Your website is a bit like your car. Most days it just runs, and you don’t think about it. Then one morning it won’t start, and of course it’s the morning you have somewhere important to be.
When a website goes down, customers can’t find your hours, can’t book, and can’t buy. Some of them won’t come back to try again. The good news is that most WordPress outages aren’t random bad luck. They come from a handful of common causes, and nearly all of them can be prevented with some regular care.
Five common causes, and how to prevent each one
1. Updates that don’t get along
The problem: WordPress runs on plugins, which are small add-ons that handle things like contact forms, galleries, and online booking. Each one is built by a different developer. Usually an update goes fine. Sometimes one update clashes with another plugin or with your theme, and the site breaks. This is the most common cause by far.
The fix: update carefully, not blindly. Updates matter for security, so skipping them isn’t the answer. The safer approach is to update on purpose: make a backup first, update a few things at a time, and check the site afterward. Turning on automatic updates for everything is like letting your phone install anything it wants in the middle of a big presentation.
If you host with Artmil, this is handled for you. We test and apply updates carefully, then check your site afterward.
2. Plugins nobody looks after anymore
The problem: Some plugins stop getting updates because the developer has moved on. They might keep working for a while, but eventually something around them changes and they break, or they turn into an easy target for hackers.
The fix: keep fewer plugins. Every plugin is one more thing that can break or be broken into. If you aren’t using a plugin, remove it. If it hasn’t been updated in a year or more, look for a replacement that’s still maintained.
3. Hackers and malware
The problem: Most attacks aren’t personal. Automated bots scan thousands of sites at a time, looking for an old plugin or a weak password. Once they get in, they can redirect your visitors to spam sites or get your site flagged by Google.
The fix: use strong passwords and two-factor login. This closes the door that most bots try first. Give everyone their own login rather than sharing one, and remove accounts for people who no longer need access.
Artmil hosting protects against malware and locks down logins, so the bots find a closed door.
4. An expired domain or security certificate
The problem: Your domain name and your SSL certificate (the padlock in the browser bar) both renew on a schedule. If a renewal fails, say because the credit card on file expired, visitors see a scary warning page or nothing at all.
The fix: watch your renewal dates. Make sure your domain is set to auto-renew, and keep the payment card on file up to date. Put the renewal dates on your calendar anyway, just in case.
Also check where the renewal notices are going. If the domain was registered with a former employee’s email, or your old web designer’s, the warnings land in an inbox nobody reads. Use an address tied to a role rather than a person, like admin@ or [email protected], so the notices reach whoever is doing that job today.
5. Bargain-bin hosting
The problem: Cheap hosting is like a cheap parking garage. It’s fine until it’s packed, and then nobody can get in or out. When the plan is too small for your site, or the host crowds too many sites together, your site slows to a crawl or stops loading during busy periods.
The fix: choose hosting that fits your business. You don’t need the most expensive plan, but if your site matters to your income, the cheapest plan is usually a false economy. A good host costs a little more and saves a lot of headaches.
Two safety nets for everything else
Even with all of the above, things can still go wrong. These two habits make sure that when they do, it’s a quick fix instead of a lost day.
Back up your site, and store the backups somewhere else. A good backup turns a disaster into a minor inconvenience. Back up automatically and often (daily is ideal for busy sites), and keep copies somewhere other than your hosting account. A backup is only useful if you know it actually restores, so test it now and then.
Artmil hosting includes automatic backups stored off-site, so there’s a clean copy ready if anything goes wrong.
Set up uptime monitoring. Free services can check your site every few minutes and text or email you if it goes down. It’s much better to hear about an outage from an alert than from an annoyed customer.
Artmil hosting covers this too. We watch your site around the clock, so we often know about a problem before you do.
The bottom line
You can’t make a website completely crash-proof, any more than you can promise your car will never get a flat. But careful updates, fewer plugins, reliable backups, and good security habits prevent most outages. And when something does go wrong, those same habits turn a lost day into a 15-minute fix.
If you only do three things, do these: back up your site, be careful with updates, and set up an alert that tells you when the site goes down.
If you’d rather spend your time running your business than babysitting a website, that’s exactly what Artmil hosting is for. We take care of updates, backups, security, and monitoring, so your site stays up and you can stay focused on your customers.
Keep reading
Wondering why one host charges $3 a month and another charges $30? Read the companion article, What Your Hosting Bill Actually Buys. It explains, in plain English, what you’re paying for and how to tell whether your plan fits your business.