Fast, well-maintained, and properly configured servers and high uptime can make the difference between impressive business growth and exorbitant bounce rates.
The Effect of Server Response Time
As of 2024, it’s estimated that a load time delay of just 100 milliseconds can reduce conversion rates by up to 7%. A fast server ensures your website loads quickly, leading to higher engagement and an overall improved user experience. Slow load times can lower your site’s search engine ranking and result in increased bounce rates.
Fast server response time is crucial for effective data management and swiftly performing complex operations, which could be your business operations’ backbone.
Server Performance: The Roles of RAM, CPU, and SSDs
More RAM makes the server faster by enabling quicker data access. Experts recommend 4-8GB of RAM for e-commerce platforms with moderate traffic.
A powerful CPU speeds up a server by processing tasks swiftly. In 2024, one CPU core will be needed for every 200,000 monthly clicks.
SSDs are much faster than standard HDDs. They impact the speed of writing or reading data. In the first quarter of 2023, the annualized failure rate of SSDs was estimated to be under 1% and just over 1% in Q2.
Fast shared hosting depends on the right server software. HTTP and DNS servers can be fast, but DNS is less secure, and hackers can intercept it easily. This can be a big security risk for users, which is why DNS needs an encryption protocol like Transport Layer Security or HTTPS.
Finally, load balancing also plays a role.
Distributing app or network traffic across multiple servers can enhance reliability, speed, and user engagement.
The above factors all facilitate long-term growth, regardless of your website’s purpose and essence.
Uptime Should Be 99.9% Or Higher
Business websites, in particular, should demand service uptime of at least 99.9%. Most hosting companies say they offer at least 99%, and 99.9% sounds only slightly better than that, so you might agree to 99% without thinking twice. This would be a mistake. The small difference reduces your downtime to 8.76 hours a year. If you have an uptime guarantee of 99.99%, it further reduces the downtime, bringing it to under 53 minutes a year. Near-ideal reliability is guaranteed by 99.999% uptime, coming to only 5.26 minutes of downtime a year.
The standard 99% uptime guarantee means your website could be unavailable for a few days each year, compared to a few hours with 99.9% uptime. This slight increase improves your visitors’ experience and makes your website much more reliable. Still, 8.76 hours is almost one business day. If you’re operating a high-traffic e-commerce platform, that could translate to huge losses.
How do web hosting providers achieve high uptime guarantees? High-quality, reliable hardware is one way. Redundancy is another. This means a backup system takes over if the main system fails.
Web Hosting Architecture: Configuration and Maintenance
Web hosting companies provide, configure and maintain virtual and physical servers. They store code, files, apps, images, and other resources needed to build and run a site.
A quality provider of managed hosting will configure servers to carry out content management and delivery, data processing, reporting, and other dedicated tasks. A website’s performance will improve when the server it’s on is configured to fulfill essential roles.
Regular maintenance is an essential component of a thriving website. Failure to maintain the site will lead to periods of unavailability and a negative user experience.
Final Thoughts on User Engagement and Business Growth
The bare minimum is a fast server, high uptime, and proper maintenance and configuration. You need to consider metrics like the average time on a page, the average session duration, page views, and the bounce rate. This is the percentage of visitors who load one page on your site and then leave. The average e-commerce bounce rate is a little over 45%, meaning a little more than 45 of 100 visitors view a single page and leave.
Bounce rates are highest for traffic from social channels (54%) and display ads (56.50%) and lowest for traffic from email (just over 35%). They are higher on mobile (48%) than on desktop (just over 41%). Improving website speed and ensuring website availability are the best ways to engage visitors and reduce the bounce rate.
