Expect a considerable revenue loss when your online store or business website is down. Then, there’s the recovery cost that you’ll have to spend to ensure the restoration of normal operations. There can be a direct revenue loss in the form of lost customers, and there can be an indirect revenue loss in terms of reduced productivity due to downtime. Recovery cost, on the flip side, means money wasted on data recovery or hardware repair.
That’s how frequent downtimes can have a drastic impact on your business. But the question is, what causes a site to go down and become inaccessible for the target audience? There can be a cyberattack or human error during updates or maintenance. Then, server-side issues like an overloaded server or poor infrastructure can also result in this problem. Whatever the cause is, you’ll always find its root in a poor hosting service.
In this article, we’ll talk about the negative impacts of frequent website downtime on your online business.
5 Ways Website Downtime Negatively Impacts Your Online Business
It always leads to dissatisfied customers, which simply means reduced brand loyalty and damaged brand reputation. Then, anticipate a sudden drop in your online storefront or site’s SEO ranking. You might have to face more consequences in the form of possible cyberattacks during the downtime.
Given below are the five ways website downtime negatively impacts your online business:
1. Lost Revenue
The biggest hit your online business takes during website downtime is substantial revenue loss. But how much can it be? 20%? 50%? If you think that’s the possible figure, then get ready to be amazed: The revenue loss during such a situation is always 100%. You see, an outage means:
· Loss of all potential sales
· Missed leads
· Halted transactions
· Reduced ad revenue
· Competitive disadvantage
So, you don’t ever want to tackle this disastrous situation. What to do then? Always buy your hosting plan from a provider who is credible and experienced. You can contact Hosting MENA for this purpose.
2. Recovery Costs
What would you do in the face of website downtime? Sit quietly and wait? Of course, you’re not going to follow this approach, as it’s your most important business asset we’re talking about. Rather, your priority will be to restore its functionality as soon as possible. That means a substantial amount of money spent to reach this goal.
That’s the recovery cost, which is another negative impact that your organization will have to face. Your IT personnel will have to work overtime to fix the issue. Other possible issues in this regard can be the repair or replacement of a damaged server or hardware. And if the data is lost, double the amount. Data recovery services often charge more than you’d expect.
3. Customer Dissatisfaction
The last thing you want, in today’s competitive business landscape, is dissatisfied customers. It not only has a toll on your total revenue but also drives negative word-of-mouth. You cannot expect a consumer to talk positively about your brand when they have a bad experience. They’ll lead to:
· Damaged company reputation
· Loss of potential customers
· Eroded trust and credibility
· Higher customer churn rate
· Reduced customer loyalty
That’s really a lot that a dissatisfied customer can bring. End of the talk? If you don’t want these consequences, always reach out to a credible hosting provider.
4. Damaged Brand Reputation
Today, most businesses operate online and, therefore, reputation has become more important than ever. Many factors impact this aspect, both positively and negatively. Here, we can take the example of frequent website downtimes. When the target audience faces this issue more often than not, they begin to perceive your company as unreliable.
This will directly cause a bad image for your company in the eyes of both old and new customers. Actually, downtime is a strong signal that compels users to think that they can’t depend on your brand for their needs. It simply leads to a social media backlash and a flood of negative reviews. Reclaiming your previous place will not be an easy challenge.
5. Dropped SEO Ranking
That’s another area where things can go south for your business when your website isn’t accessible. You see, search engines like Google take accessibility too seriously. These tools have crawlers or bots that are used to access a website and index its pages on a regular basis. Frequent downtimes mean these bots won’t be able to access your site properly.
Another potential reason for a dropped SEO ranking due to downtime is poor user experience. Look at Google’s policy. It has a clear and strict stance regarding this aspect. When a visitor tries to access your site but fails, they leave. It results in a higher bounce rate, which is an indicator for the search engine that your site isn’t offering a good user experience.
Host Your Site on a Reliable Server to Prevent Downtimes
Nothing can be more disastrous for an online business than frequent website downtimes. It not only results in revenue loss but also incurs other expenses in the form of recovery costs. Then your brand has to face dissatisfied customers who drive negative word-of-mouth marketing. Another hit that your business will have to tackle is in the form of a dropped SEO ranking. Contact a credible hosting provider now to host your site on a reliable server to prevent downtimes.
