What can go wrong with my website?
Quite a lot of things can go wrong with a website. There are a lot of ‘points of failure’ because many things are involved in running a website.
By the end of this article, you’ll know everything that can go wrong and how you can maintain your website in the best possible way, and if the post happens, what to do if your website does go wrong.
A quick note before we get started about your website going wrong
If you do nothing else, please ensure your website is backed up as often as necessary. How often is it necessary? This comes down to how often you update your website.
Ideally, your website will be backed up at least once per day. Failing this at least once per month. If you’re not sure, either check with your website provider or website hosting company and ask them the following two questions directly:
- How often is my website backed up?
- Where can I find the backed-up files and database?
Even if something goes wrong, as long as you have access to your backups, you’re safe knowing that your website can be restored.
A bad update can break your website
With technology like WordPress, you’ll often have the option to update the code yourself. This code includes the core WordPress software and any additional features you have installed on your site. These are called plugins.
Sometimes when you update these plugins and WordPress itself, you develop software that is incompatible with each other. As long as your plugins are often maintained by the people who built them, this is rarely an issue.
When you have a plugin that is no longer being actively maintained installed on your website, if WordPress changes something that the plugin needs, this can cause the plugin to break, be deactivated, or your whole website to break and go down.
If this happens, speak to your website company to restore the backup you made sure they are taking for you.
A error in your database might crash your website
Most websites rely on a database to store the data you’ve entered onto your site. Rarely, you might experience an error or corruption in your database, which can cause your data to be unreadable or your website goes down.
If this happens, speak to your website company to get this resolved.
Deleting important content will break your website
The database, which holds the content you’ve uploaded to your website, interacts with files responsible for reading the data and then actually showing your website to your visitors.
If these files are accidentally deleted, your website could go down completely or look broken and messy, with some sections missing or styling broken.
A hacker could delete important files from your web server
Same here as above. This is why using a backup service or system for your website is always important. You can also protect yourself further by setting a strong password and using a hosting company with a good reputation.
A bot might break your website and use it for phishing
This is something that typically affects WordPress websites. A bot will use a known vulnerability to access your website code and inject some code content they want your users to see. This could be an attempt to redirect them to a different website automatically or try to access your customers’ personal information when they sign up or make a payment.
If you ever experience anything with payment information or payment fraud, contact your payment provider, and they can help. Again, a backup will ensure you can restore your files.
A server outage will cause your website to go down
Sometimes a server that your hosting company maintains will lose power or break. Usually, these things are resolved quickly, but we generally find that the more you pay for your hosting, the less this tends to happen!
Forgetting to pay your website hosting invoice
If you don’t pay your hosting bill, after a certain time, they will block your website and your access to your files until you pay. If you still don’t pay, your account will be deleted. If you cancel your web hosting, ensure you have copies of your files and databases!
Forgetting to renew your domain
Your domain is a totally separate thing from your hosting. Your hosting is the space online where you can store your files. Your domain name is the name a visitor types in to access these files that make up your website.
Sometimes your domain and hosting will be billed together, sometimes separately. Double-check that your domain is being paid for because if you forget, someone else could buy the rights to that domain, and you could lose it forever.
Failing to maintain your website might cause your website to go down
Websites like WordPress need to be maintained and updated. This is typically a simple process that can be completed in seconds each week.
If you fail to do this for a matter of months your website could go down for many reasons. Keep it up to date or pay someone to keep it up to date for your piece of mind.
Wrapping up
A website can be thought of as a car - where many different things can go wrong that lead to your car breaking down. The more you keep up with the regular maintenance, the safer you’ll be.
For everything you use online, your password should be of paramount importance.
Looking after these 2 things will ensure your website is safe for you and your visitors.
But what can go wrong with a Tiny Rockets website
Our websites are built differently than most websites. That means they’re faster, more secure, and environmentally friendly too.
Find out more about tiny rockets’ websites here..
