping with the unpredictable spikes in traffic volumes. The choice of such solutions as VPS or cloud hosting can help to create an extremely dynamic environment, where the resources can be upgraded/downgraded whenever it is needed. The scalability can directly impact performance and reduce the chances of websites’ overload or crashing.
• Reliable server infrastructure. One more great practice that can minimize downtime is the use of reliable infrastructure. This means dividing the platform’s resources between several servers so most processes can be rerouted when something goes down. Failover and load balancing mechanisms can help to automate traffic divert to the backup option if something goes wrong. So, website availability can be improved with the use of multiple servers.     
• Cybersecurity is crucial, and some useful practices can be easily implemented. For instance, regular security audits, increased cybersecurity awareness, and other practices can be extremely helpful for dealing with online threats and various malicious activities.

In case of data leakage, the platform can have a huge impact on its reputation and positive brand visibility. Except regular audits, it is also important to use blacklists, firewalls, and other approaches.

• Regular backups. It is impossible to exclude downtime, because some risks can always cause this problem. However, you can be prepared for any situation and have a backup option. A backup of the website files and databases will help to minimize the consequences if something goes wrong. To reduce risks even more, it is possible to store backups in a secure location.

Conclusion

Strategic planning is extremely important when talking about downtime and all the risks that come together with it. Just by following several recommendations, you can drastically safeguard the website from prolonged downtimes. Let’s better be prepared for some risks, rather than avoid them and provoke worse scenarios with a lowering of SEO ranking, a bad reputation, and in some cases even revenue losses.