Building a website from scratch is a draining exercise. You have to create quality content that aligns with the latest SERP trends. If, after all that work, you learn that your website went offline, this is something not any webmaster wants to face. But what causes website downtime, and how does it affect SEO? Can you improve the page load time after an outage? Find out from this post.
What Is Website Downtime, and What Causes it?
Website downtime is when your website is completely or partially out of reach for users. Visitors to your site will get a response of “page isn’t working” after clicking a link to your website. During downtime, a website loses organic traffic, and if the outage persists, Google will remove your site from indexing.
Although it is often attributed to technical hitches from your host, there are many causes of website downtime. Here is a list of the common ones.
Human error
While updating your website, you can install a malfunctioning feature or make a wrong click, leading to a technical problem.
Read more: Errors You’re Making With Your Website Design
Hosting issues
Your website host can experience sudden high traffic that could slow your page loading speed and cause downtime.
Malicious attacks
from cyber-criminals. If your website is poorly protected, it can experience DDoS, hacking, and virus attacks.
Installing incompatible software
on your website. While trying to improve your site’s outlook and performance, you can accidentally install new software incompatible with your website. This software can cause your site to go offline.
You can solve these issues by checking a new software’s compatibility with your site and testing it before installation.
How Website Downtime Affects SEO
Downtime causes your website to go offline, affecting its ranking. You can lose organic traffic, drop in ranking, or get removed from Google indexing. The effects on SEO are not severe if the outage lasts a few hours. However, if the problem persists, Google will start dropping your pages from its algorithm. You want to retain your website after the effort, resources, and time invested, so you need to fix the problem quickly before Google drops you from its indexing.
Engage Experts for SEO Optimization in Atlanta
SEO involves constantly updating your website with helpful content and leveraging features such as CDNs for faster loading. An SEO specialist in Atlanta can help you improve your page loading and protect your site against causes of downtime. For SEO Optimization in Atlanta, contact SEO Guru Atlanta and speak with an expert.
