It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: a sudden flow of traffic on your WordPress site. For startups and small businesses, this is often an incredibly exciting time and the turning point to becoming successful. Experiencing a WordPress traffic surgecan lead to incredible things for your business… as long as your site doesn’t go down.

Yes, it can happen.

And it could be really bad for your brand’s reputation as well as potentially losing sales. There’s a lot of time, money, and new business you could lose if you hadn’t anticipated this problem.

If you’re seeing your traffic begin to increase, it’s worth the time to stress test your site to make sure it can handle a sudden rise in visitors. While traffic spikes can be a positive indication of how well your business is doing, you need to be well-equipped for any knock-on effects this can have.

Here are a few things you can do to prepare for a WordPress traffic surge.

Regularly study your analytics

Study your site’s analytics very closely to figure out the average traffic gained monthly. Hopefully, you will see a gradual rise as time goes on which can help predict where your site will be in, say, six months’ time.

Reviewing your analytics will also help to understand your site’s natural growth pattern and when future traffic spikes are likely to occur. Pay particular attention to any mini spikes in traffic as this could provide valuable information as to the days, times or sources that may lead to a traffic surge.

2. Monitor your site’s activity

Obviously, an increase in sales is a clear sign of growing interest, but you should also keep an eye on the comments section of your blog, newsletter sign-ups and social media engagement as it could indicate something is brewing.

3. Review your web hosting

A good web hosting service will help ensure your website loads quickly and is secure without any substantial downtime as well as other advantages. If your site’s traffic is growing steadily and /or you’re about to ramp up your marketing, it may be time to move from your current plan.

Take a look at these 6 signs you’ve outgrown your web hosting service.

4. Optimise Your Images

Visuals are a key part in getting your message across, but if they’re not well-optimised it could mean the difference between your site staying up or going down during aWordPress traffic surge.  ,

It’s worth learning the best practices on how to optimise images in WordPress.

5. Cache your website

Another way to ensure your site performs well during a traffic surge is to make sure you cache your site. It will help decrease the pressure put on your server to ensure your content is delivered as quickly as possible to new visitors.

6. Set up a Google Alert

If you don’t already have a Google alert set up for your site, set one up as soon as you can. This will allow you to know when your business name is mentioned on Google. An increase in alerts could mean a traffic surge is coming your way.

7. Back up your website daily

It’s best to have a post-crash plan in place which should include daily backups of your site. By backing up your site, you effectively restore your entire website straight back to its previous condition.

Aside from a spike in traffic, there are many other reasons that could result in the loss of your site, which is why an offsite backup plan is vital to protect your valuable asset.

There aren’t always warning signs when a WordPress traffic surgeis about to occur and so anticipating it is only half the battle. If your site has reached a point where traffic is rapidly increasing or you’re worried about your current web hosting plan, it’s probably time to take action.

WP Teach Support can provide ongoing monthly WordPress support to keep your site in the best possible condition. We fine-tune its performance, make regular improvements and back it up daily. Find out more about how we can help your business or sign up for a monthly support plan.