Preparing Hosting For a Spike

When a spike actually happens

Rarely at random, which is what makes preparation possible.

• Local media coverage, which produces a sharp burst over a few hours.
• A seasonal opening, such as bookings for a summer service.
• A promotion or sale you scheduled.
• Something shared widely, which is unpredictable and the least likely.
• Weather or a local event for trades whose demand follows conditions.

That last one is worth planning for in trades like roofing, snow clearing, or restoration, where a single storm can produce a month of demand in two days.

What actually breaks

Usually not bandwidth, which is what people assume.

The failure is generally the server working too hard. Every visitor to a database-driven site triggers queries, and past a point requests queue, then time out, and the site appears down while the server is still running.

On shared hosting the failure can be different again: your account hits a resource limit and is throttled or suspended, which takes the site off entirely and needs the host to intervene.

Knowing which of those you are exposed to determines what preparation is useful, and it is a question your host can answer directly.

Caching, which does the most

The single highest-value preparation and it is frequently already available and switched off.

Caching serves saved copies of pages instead of rebuilding them for each visitor. A page built once and served ten thousand times costs a fraction of one built ten thousand times.

For a site where content rarely changes, which describes most small business sites, almost everything can be cached safely. The exceptions are pages that must be personal, such as a cart or an account view.

Where the host offers server-level caching, that is better than a plugin because it works before the request reaches the site software. Asking whether it is enabled is a five-minute conversation that resolves most spike risk.

A content delivery network

The other structural protection, and more accessible than it sounds.

It serves your images, stylesheets, and scripts from locations closer to visitors, which removes most of the requests from your own server. For an image-heavy site that is the majority of the load.

Free tiers exist and are sufficient for a small business. The setup involves changing where the domain points, so it is worth doing well before you need it rather than during an incident.

The afternoon of preparation

1. Turn caching on and confirm it is actually working rather than merely enabled.
2. Check your largest pages, since an uncompressed image is a cost paid per visitor.
3. Remove what is not being used, particularly plugins and scripts running on every request.
4. Ask your host what your limits are and what happens when you reach them.
5. Find out how to reach them urgently, and whether that route is staffed at the hour you might need it.
6. Test the site under some load, even informally, so you know what breaks first.

The fifth point is the one people skip and regret. A host with excellent support during business hours is of no use during a Saturday evening spike, and knowing that in advance changes what you plan for.

If you know the date

For a planned promotion or a seasonal opening, more is available.

Most hosts will let you move to a larger plan temporarily and back afterwards, which is considerably cheaper than running the larger plan all year. Asking beforehand also puts them on notice that traffic is coming, which occasionally means somebody watches.

Avoid changing anything else in the days before. A site that has just had a redesign, a plugin update, and a hosting change is a site with several new ways to fail on the day it matters.

The page that takes the traffic

A practical point that removes most of the risk for a single event.

Where a spike is driven at one thing, such as a promotion, a simple dedicated page carrying that offer will survive load far better than a homepage loaded with a slider, a feed, and three scripts.

A plain page with the essential information and a phone number is close to unbreakable, and it is what to point any coverage at.

What to do if it happens anyway

Contact the host first, since they can see what is happening and you cannot.

Meanwhile, put the essential information where it does not depend on your server: your business listing, your social profile, and an outgoing message on the phone. A visitor who cannot reach the site but finds your number has still reached you.

Afterwards, look at what actually broke and whether it was capacity or configuration, since the second is fixable for nothing and the first is a hosting decision. How much work each visit costs your server in the first place depends on how the site is built, as covered in static pages versus a database.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.