Avoid these 15 mistakes for your high traffic website

A fast website is essential for a pleasant user experience and more conversions. Slow loading times cause frustration and lost sales. Often, small optimizations can make a big difference. But speed alone is not enough. Many organizations only take action when something goes wrong, such as a hack or data breach.

For a high traffic Web site, this is a big risk. The more visitors, the more attractive your site is to malicious parties. Without proper security and regular backups, the chances of downtime or data loss are high. With the right measures, make sure your website always remains secure, stable and fast, even as traffic grows.

A high traffic website requires continuous maintenance and attention. By proactively optimizing and securing, you prevent small problems from growing into major failures. Make sure you have a smart setup, automatic backups and reliable monitoring. That way, you'll be ready for any peak.

Here are the 14 most common mistakes for high traffic websites and how to avoid them.Don't wait for things to go wrong: Protect your high traffic website from risks

• No scalable hosting: A high traffic website needs hosting that grows with the number of visitors. Are you stuck with too small a package or one server? Then you run the risk of slow load times or downtime during peak traffic. Choose a hosting solution that automatically scales up and intelligently distributes traffic. This will keep your site fast and stable, even at peak times.
• No caching: Without caching, every page has to be rebuilt with every visit. This takes up a lot of server capacity and makes your website unnecessarily slow. With caching, you temporarily store pages, making them load at lightning speed and reducing the load on the server.
• Too few PHP workers: Each dynamic action on your site (for example, a shopping cart or form) uses a PHP worker: a helper that processes the request. If there are too few workers, visitors have to wait or get error messages. Regularly check how many workers your site needs, especially with growing traffic.
• Not using a CDN: A Content Delivery Network (CDN) distributes your Web site files (such as images, videos and style sheets) across servers worldwide. Visitors automatically download these files from the server closest to them. This shortens load times, reduces pressure on your hosting server and provides a faster, smoother experience for all your visitors.
• No Cloudflare DDoS protection: Cloudflare is a security layer that protects your website from attacks (such as DDoS attacks) as well as helping to distribute traffic. This prevents your website from going down if there are suddenly a lot of visitors or if malicious people try to overload it. The result: a faster, more stable and safer website. Even during peak traffic.
• Too many external scripts: External scripts (for example, tracking codes or widgets) can slow down your Web site and often pose a security risk. Limit the number of external resources and load only what is really needed.
• Use of outdated technologies: Outdated technologies and scripts slow down your website and increase the likelihood of security problems. Always make sure you are working with modern technologies, secure connections (HTTPS) and up-to-date security protocols.

• Not performing updates: Outdated software, plugins and themes often contain vulnerabilities that hackers easily exploit. Run regular updates and security patches. This way, you reduce the risk of data breaches and failures.
• No security measures for logins: Without strong passwords and two-factor authentication, your Web site is an easy target. Secure all accounts properly and train colleagues in secure password management.
• Ex-employees with access: Make sure accounts are immediately revoked as soon as someone leaves employment. This will prevent abuse and reduce the risk of data breaches.
• Give everyone administrator rights: Granting administrator rights to all your colleagues can lead to uncontrollable risks, such as installing insecure plugins or making unauthorized changes.

• No backups: Without automatic backups and version control, you risk losing crucial data in a crash or hack. Especially with high-traffic websites, it is essential to be able to recover quickly and minimize downtime. With regular backups and version control, you can easily restore previous content and fix problems quickly.
• No downtime monitoring: Without monitoring, you don't always notice immediately that your website is offline. This can cost you revenue, especially if campaigns are still running. With active monitoring, you get immediate notification and can act quickly.

• Cookie consent not well regulated: Many organizations display a cookie banner, but do not block cookies until consent is obtained. Not only does this violate the law, it can also result in fines and damage visitor trust. Ensure proper GDPR implementation and compliance.
• Unnecessary data stored: Keep completed forms and other personal data only as long as necessary. This way you limit the impact of a potential data breach and comply with privacy laws.

Have you negotiated a service agreement or SLA with your current agency? We, at Studio Brabo, believe this is indispensable. A website requires constant attention to keep it functioning properly. With a service agreement, we ensure that our clients' websites not only remain up-to-date and secure, but also that we can act quickly when needed.

While it may be tempting to do maintenance ad hoc, this carries risks. Without structural monitoring and updates, small errors can have major consequences unnoticed. A service agreement offers peace of mind because you know your website is always in good shape. The benefits of a service agreement:

• Preventing problems: With regular checks and maintenance, you reduce the likelihood of failures and hacks.
• Cost savings: Proactive maintenance is more cost-effective than troubleshooting after the fact.
• Peace of mind: You know that your website is in good hands and that we will move quickly in case of incidents.
• Scalable and future-proof: Your website grows with your organization.