WHAT’S A TRAFFIC SPIKE? AND CAN YOUR WEBSITE HANDLE IT?

Some years back, everyone was talking about Digg. It has been a number of years, but you remember how it was the word on everyone’s lips, that the term “Ding Effect” was even coined. The Ding Effect happened whenever a website hit Ding’s home page, and then send traffic so heavy that it causes the server to crash. This happened because the websites weren’t able to handle such level of traffic. This resulted in marketers missing out on great opportunities, such as making content viral on the web.

Today, Ding is more or less a legend, but it is important that you know that the Ding Effect is still very much active. Thanks to social media, content can become viral through retweets on Twitter, Facebook shares, and reposting. This sad news is this: most websites cannot handle the fame, and this results in crashing.

Now that you know this, do you think your website can stand the test? When you choose to drive traffic to your website, it is important that to know if your site can handle the level of traffic a successful marketing campaign will usher in. However, if your website is unable to handle the traffic, there will be a number of unfortunate events such as:

• Your visitors will be disappointed and may never return.
• You won’t enjoy the joy the that comes with a successful marketing strategy.
• It paints you, your website and business as unprofessional.

Now you know why it is important to know the strength of your website when it comes to traffic surges. To be sure your site can handle it, there are some things to out in place:

• Choose a hosting plan that affords you sufficient bandwidth.
• Regularly optimize your website for faster loading and use of fewer resources.
• Choose a hosting company that has a 24/7 customer service so you can complain or ask for help in case of a traffic surge.

Have you suffered a traffic surge on your website in recent times? Share your experiences in the comments’ section.