A slow website, downtime and security breaches are a common fear for all who host their websites. While these issues are fairly low if you are partnered with renowned web hosting businesses, but thy so exist.

But, why do website owners worry about these Common Web Hosting Problems?

We understand that you cannot afford for your website to collapse, and we also understand why it is critical to act quickly if you are experiencing trouble with hosting your own website. A website that is sluggish and has frequent downtime will not impress Google, and it is especially vital for businesses to have a high rating on Google.

However, along with the impact they can have on your site, finding solutions to the myriad web hosting troubles is one of the most challenging parts.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, the owner of a small business, or a hobbyist, it is quite likely that you would wish to promote your work on a website.  However, don’t be concerned as we’re here to help.

Our experiences have well equipped us to fix slow load speeds and identify what to do when you surpass shared hosting plans. This expertise is supported not just by a group of academics but also by the personal time and money we have invested in our own websites.

Continue reading to discover more about the most common web hosting issues and how to quickly resolve them.

SLOW LOADING TIMES

A sluggish website is the only thing worse than an offline one. If they can’t find what they’re looking for promptly, visitors will soon abandon your website. The data on website load times is glaringly obvious: users detest pages that take a long time to load. Not only do they immediately take away from your prospective lead or transaction, but they also negatively impact your website’s ranking in Google’s eyes due to a low “bounce rate.”

HOW TO FIX IT 

Ways to fix slow loading times of websites:

  1. Optimize images: Reduce image file sizes to significantly improve website performance, especially crucial for image-heavy e-commerce sites that store numerous photographs. Smaller images load faster, enhancing the overall user experience.
  2. Maintain optimal image sizes: Keep individual images under 20MB, ideally no more than 500KB. For mobile devices, use 640 x 320 pixels, and for desktops, maintain dimensions between 1500 and 2500 pixels. This ensures images load quickly on various devices.
  3. Use free tools: use free online tools like Kraken.io and Optimizilla for efficient image scaling. These tools help in reducing file sizes without compromising quality, making it easier to optimize multiple images quickly.
  4. WordPress plugins: Use plugins like Smush or Imagify to automatically scale and compress images before uploading. These plugins streamline the optimization process, ensuring your site runs efficiently with minimal manual effort.
  5. Compress images: Compress original images to 80% quality to maintain high-definition standards while significantly reducing file sizes. This balance ensures visual appeal without compromising load times.
  6. Implement lazy load: Use the Lazy Load plugin to prioritize loading images only when visitors scroll near them. This technique reduces initial load time, enhancing user experience by loading content as needed.
  7. Update hosting plan: Ensure you’re using the latest version of your hosting plan to avoid performance issues. Up-to-date hosting plans often provide better resources and support, contributing to improved website functionality.      

ERRORS IN SERVERS AND DOWNTIME

We’ve all encountered this situation: you think you’ve found the perfect article to help you win the office fantasy league, but when you click the link, you get a 503 error, meaning the page or website is unavailable. This issue, known as “downtime,” can significantly harm your website’s credibility with both Google’s algorithm and your target audience.

Different types of server issues include:

  • Server overload: When a server receives more traffic than it can handle, it can crash or become unresponsive, leading to slow load times or complete inaccessibility. This can happen during unexpected traffic spikes or inadequate server capacity planning.
  • Hardware failures: Physical components like hard drives, memory, or processors can fail, causing the server to go down and your website to become unavailable. Regular hardware maintenance and upgrades can help mitigate this risk.
  • Software glitches: Bugs or issues within the server’s operating system or applications can lead to crashes or downtime, preventing users from accessing your site. Ensuring your software is regularly updated and patched can minimize these glitches.
  • Network problems: Issues with the server’s network connection can disrupt the flow of data, making your website unreachable. This can be caused by ISP issues, DNS problems, 502 bad gateway error or network configuration errors.
  • Maintenance and updates: Scheduled or unexpected maintenance and software updates can temporarily take your server offline, leading to downtime. Proper planning and notifying users in advance can help manage expectations.
  • Security breaches: Cyberattacks, such as DDoS attacks, can overwhelm your server, causing it to crash and resulting in significant downtime. Implementing robust security measures can help protect against such attacks.

