It was the biggest PR coup our client had ever pulled off…
… A recurring segment on a super popular local TV show in Colorado.
They’d been planning this thing for a long time. And, with more than a little excitement, it came time for the first episode to air.
From Dream Come True To Nightmare
It was a HUGE success!
A little too huge.
The first night they were featured on the show, the huge flood of traffic to their website crashed their server.
A total freaking nightmare!
Can you imagine how you’d feel if thousands of motivated, eager prospects flocked to your website and all they saw was a big server error message?!
Yeah, it would suck. And it did suck for this client, except…
How The Nightmare Ended (Pretty Quickly)
Luckily for them, their website was hosted with WP Engine.
As soon as we saw the issue with their site crashing, we were on the phone with WP Engine support. And they got a patch in place real quick. They adjusted the load balancing on the server and it was soon able to handle the tidal wave of all those motivated, eager prospects on their site.
Crisis (largely) averted!
Even better, WP Engine worked with us to make sure the website was in top form for the upcoming shows this client was on. They increased the server capacity on the main servers. And they got overflow servers in place, along with an emergency backup server.
This client never had a problem again.
This Isn’t An Isolated Incident
A different client was going to be on a major national talk show. Knowing what was coming, we reached out to WP Engine ahead of time so there wouldn’t be any issues.
We worked closely with them to put temporary measures in place to handle the traffic spike. In fact, we were on the phone with their “graveyard shift” Support team (which is US based) at 2 or 3 in the morning. This was their suggestion so they wouldn’t interrupt anything during the day when most people use this client’s website.
Even at that dreadful hour, their Support team was helpful, pleasant and professional and could not have been easier to work with.
The Exception, NOT The Norm
Unfortunately, in our experience, this is not the norm when it comes to web hosting companies.
With the cheap hosting companies, it’s not uncommon for websites to be down for 2 or 3 days due to traffic spikes (or other issues) while their generally unhelpful Support staff “looks into it”.
They’re just not motivated to help you out quickly when you’re paying a few bucks a month for your hosting plan.
Can You Afford For Your Website To Be Down For Days?
Can you afford two days of downtime on your website? Especially when you’re getting a surge of traffic and should be getting the most eyeballs on your site as possible?!
Most of those people are never going to come back if they try to visit your site and get an error message. They’ll either forget about you or, even worse, just find one of your competitors whose website they can access.
This Is Not Where You Want To Pinch Pennies
Listen, we’re all trying to save money these days. But we can tell you based on a lot of experience, that web hosting is not a place to pinch those pennies.
That’s why we try to get most of our clients with WordPress sites to host them on WP Engine. We know from experience that the product they put out there – from the servers to the Support staff – is top quality. And, if something does go wrong, they’ll fix it fast.
Ditch The Cheapo Web Host
So if you’ve got a WordPress site that’s hosted with one of those cheapo web hosting deals, take it from your Marketing Advocates – ditch them! And ditch them ASAP!
We’ve seen it time and time again… the money you’re saving it hosting fees in the short term will likely cost you WAY more in the long term. Either in lost revenue and/or cuz you’ll have to pay through the nose to fix the problems caused by hosting a website on the cheap.
Instead, head over here to WP Engine and sign up for their web hosting today.
