Web Marketing - Why or how your site could break
Date: 27 June 2008

We keep reminding you to check your site to ensure it is working as it should, but suspect many people think “I don’t need to look because it was working a year ago. So why should it be broken now?”

Well the bad news is that things can change over time and you might not be aware of it. It is quite often that we find sites that are listed with us are not actually working.

When we do find a broken link, we try to check with the site owner to find out if it should be working or if the business has actually gone. Surprisingly often they tell us the site should be there and they weren’t aware that it wasn’t working.

So why might your site break?

Here are the most common reasons we find:

1) The domain name has expired
When a domain name is due to expire the person registered on your domain name record should receive an email telling them it needs to be renewed.

Now here is the first place where things can go wrong easily!

If a staff member has registered as the contact email address for your domain name, and that staff member has gone, or the email address changed, you may never see the renewal notice. The bad news is that it is also hard to change this if the email address is no longer valid.

It may be that your developer or hosting company has the domain name registered to them or as the contact on your behalf and they will receive the email. Occasionally their email changes or they forget to do the renewal and it can lapse – it depends how good they are at managing this process.

Also if your hosting company or developer has been managing this for you, and then you change host or developer, you will also need to make sure someone takes over the process of managing your domain name – either you, or the new company. This is often overlooked.

Many domain registration companies have an autorenewal process that you can set up so that it will renew every year and automatically debit your credit card.

You can check your domain name registration details on most sites where you buy domain names. Otherwise go to www.discountdomains.co.nz and type in your domain name.

If it is registered it will tell you and you can click on “view whois record” to see expiry dates and registration details. If it is not registered you might like to grab it again quickly before someone else does!


Our recommendations are

Check your domain name record and see what it says about contacts and renewal dates etc.
Make sure that the contact email addresses are enduring ones – ie they will get to you or the right person even if staff leave in future, or email addresses change.
Keep your domain registration record up to date
If there is an autorenewal process available to you, consider using it.
Considering renewing for several years in advance (but watch out for scams that you may receive on this)
Make sure you know who is responsible for the renewal.
Make sure you know when renewals are due and check that they have been done Ok at that time by whoever is responsible.
Make sure it is renewed in good time.
If you change hosting companies or developers, make sure someone is still going to renew your domain name.
NZ domain names should cost you anywhere from around $29 per year upwards. Beware of anything that costs you a lot more than this, especially some overseas scams that make it look like your domain is expiring (when it is not).

Your domain name is an important part of your business – make sure you don’t lose it.

2) Host company server changes
Surprisingly often, hosting companies change their servers to new ones (ie the computer your site is located on) or move your site to a new server.

This is good if it means they are using up to date technology, but when this happens, the configuration of the new server can be slightly different. (eg versions of programming languages and databases like MYSQL, PHP, ASP)

With any upgrade there may be some changes that need to be made on your site to work with the new version (for example PHP version 4 to PHP version 5 or 6) or server.

Host companies may also just upgrade system software on their server (like the version of the operating system). The new configuration can also be different to the old one causing issues for your site.

Host companies (rightly so) may also make configuration changes when security attacks or issues are identified.

All of these can cause your site to break – either fully when it doesn’t work at all, or partially so it looks ok but isn’t actually displaying your whole site or all of your data.

This is why some companies with Content Management Systems insist that you host your site with them as well – then they can control any server changes and modify their CMS system accordingly if needed for all clients.

Our recommendations are

Check your site regularly and especially;

If anyone tells you they are making server changes or upgrades, check your site after these have been made. Recheck it a few weeks later in case the company has also made any more changes during the “bedding in period”.
Always check inside pages too and especially any with dynamic or database content.
If your hosting company advises you of any security issues or changes - check your site after these have been made.
If you make any changes using a content management system.
If your developer makes any changes, check once these have been unloaded.
3) Hosting company reliability
All hosting companies say they aim for 100% uptime (the time that your site is live and working)

However, in practical terms, probably none ever fully achieve this. In spite of all the best intentions, there are always times when something can go wrong. That is the nature of computers, and must be expected from time to time.

However some companies are better than others for uptime. Reliable equipment that is not overloaded performs better and is less likely to have down time or need “rebooting”. Some companies have good backup power generators and other systems in place to minimise downtime.

Backup systems are important – both power and disk. Some years ago hundreds of New Zealand websites were lost when a well known hosting company had a failure and was not keeping backups – they assumed the site owners would have these (which most didn’t)

Unfortunately it is not easy for you to know if a hosting company is reliable or not until you try them. You will only really find out by trying them and monitoring your site.

Our recommendations are:

Ask others for recommendations, including your developer.
Ask others if their company is responsive when problems are noticed.
Read reviews and comparisons of different companies available on the Net.
Check with a hosting company about uptime, power backup, and disk backup systems – can they restore your website if they lose it?
Ensure you have a recent backup of your website either on your computer or your developer’s, or both.
Remember that price is not always an indicator of performance – there are some very good hosting plans available at very reasonable prices from reliable companies. Price may just be a measure of marketing effort.
Keep monitoring over time – some companies that were very good a few years ago are not so good now that they have many more customers to service and equipment is running at higher loads, or is getting old.
Change is always possible, but as with developers, make sure you are changing for good reason to something better that will work.

4) Have you paid the bill?
Obvious but it happens! Maybe your hosting company payments were set up on direct debit from your credit card. Have you changed your card or has the expiry date changed – maybe you forgot to set up the automatic payment again? Or maybe the bill just got lost on your desk?

Our recommendation is

Know who you are paying for your hosting and ensure that they get paid!
Pay them in time so your hosting doesn't lapse - if it does you may need to reload your site when you do pay.

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