Addressing these issues promptly and effectively is crucial for maintaining your website’s reliability and reputation.

HOW TO FIX IT 

Ways to fix errors in servers and minimize website downtime:

  • Choose a web hosting company with a good uptime rating: Look for providers with a consistent uptime performance, preferably above 99.9%. Research customer reviews and uptime guarantees to ensure reliability.
  • Use hosting providers with built-in uptime monitoring: Opt for hosting services that include robust uptime monitoring tools. These tools often provide real-time data and historical uptime statistics for informed decision-making.
  • View uptime data on a dashboard: Use the uptime monitoring dashboard provided by your hosting provider to visualize trends, downtime incidents, and performance metrics. This centralizes information for quick analysis and action.
  • Set up downtime notifications: Configure alerts and notifications via email or mobile alerts to notify you immediately when downtime occurs. This proactive measure ensures you can address issues swiftly, minimizing impact on users.
  • Regularly review uptime performance: Conduct regular reviews of uptime reports and performance metrics to assess your hosting provider’s adherence to uptime guarantees. Identify any patterns or recurring issues that may require troubleshooting or adjustments.
  • Implement redundancy and backups: Ensure your hosting plan includes redundancy measures like backup servers and data backups. This safeguards against server failures and data loss, providing continuity during downtime events.
  • Optimize website resources: Evaluate and optimize website resources such as server capacity, bandwidth usage, and content delivery networks (CDNs). Efficient resource management improves site performance and resilience against downtime.
  • Engage technical support: Establish communication channels with your hosting provider’s technical support team. They can provide expertise in troubleshooting server issues and offer solutions to minimize downtime effectively.

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Inadequate Tech

Inadequate tech in web hosting refers to technological deficiencies that harm website performance, security, and reliability. Outdated hardware, infrastructure, and software lead to slow loading times, frequent downtimes, and compromised security. When hosting providers neglect server updates and lack modern equipment, they fail to deliver optimal service. Insufficient technical support exacerbates issues, causing delays in problem resolution. Limited bandwidth and storage due to inadequate resources hinder scalability and performance under heavy traffic. This results in dissatisfied users and impedes website growth.

How To Fix It

Fixing the inadequate tech problem in web hosting involves several strategies to improve performance, security, and reliability. Here are ways to address this issue:

  • Upgrade hardware and infrastructure: To enhance speed and reliability, web hosting providers should invest in modern servers, storage systems, and networking equipment. Upgrading to SSDs (Solid State Drives) can significantly improve data access speeds and overall system performance.
  • Update software regularly: Regular updates to server software, including operating systems and applications, are crucial to patch security vulnerabilities and ensure compatibility. Automated updates help maintain system integrity and minimize the risk of downtime due to outdated software.
  • Enhance security measures: Installing robust firewall protection and intrusion detection systems (IDS) strengthens defences against cyber threats. Enabling SSL certificates and implementing HTTPS protocols encrypts data transmissions, safeguarding user privacy and enhancing trust.
  • Improve technical support: A strong customer support team with well-trained technicians ensures prompt resolution of technical issues. Offering 24/7 support is essential to quickly address downtime and performance issues, enhancing customer satisfaction and trust.
  • Scale resources appropriately: Monitoring bandwidth and storage usage allows providers to anticipate and accommodate fluctuations in traffic and data demands. Providing scalable hosting plans empowers customers to adjust resources according to their needs, optimizing cost-efficiency and performance.
  • Deploy Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): using CDNs to cache content and deliver it from geographically distributed servers reduces latency and enhances website loading speeds globally. This improves user experience, particularly for international audiences.
  • Conduct regular performance testing: Regular performance audits and testing identify bottlenecks and areas for optimization. Monitoring tools track server uptime, response times, and overall performance metrics, enabling proactive maintenance and troubleshooting.

Implementing these strategies will empower web hosting providers to overcome inadequate tech challenges, ensuring websites operate smoothly, securely, and reliably for their users.

