How To Deal With A Website Crash - Things That You Should Be Aware Of!

By Author: Liam Mackie
Total Articles: 285
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Have you ever experienced a scenario where your company website crashed? Most of us have faced this situation once or more. Even if it is not the company website then it has been the site of a service provider from where you intended to buy a product. What is a website crash? Why does a website crash? Let’s find out more about these questions.
 
What is a website crash?
A website crash occurs when the website stops working than it normally does. You have clicked on the link and instead of the web page opening up, you are routed to a page that says “ERROR 404” or “Bad Gateway.” If you face these instructions it means that the website has crashed or it is down for the time being. As the web development team that has created the website and is looking after its maintenance, you cannot let this situation persist. If this continues for few minutes and stretches to few hours than the company whose site is down is going to lose out on thousands of dollars in business. His customers are unable to access the site and make the necessary purchases. You have to make sure ...
... that the website is well protected against virus attack.
 
Why does a website crash?
There are multiple reasons and numerous scenarios under which a website might crash. These are:
 

Broken/bad code: If the code is broken or is a bad one, the website will crash. This might not happen initially but with the passage of time when the website was revamped and the web developers changed some code to upgrade the website, something or the other went wrong and the website crash. This situation generally arises during the mainteance and upkeep of the website. This is the reason why the team of professionals handling the web development Newcastle should be very careful with regards to the codes used. They should give proper instructions and should think twice before chainging the codes.

Issues with updates: This is the most common cause of website crashes. The backend instructions of a website are quite challenging and complex and when an update is rolled out there may be some instructions that are in direct contradiction to the existing ones. As a result, the moment the update is complete, the website crashes or it slows down. Hence, the company needs to be very careful about what is included in the updates and whether they are in sync with the existing instructions. If not then the update should not be rolled out. Proper checks and measures have to be in place at all times.

Server or hosting provider errors & outages: At times, a website crashes because of the network issues. The domain server is down because the broadband serivice provider has failed to provide the necessary speed and connection to run the site. If the broandand network fails, your site can easily crash.

Web traffic spikes: This is also quite common. This is more applicable for ecommorce websites. For example: whenever Amazon comes up with the “Big Billion Dollar Sale”, their website crashes. So many people are browsing the site from so many different locations, that the server cannot handle the load and eventually it stops responsding which leads to the website crash.

Expired domain names: Your company need to renenew the domain name on an annual basis. If there is a delay in the renewal or you forgot to renew the domain name, the website will automatically crash. The moment you renew the domain name, the website will be up and running.

Malicious cyberattacks: Malware attacks or virus attacks are not common. Often cyber criminals try to hack into popular websites to steal data and important customer information. And in order to do so they launch a virus attack against the website. Now, most of the websites have protective measures against cyber attacks. But if the protective measure is not strong enough, the virus can crash the website. The web development Newcastle team should immediately spring into action to carry out the necessary damage control.

 
What should you do when your company website crashes?
When the website crashes, you should immediately notify the experts handing the web development Newcastle of your company to take prompt action. They will either access the archived or cached version of the website so that your customers can access the website, while they are looking into what caused the crash.
 
Conclusion:
The frequency of a website crashing has gone down a lot over the years but as a website owner you never know when things can go wrong. You should always be on your toes and ensure that all safety and security measures are in place. These should be updated from time to time.
 
And when things do go wrong and the website crashes, there is no alterantive but to get in touch with the team of professionals handling the web development Newcastle of your company to look into the matter. Let the experts analyse the situation and implement the necessary steps so that your website is up and running as soon as possible.
 
About the Author: This contribution has been made by Liam Mackie who has written a number of articles on Web Development Newcastle and provides fruitful information.