What would you stand to lose if your business website stopped working?
Here are a few ways your WordPress website could stop “working”:
- It’s been hacked because some components were outdated.
- The database server crashed on your self-hosted VPS.
- A PHP conflict produces a white screen of death during an update.
- Your website exceeds hosting plan resource limits (bandwidth, disk space, or CPU usage) and is temporarily suspended.
If you have a basic website uptime monitor that pings the website server or tests for port 80, none of the above scenarios will detect that your website is down.
Down For a Day
If your website is down for a day, how much will that cost your business?
Being down for a day as a WordPress service provider may mean nothing to your bottom line. Somewhat just an inconvenience.
If you were an e-commerce site, you’d be facing customer dissatisfaction and a significant loss of sales.
Down For a Week
Your website uptime monitor has been giving you the thumbs up, but secretly, unknowingly, your website has just been showing a white screen for the past week.
You’ve just lost a lead for a juicy, much-needed project to slot into your sales pipeline.
A previous customer looking for additional work thinks you’ve gone out of business and hops onto a competitor’s website. This is the start of damage to your brand reputation.
Google tries to crawl your site and notices there’s nothing there anymore. Time to penalise the search rankings for your site.
Integrations with third-party services start to be affected, disrupting automation and customer support.
Down For a Month
You’ve been heads down, busy trying to finish your project before the agreed deadline.
A month has flown by since your website started showing the white screen of death. ☠️ All the time, your uptime monitor says everything is unicorns and rainbows. 🦄🌈
You’ve lost thousands of dollars worth of leads and future work, and your reputation is heading down the toilet. Word of mouth starts whispering that you’re out of business.
Long-term customers might start looking for alternatives, leading to increased churn rates
A month-long downtime guarantees a significant drop in search engine rankings, which can take a long time to recover. Google tanks your search rankings, and your results drop from the first page to the fifth or worse. Your website is now just an afterthought. A ghost. 👻
If your website hosts contractual obligations or service agreements, prolonged downtime could lead to legal issues or financial penalties. Thing of those retainers and service agreement customers who can’t contact you through the website.
Down for a Quarter of a Year
While I hope this scenario is highly unlikely, let’s speculate on the damage your business could face if your website were down for three consecutive months.
☠️ Catastrophic Brand Damage: Being unavailable for three months could irreparably damage your brand’s reputation, with customers and partners losing faith in your ability to deliver.
☠️ Massive Revenue Loss: Extended downtime would result in significant direct revenue loss and potentially lose customers to competitors permanently.
☠️ Recovery Costs: The cost to regain lost search rankings, rebuild customer trust, and repair partnerships could far exceed the direct revenue lost during the downtime.
☠️ Total Business Failure: For many businesses, especially small ones or those heavily reliant on their online presence, a quarter of a year of downtime could lead to business failure.
How To Mitigate Website Down Time
To ensure your WordPress website remains operational and minimises downtime, consider implementing the following strategies:
🌈 Comprehensive Backup Solution: Implement a reliable backup system that automatically stores daily backups of your website’s data and files. This ensures you can quickly restore your site in case of data loss or corruption.
🌈 Regular Updates: Stay vigilant with your WordPress core, themes, and plugin updates. Weekly checks and updates can help protect your site from known vulnerabilities, as these updates often contain crucial security patches.
🌈 Advanced Uptime Monitoring: Utilize an advanced uptime monitoring service beyond simple server pings. Opt for a service that checks for specific keywords or functionality on your website, ensuring it’s fully operational, not just online.
🌈 Security Measures: Implement strong security measures, including firewalls, security plugins, and regular security audits, to protect against hacking and malware.
🌈 Performance Optimisation: Regularly optimise your website’s performance to prevent crashes due to high traffic or resource overuse. This includes optimising images, using a content delivery network (CDN), and caching.
🌈 Hosting Plan Review: Review your hosting plan to ensure it meets your website’s needs, especially if your site is growing or experiencing higher traffic volumes.
A Note On Recovering From a Hack or Malware
Recovering from a hack or malware infection involves a careful and thorough approach to ensure your website is cleaned, secured, and restored to full functionality:
🛠️ Immediate Response: Take your website offline to prevent further damage when a breach is detected. This also protects your visitors from potential threats.
🛠️ Assessment and Cleaning: Use trusted security tools or hire a cybersecurity expert to scan your website for malware and vulnerabilities. Remove any malicious code and infected files. I use Wordfence. You should build WordPress from the ground up using downloads from trusted sites.
🛠️ Restore from Backup: Restore your website from a clean backup. Ensure the backup predates the hack to avoid reinstating compromised files.
🛠️ Update and Strengthen Security: Update all software components to their latest versions and change all access credentials. Implement stronger security measures, such as two-factor authentication and regular security audits.
🛠️ Notify Stakeholders: Inform your customers and stakeholders about the breach, the steps you’ve taken to resolve it, and any actions they should take if necessary.
🛠️ Review and Monitor: After recovery, closely monitor your website for signs of issues. Consider engaging ongoing monitoring services to detect future threats early.
🛠️ Remove Google Malware Banner: Navigate to your Google Search Console to apply to remove the malware banner blocking your site if it has been implemented.
How To Use This Scenario To Increase Recurring Revenue
In light of the significant risks and potential financial losses associated with website downtime, website owners must understand the importance of proactive management and maintenance.
This scenario isn’t merely a cautionary tale; it’s an opportunity to arm yourself with the knowledge and tools needed to protect your digital presence. That’s where the “Website Owner’s Survival Guide” comes into play.
Introducing the “Website Owner’s Survival Guide”
Available at wosg.com.au, this comprehensive guide is designed for website owners who wish to navigate the complexities of maintaining a healthy, secure, and resilient online presence.
By incorporating the “Website Owner’s Survival Guide” into your offerings, you can provide your clients with an invaluable resource that empowers them to:
🦄 Minimise Risks: Learn the critical steps to prevent common website failures, from outdated components leading to hacks to resolving hosting issues that could bring a site down.
🦄 Maximise Uptime: Discover strategies for implementing robust backup systems, regular updates, and advanced monitoring solutions that keep websites running smoothly.
🦄 Recover Quickly from Disasters: Gain insights into effective recovery plans for bouncing back from hacks, malware infections, or accidental data loss, ensuring minimal downtime and impact on business operations.
🦄 Enhance Website Security: Access practical advice on strengthening website security to protect against emerging threats and vulnerabilities.
Leverage for Recurring Revenue
Offering the “Website Owner’s Survival Guide” as part of your service packages adds value to your client relationships and opens up new recurring revenue streams. Consider these strategies:
💵 Bundled Packages: Include the guide in a premium service package with managed hosting, regular maintenance, and security auditing. This adds a tangible resource to your digital services, enhancing client satisfaction and retention.
💵 Exclusive Workshops and Webinars: Host educational sessions that walk clients through key concepts from the guide, supplemented by your expert analysis and advice. This positions you as a trusted advisor while promoting the guide as a must-have resource.
💵 Consultation Services: Use the guide as a foundation for personalised consulting services, helping clients implement the practices and strategies covered. This can particularly appeal to businesses looking for tailored solutions to their unique challenges.
Until next time, keep thriving!
Wil.