PCI COMPLIANCE AND SECURITY

Your website’s success depends critically on its security. A security compromise can have disastrous consequences, especially for e-commerce enterprises. Malware or assaults can have a negative impact on your organisation by reducing client trust and causing lost earnings, customer data loss, website downtime, and significant time and financial losses.

Although website security might be confusing, there are a few easy steps you can take to protect your website and lessen your exposure to online fraud.

HOW TO FIX IT 

Here are ways to fix PCI Compliance and security problems:

  • Choose a web hosting company with a strong security stance to ensure robust protection for your website and customer data.
  • Install an SSL certificate to encrypt data transmitted through your website, including payment and login information, enhancing security.
  • Learn about PCI Compliance, which involves adhering to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to protect cardholder data for e-commerce transactions.
  • Use a website builder that handles PCI compliance requirements automatically, simplifying the process for e-commerce websites.
  • Opt for third-party payment processors like PayPal or Stripe, which manage PCI compliance on your behalf while facilitating transactions.
  • Consider using e-commerce plugins for platforms like WordPress (e.g., WooCommerce) that automate compliance tasks and streamline payment processing.
  • Use specific add-ons like WooCommerce Payments to accept PCI-compliant payments directly through WooCommerce or integrate with external processors for enhanced flexibility and security.

LIMITED RESOURCES: HIGH TRAFFIC AND SHARED HOSTING 

Since shared hosting is the least expensive option for getting your website online, many individuals choose to launch their new website on one of these plans. It is, however, also the most constrained, which may become problematic as traffic volumes increase. Your website may be failing or underperforming because it has surpassed its hosting plan!

Scalability is essential, and if your company reaches a certain size, shared hosting solutions might not be able to handle the heavy traffic loads you’re seeing.

HOW TO FIX IT 

It’s time to switch to a more sophisticated hosting package when this occurs. VPS hosting is often the next step up from shared hosting, but if you want even more room to expand, you could require dedicated server hosting. This is when you don’t have to worry about using up all of the bandwidth because your website effectively hires a server to itself.

Make sure your new plan includes the resources you need to maintain your site, though, regardless of the host you select. For instance, your next plan should have more bandwidth to counteract any issues that may arise from your present plan’s inability to handle high traffic volumes.

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INSUFFICIENT ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT

Maintaining a website isn’t always easy, so you should choose a hosting company that provides you with high-quality assistance when things don’t go as planned. In particular, you should choose a provider who provides email support requests, live online chat, 24/7 assistance, and other essential help services in case something doesn’t go as planned.

On the other hand, you can feel alone while attempting to handle technical problems if you can’t get in touch with your web host, if its help centre is a desolate wasteland of out-of-date manuals, or if queries you post on the forum go unanswered for years. Not to mention the consequences for your company if you are unable to resolve other problems or downtime, this may be rather distressing!

HOW TO FIX IT 

In the realm of web hosting, troubleshooting is both anticipated and necessary. It is quite acceptable to demand that your hosting provider respect your time and act quickly to restore your service in the event that there is an interruption. In the event that your hosting company is unable to control an outage, they ought to be accommodating and understanding of your circumstances at all times.

The more avenues for assistance, the better. Modern managed web hosting very much always comes with round-the-clock assistance, with fair accommodations for peak shopping season usage.

INADEQUATE SCALABILITY

Ideally, your web host will enable your service to expand together with your organisation very easily. The ease of rapid and easy scaling of cloud services is one of their main selling factors. Cloud technology facilitates the on-demand allocation of additional resources to your service and offers a seamless, migration-free path for permanent service upgrades or downgrades.

Before pressuring you to relocate if you’re married to a non-cloud solution, your hosting company need to be talking to you about your choices. Before upselling, reputable hosting companies search for methods to enhance their offerings. If a migration is required, they listen to your demands, are open and honest about the process, and keep you updated at every stage.

HOW TO FIX IT 

Most of the time, cloud hosting is the solution. Yes, it usually costs a bit more than hosting that isn’t in the cloud, but you get freedom in return. When your company expands and your website can no longer accommodate it, it will be easier to migrate and respond better to unexpected spikes in traffic.

