7 Typical Causes of Website Crashes and How to Prevent Them

Website crashes can have devastating effects, especially for e-commerce businesses. They can lead to loss of revenue, customer dissatisfaction, and damage to your brand’s reputation. Additionally, downtime can negatively impact your search engine rankings. While having a reliable hosting provider can minimize downtime, it’s essential to understand the risks, as 81% of retailers experience at least one instance of downtime every year.

Here, we’ve listed seven common causes of website crashes and shared tips on how to prevent them.

1. DNS Errors

DNS errors can occur due to incorrect configurations, issues with your DNS provider, or even infections that prompt your hosting provider to block your site.

Prevention Tips:
Keep all your plugins up to date, ensure your website’s security, and verify that your domain or hosting plan hasn’t expired.

2. Google Blacklisting

If your site is blacklisted by Google, users may see warning messages like, “Your connection is not private” or “This site contains malware.” While this is not technically a crash, it can disrupt your traffic, rankings, and sales until the issue is resolved.

Prevention Tips:
Protect your site by using strong passwords, keeping all software and plugins updated, and securing your site with HTTPS encryption and the necessary security plugins.

3. Expired Domain

Your domain and hosting plan are separate services that require individual renewal. If your domain expires, your website will become inaccessible.

Prevention Tips:
Set your domain to auto-renew through your hosting provider to avoid any service interruptions.

4. Expired Hosting Plan

When your hosting plan expires, your website will no longer be available. Most hosting plans are valid for one or two years, so it’s essential to stay on top of the renewal process.

Prevention Tips:
Enable auto-renewal for your hosting plan or make sure you track renewal dates closely. If you plan to switch hosting providers, ensure the transition is completed before your current plan expires.

5. Virus Attacks

Malicious bots or malware can cause website crashes, infecting not only your site but also your visitors’ devices. Ensuring constant protection is vital.

6. Hacker Attacks

A common form of cyberattack is a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, where hackers overwhelm your website with excessive traffic.

Prevention Tips:
Use HTTPS, ensure your passwords are secure (preferably stored in a trusted password manager), keep all software and plugins updated, and install the right security plugins. Regular backups are also recommended.

7. Coding Errors

Poorly written code can cause your website to crash or prevent it from displaying correctly.

Prevention Tips:
If you’re using a website builder, coding errors may not be a concern. However, if you’re managing the code yourself, always double-check your updates and keep regular backups. Alternatively, hiring a web developer for maintenance and updates can help prevent issues.

How to Avoid Website Crashes: Prevention is Key

To minimize the risk of a website crash, prevention is crucial. Identifying the cause and resolving it quickly is important, but taking steps to prevent these issues before they arise is even more critical.

Ensure that you keep your software and plugins up to date, use strong passwords, and monitor your domain and hosting renewals. With these precautions in place, you can avoid many of the most common reasons for website crashes.