If the traffic volume your site gets is increasing rapidly, then first of all congratulations. All site owners want more and more people to visit the website and consume content, shop, or get engaged. If your site is getting an unprecedented amount of traffic, then you have accomplished this goal. While this is quite great, there’s also a downside. More traffic requests could put your site at risk for crashing or slowing down. The last thing you want is for your site to go offline just when it is taking off. To prevent this scenario, follow the below steps for handling increased traffic:
Switch to a Different Type of Host
If you are using a shared hosting package, now is the time to get out of that and choose a different type of host. Shared hosting is woefully inadequate for sites that attract large volumes of traffic. You should seriously consider switching over to cloud hosting or dedicated hosting. Cloud providers are considered to be more reliable and boast near 100 percent uptimes. Dedicated is cheaper, but gives you more control and ensures high uptimes even when traffic is flowing like crazy.
Upgrade the Hosting Package
If you don’t want to switch the type of web host, then you should consider upgrading the current package you are using. For a higher fee, you may be able to get more server space, bandwidth, and security for handling high volumes of traffic. If you have chosen your existing host carefully, then this should be a relatively easy thing to do. If the provider somehow makes upgrading difficult or cumbersome, then that’s a good indication that you should find a better and more reliable provider.
Remove Unnecessary Plugins and Extensions
You may have installed various plugins or extensions to monitor site performance and user behaviour to improve services. These plugins probably wasn’t a problem when your site was experiencing low amounts of traffic. But as more people access your website, then the site will finally begin to feel the brunt of these extra components. Therefore, remove all extensions and plugins that the website absolutely doesn’t need for delivering great services. You can keep one or two for data gathering purposes. Use lightweight plugins, and overall keep the number very low.
Move Static Content to Cache
Some of the data in your website will be contained in the cache, which improves page load speed. This is a feature important now for your site more than ever. You can move certain static content that doesn’t change or directly engage with users to cache to increase site loading speed and minimise the risk of a crash. Some examples of such static content you can move include the About Us page or the Contact information page. Doing so will prevent searches getting too taxing for the browsers and other processing hardware.
Compress Images
It’s highly recommended to compress images from the get go to reduce site loading speed. If your site is getting more and more traffic, then images will take more time to load. Therefore, you should start compressing them even more now. Eliminate large images between 2MB and 5MB by compressing or replacing with smaller ones. Then you should use an image compressor to further reduce the size. Image compressors are available online for free.
Use the above tips to keep your site afloat when hordes of people are trying to access it.
