{"id":403,"date":"2016-11-07T22:55:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-07T22:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.siteuptime.com\/blog\/?p=403"},"modified":"2016-11-07T22:55:08","modified_gmt":"2016-11-07T22:55:08","slug":"website-down-planned-downtime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siteuptime.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/07\/website-down-planned-downtime\/","title":{"rendered":"Website Down? How to Work Through Planned Site Downtime"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"website<\/a>Here’s the unfortunate reality of running a website:<\/p>\n

You will have downtime.<\/p>\n

Your website may use the best hosting company and\u00a0the best-of-breed infrastructure. But, hiccups in server uptime<\/a> every once in awhile are par for the course.\u00a0Technical difficulties can force a server to shut down. Or,\u00a0an update may require taking a website down for a few hours.<\/p>\n

Whatever the case, outages can prove bank-breaking. They cost businesses $26.5 billion every year<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Sure, a planned downtime is different from an unplanned outage. With the former, one expects to get back online.<\/p>\n

But, be warned:<\/p>\n

Even planned downtimes can\u00a0turn ugly\u00a0– from\u00a0dipping rankings, poor customer experience, to a\u00a0reduction in revenue.<\/p>\n

Worry not. In this guide, you’ll learn how to prepare so planned downtimes don’t turn to unplanned disasters.<\/p>\n

Taking A Website Down For Maintenance? Here Are 2 Big Mistakes To Avoid<\/h2>\n

If a downtime is inevitable, be sure to let both website visitors and search engines know that the\u00a0outage is only temporary. And many get this part wrong.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

A website owner may remove all of the files from the server to give the website’s theme a complete overhaul. This results in a 404 error<\/a>\u00a0(“Not Found” error) when people\u00a0try to access the site. And the error message does little to inform searchers and bots about the actual situation.<\/p>\n

Is the site gone for good? Or is the outage temporary? If the latter is true, when will\u00a0the website get back online?<\/p>\n

A 404 error message doesn’t answer any of these questions.<\/p>\n

The worst case scenario:<\/h3>\n

Visitors may assume the website\u00a0has gone out of business, and they may not access or search for the website again.<\/p>\n

Search engines\u00a0often have the same reaction. Google, Bing, and co. may assume that the site no longer exists and schedule it for deletion in their index.<\/p>\n

Other webmasters know enough not to pull out of their server files during planned downtimes. They take the extra step of adding a simple page along with a sentence or two\u00a0to explain the outage. All of the website’s pages are redirected to the message.<\/p>\n

The workaround\u00a0does the job as far as keeping human visitors in the loop is concerned. Search engines, however, are still miles away from a\u00a0total understanding of our language. The message won’t make any sense to these bots.<\/p>\n

Moreover, search engines may think that\u00a0the page has replaced the entire website, depending on how the redirection was carried out. A terrible way to lose hard-earned rankings and traffic!<\/p>\n

Preparing For A Planned Downtime<\/h2>\n

Now we know what mistakes to avoid when taking down a website temporarily. The rest of this guide will show you how to prepare along with\u00a0the right redirection\u00a0and HTTP status code.<\/p>\n

Know Which Channels To Use For Updating Visitors<\/h3>\n

Are you going to put up a dedicated status page? Will you put it on your blog? Or, should you communicate the issues via social media\u00a0instead?<\/p>\n

The method that makes the most sense is the one that lets you reach the majority of your audience. Of course, you can\u00a0use multiple channels for sending updates.\u00a0Nevertheless, having a primary communication medium and redirecting everyone there will\u00a0keep all parties involved on the same page.<\/p>\n

Put Someone In Charge<\/h3>\n

After identifying the ideal communication platforms, put someone in charge of updating the status of the downtime. Now this depends on a number of factors like the nature of the issue and your website’s audience.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n

A tech-savvy customer base may require\u00a0the expertise of the DevOps<\/a>\u00a0team to update\u00a0everyone and answer technical questions about the issue.<\/p>\n

If the site’s\u00a0customer base isn’t too technical, having someone from the customer service team might be the best bet. A customer service expert’s skill will prove helpful in handling inquiries and keeping customers calm\u00a0during the downtime.<\/p>\n

The Right Redirection And HTTP Status Code<\/h2>\n

Planned outages not marked as such can have a negative impact on a site’s reputation and rankings. Fortunately,\u00a0one can better deal with downtimes\u00a0and preserve their site’s\u00a0rankings by\u00a0using the right redirection and HTTP status code.<\/p>\n

Let’s have a quick review of the most important codes and their meaning:<\/p>\n