As your business grows, your website might start struggling to keep up with the spike in traffic.
By that point, your usual strategies and tools might not be able to keep up with your customers’ demands.
It is high time you consider scaling your website to accommodate your growing customer base.
In this digital age, nobody can deny the importance of a good website for business. This allows you to reach out to more customers, while at the same time, making it easier for them to access your services and products. In fact, a study by Spiegel discovers that 95% of customers would research a company online first before deciding to avail of its products and services. And your first-line defense when that happens will be your website.
With that, here is how you can successfully scale your website as your business grows.
Determine the right time to scale
Before tackling the issue on how to scale a website, you must first determine if your business is ready for it. Scaling prematurely can cost you valuable resources and stunt your growth in the process.
To avoid this, you must learn to recognize the signs that will lead you to start scaling. For one, you will know as soon as your website begins behaving differently than usual. As traffic or the number of users increase, you will notice an overload in your servers. If left unattended, this can cause issues such crashes, lags, and slow loading times.
However, it is important to note that there is a difference between premature scaling and simply preparing your website for that route. For example, you can invest in scalable software such as these various examples of hosting software services rather than outright expanding your hardware infrastructure. This way, you remain open to the possibility of scaling rather than spending too much too early.
Partner with scalable hosting service
Your website’s hosting service can play a critical role in your endeavor to scale. After all, they will be the ones handling the influx of visitors that comes to your web pages. If you are stuck with a small hosting plan, you might end up struggling to accommodate your growing customer base.
Hence, you must partner with a flexible web hosting service that will allow you to expand your plan as you go. One good example is UltaHost. It offers a range of hosting services such as automating hosting functions and providing high-performance communication channels for efficient web hosting. This makes it easier to scale your website when it needs to.
Work on your website infrastructure
Scaling your website requires you to adjust your current infrastructure to accommodate more workload. Often, the first thing you will scale is your hardware. Doing so will give your software more resources to work beyond its designated capacity. This method is also referred to as vertical scaling. This is where you focus on improving your server’s performance such as a faster CPU and expanded memory. And if you are using cloud services, this means increasing your computing power.
However, it is one thing to upgrade your hardware and cloud infrastructure. But if your software isn’t designed with scalability in mind, your efforts might just go to waste. It can result to issues such as bottlenecks from your database and high latency processes that can affect your website’s performance. Hence, it is important to consider both your hardware and software infrastructure when scaling your website.
Focus on website performance
Your main goal in scaling your website is to maintain or improve its overall performance even as traffic and workload increase. After all, a good user experience can result in more positive reviews on your business in Google. Hence, you must keep your website’s performance your top priority during scaling.
There are several ways you can go about this. For one, you can reduce your server load by reducing images and videos embedded in your web pages. Another option is to move them to some third-party content delivery network (CDN). You should also consider investing in a robust caching engine such as a solid state drive (SSDs) instead of the hybrid hard drive (HDDs). And with over 45% of the global population using their smartphones to surf the web, you should also set your sights on mobile optimization.
Consider integrations for your website
Integrating other solutions into your website allows for a more seamless and immersive experience—both for you and your customers. For one, you can connect it to your marketing and sales tools so that your processes will become more streamlined. Likewise, it allows you to automate certain aspects of your marketing and sales processes via your websites such as lead generation and management, customer service, and email marketing.
This doesn’t only benefit you but your customers as well. By enhancing the capabilities and functions of your website, you encourage them to explore and interact with your brand more. It also makes it easier for them to access your services in just a few clicks. For example, by integrating payment gateways into your website, your customers can buy your products directly from your website without the hassle of back-and-forth phone calls and emails with you and the bank.
Tighten your website security
Gaining popularity online can draw unwanted attention from hackers and scammers. Hence, you must also tighten your website’s security when scaling. This requires constant testing, monitoring for vulnerabilities, and scanning for issues to make sure that no malicious entity can enter your website. This is not only to protect your business but your customers as well. If taken lightly, it can negatively impact your business growth.
However, doing these things manually can be too time-consuming and ineffective. It can also lead to more chances of human errors. Avoid this by investing in reliable security tools for your website. This includes antivirus and anti-malware software, security scanner tools, and firewalls. By protecting your website, scaling it will be much easier and safer.
Leverage data and analytics
Before scaling your website, you must have sufficient planning beforehand. This requires you to leverage data and analytics to understand the behaviors of your customers. Doing so can help you determine how best to accommodate their growing demands and needs and why a good website matters for your business growth.
With data, you have specific ideas on how you can scale your website. You are no longer working on gut feelings but on tangible facts with predictable results. Likewise, proper research before scaling can help minimize loss in the process. It allows you to explore potential scenarios of how each change in your website can impact your sales and relationship with your customers.
Scaling your website
Nowadays, the use of websites in business is becoming more widespread. It is no longer just a luxury but a must if you want your company to remain competitive and relevant in the market. And as your business grows, you need a website that can scale up along with you. It needs to level up to accommodate the spike in traffic and demands online. Otherwise, a bad user experience can cost you a customer in the end.
Fortunately, you don’t need technical expertise to effectively scale your website. All you need is the right strategy and tools for a successful operation. So go ahead and explore what other software and solutions you can use to scale your business.
