In today’s world, every business needs to have an effective, user-friendly website in order to compete. Yes- even rehab centers.
Because of this fierce competition, having a fast website with no downtime is crucial to making sure your rehab facility stays afloat.
Even if your website is down for just a short period, you still stand a chance of losing out on potential patients who are seeking your services. Plus, it could impact your SEO.
If your site is down, they will likely just move onto another rehab website without a second thought, even if your rehab facility far outshines the competition.
It may feel like increasing server uptime is something that’s completely out of your control. But it’s actually quite the opposite- there are several things you can do to increase your server uptime.
Read on to find out what they are.
1. Check Your Web Hosting Plan
The right web hosting plan builds a solid foundation for a site’s server uptime.
Even if a web hosting platform offers unlimited bandwidth, it could still mean that you are sharing that bandwidth with other sites. This could definitely be affecting your website’s performance.
Shared hosting packages can be great for those just starting out. But as your rehab center gains popularity and your site’s traffic increases, it may be time to explore other options. A dedicated server or a VPS are two options you may want to look into if you’ve been noticing slow site performance.
2. Reduce Image Size
Images are great for websites.
They improve the overall site design and users love quality images paired with excellent content.
However, the images you spend so much time carefully selecting may actually be working against you.
On average, images take up 61 percent of a web page’s weight. This weight may be affecting your server uptime. In order to reduce the weight of images without compromising their quality, always choose ones that are appropriately sized.
You may also want to consider playing around with different image formats such as JPegXR or WebP.
3. Beef Up Site Security
It seems like every day you read the news, you hear about a story about a company’s website being hacked and their customer’s information being compromised.
Due to the increase in hacks and data breaches, it’s more important than ever to make sure your site is protected. Someone looking for treatment for meth addiction in Tuscon will definitely not want their private business displayed to the whole world.
Ask your web hosting company what security benefits they offer.
As for taking matters into your own hands, you should be updating your passwords on a regular basis, as well as your content management system.
4. Communicate Downtime Early
Scheduled maintenances will be necessary from time to time.
To prevent your future patients from becoming frustrated, make sure to communicate these scheduled maintenances early. List clearly on your website exactly when it will be down and for how long.
This simply courtesy can prevent you from losing out on potential patients.
Server Uptime: Wrap Up
Follow these tips, and the uptime for your rehab website should definitely improve.
Of course, no matter how many preventative measures you take, there’s a chance your site will go down at some point. To learn how you can find this out before your customers do, contact us today.