Unclear Limitations

When it comes to web hosting, you wouldn’t want any unexpected issues to arise. This applies to uptime, bandwidth, storage, scalability, and other aspects of your service. Reliable web hosts are transparent about how they allocate resources and charge for their services, and they are willing to provide more details upon request.

Therefore, it’s important to review the provider’s Service Level Agreement (SLA), which often includes legal terms that allow for some flexibility in case of unavoidable service disruptions. The existence of an SLA itself is common and not necessarily a concern—most hosting providers have one. However, reading it thoroughly can help you understand what to anticipate.

How To Fix It 

Addressing “unclear expectations” issue in web hosting requires clear communication and transparency from the provider. Here are some effective ways to fix this issue:

  • Transparent communication: Ensure all aspects of the hosting service are clearly communicated to the customer, including uptime guarantees, bandwidth limits, storage capacity, and any additional costs.
  • Detailed Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Provide comprehensive SLAs that outline the terms of service, uptime guarantees, compensation for downtime, and other critical service metrics.
  • Educational resources: Offer guides, FAQs, and tutorials to help customers understand the services, features, and how to manage their hosting accounts effectively.
  • Customer support: Provide accessible and responsive customer support to address any questions or concerns customers might have regarding their service expectations.
  • Regular updates: Keep customers informed about any changes or updates to their service, including scheduled maintenance, potential downtime, or upgrades.
  • Feedback mechanisms: Implement feedback systems to gather customer input on their expectations and experiences, using this information to improve transparency and service delivery.
  • Customized service plans: Offer tailored hosting plans that meet the specific needs of different customers, ensuring they understand what is included and what is not.

CONCLUSION 

Managing a website is not only a gratifying endeavour, but it is also necessary for achieving success in the current digital environment. Nevertheless, things are not always going to go smoothly. Whether you are experiencing security difficulties, slow load times, or skyrocketing hosting prices, you are not alone. We have compiled these answers to assist you feel confidence in your ability to resolve the challenges that you are experiencing.

BigRock is a reliable domain, web security and web hosting provider that offers 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support, high scalability and performance. In case you have any doubts, queries or feedback for this article, please share them in the comments section below.

 

FAQ - Common Web Hosting Issues 

 

Does website hosting affect SEO?

Yes, website hosting can impact SEO. Factors such as server uptime, speed, and location play crucial roles. Reliable hosting ensures high uptime, reducing the risk of your site being down when search engines crawl it. Faster server response times improve page load speeds, which are favoured by search engines. Additionally, hosting servers located closer to your target audience can enhance site performance and user experience. Choosing a reputable hosting provider is essential for maintaining and improving your site’s SEO performance.

How to host a website safely?

To host a website safely:

  • Choose a reputable hosting provider with strong security measures, including firewalls, DDoS protection, and regular backups.
  • Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to encrypt data.
  • Keep all software, including content management systems and plugins, up to date to prevent vulnerabilities.
  • Implement strong, unique passwords and use two-factor authentication (2FA) for all accounts.
  • Monitor your website regularly for unusual activity and ensure you have a reliable backup solution to quickly restore it in case of a security breach.

What makes a website unsafe?

A website becomes unsafe due to several factors: lack of SSL certificates, which leads to unencrypted data transmission; outdated software and plugins that create security vulnerabilities; weak passwords that are easy to guess; and inadequate protection against malware and DDoS attacks. Additionally, poor web hosting security can expose the site to breaches. The absence of regular backups and monitoring can delay threat detection and recovery, while using insecure third-party integrations or scripts can further compromise the site’s security.

What are the risks of hosting a website?

Hosting a website comes with several risks. Security breaches can lead to data theft, hacking, or malware infections. Downtime due to server issues can disrupt user access and negatively impact SEO. Poor server performance can result in slow load times, affecting user experience and search engine rankings. Inadequate backups can lead to data loss in case of a failure.

Additionally, legal issues may arise from non-compliance with data protection regulations. Choosing a reliable hosting provider and implementing robust security measures are essential to mitigate these risks.