A plethora of websites exist in this day and age, where Internet’s usage has proliferated in all parts of the world and in all strata of society. Different websites serve different purposes and a majority of them have been built for our convenience. Most of us have experienced, at some time or other, the exasperation that is caused by a website that isn’t loading at all. This is when one realizes or is reminded of the importance of website uptime.

Website Uptime

The amount of time for which a website or a web service is available online to users who can access and use it, over a given period, is known as website uptime. It is expressed as a ratio that is arrived at by dividing the time for which a site is available by the total time. As per the web hosting industry standards, 99.999% uptime is considered as high availability or high uptime.

Website uptime is the opposite of website downtime. Website downtime refers to the undesirable outcome resulting from a website or a web service not being available online, or when it is not functioning efficiently enough for end users to access or use it.

Web Hosting and Website Uptime

Web hosting is essential for websites to be accessible over the Internet. It is a service that is provided by web hosting companies in which server space is leased to website owners for the purpose of storing their files. Web hosts provide the technologies and services that are required by a website to remain up and running. Web hosting can be of various types, such as, shared, dedicated, reseller, cloud, WordPress, VPS etc. The best service providers in the field of web hosting are often referred to as the “Best Website Hosting Company” or as the “Best Windows Hosting Company” or as the “Top Cloud Hosting Company”.

Every web hosting service provider aims at maintaining a high uptime consistently. That is because a high uptime is one of the most sought-after features that website owners look for, when opting for and continuing with a particular web host. Being able to provide a consistently high uptime (99.999%) often proves to provide a particular web host the much-needed competitive edge over its competitors. That is why providing a high uptime is important for web hosting companies.

Why is Website Uptime Important?

Website uptime is important for websites because of the numerous advantages that it has to offer. Every website exists for a purpose. If a website experiences substantial or regular website downtime, then that purpose is defeated as the website doesn’t get enough traffic. For a business website this can result in a loss of potential customers and revenue, which can be disastrous in the long run for any business. If a website experiences downtime regularly, then it can damage its reputation as well, which might result in it losing its customers to its competitors, often permanently.

A high website uptime goes a long way towards ensuring site visitors’ and customers’ satisfaction with regard to the user experience aspect of a site. Customers or visitors that are happy with their experience on a site have a higher chance of returning to that website, which also increases the probability of earning revenue (for an e-commerce site) from them repeatedly in the future. Hence, a high website uptime plays an important role with regard to online businesses’ success.

Website availability impacts search engine rankings. Most search engines consider website downtime as a major factor. Hence, frequent or lengthy downtimes can cost a site in terms of its search engine rankings. These are the major reasons that contribute to website uptime playing a significant role for any website and why having a high website uptime receives such importance in terms of what every website aspires to be associated with.