December 10th, 2018 | Updated on December 12th, 2018
Every website owner wants more traffic, more influence, more page views. Unfortunately, the thing that you yearn for the most in the regular periods of traffic can be a two-edged sword during the peak traffic seasons.
In case your website cannot withstand the increasing influx of traffic, then the chances are that customers will feel frustrated by its slow loading times, not to mention the chances of experiencing some downtime.
This has actually happened to some of the giant brands, such as Target. Due to the peak in traffic that launching the Lilly Pulitzer product line came with, their website got so burdened by the traffic that they had to shut it down for 15 minutes.
Sadly, online presence and brand perception are inseparable in the modern world, and such inconsistencies can only work to hurt your brand.
Here is how to be ready for such peak seasons in website traffic:
1. Work on Your Site’s Load Time
The modern-day customer’s impatience keeps on growing every day, and the best way to accommodate it is to keep an eye on web performance. Most customers expect website pages to load faster than two seconds. Otherwise, they will switch to a more effective website. Sadly, this will not only mean losing that specific customer but also letting go of their closest friend as they might spread the word that your website is ineffective.
Instead of assuming that you are running at the best speeds, it is best that you test the speed of your website on platforms such as Google’s Page Speeds Insights. Using the metrics on such websites, you can decide on any necessary changes that you will need to make on your website before it is too late.
2. Watch Out for Downtime Causes
What do you think can easily lead to some downtime on your website? Focusing on eliminating the causes of downtime is a sure way to protect your website ahead of the holiday seasons. For instance, shared servers can be a leading reason for downtimes since a peak in traffic will mean the overuse of the shared resource.
For such situations, choosing to walk the cloud computing path can be a great idea since cloud computing provides you with the convenience of upscaling and downscaling your website’s capacity with regard to your traffic levels. Additionally, it might be wise to invest in a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to reduce server load time, increase resilience and scalability.
3. Work on Security
When dealing with the security of their information, customers tend to avoid any compromise. In case your website isn’t secure enough, or customers believe that it might not be, this will be a problem. One way to improve the security of your website is to switch your website to HTTPS since any information passing through such websites tends to be encrypted.
Furthermore, this will ensure that you are ranked higher than other HTTP websites by search engines like Google. Additionally, comply with the most recent security regulations such as the GDPR. Such steps towards increasing security will encourage security-conscious traffic to transition into conversions.
4. Customer Support Is Key
Providing chat boxes on your website through which customers can have their concerns addressed by chatbots is a step in the right direction. However, some situations are best addressed through human intervention. In such cases, ensuring that there is a team ready to address customers’ questions and concerns is essential.
Luckily, you do not have to play the role of employing this team if you will only need it during the peak season. You can easily outsource this task by investing in temporary staffing. When the need for extra customer service workforce drops, then you can continue working with your permanent employees.
Conclusion
Customer satisfaction means everything in the modern business world, and having your website play the part is essential. The need for highly functioning websites is increased during the peak traffic seasons. Consider the tips above to embrace profit maximization during such peak seasons.
