When it comes to website uptime, we are all given numbers that look something like 99.9 or 99.8 percent. The fact of the matter is, those numbers really don't mean anything. All those numbers indicate is the amount of unplanned downtime a webhost experiences during the year. The real numbers, the ones you rarely see published, are the ones you need to get your head wrapped around. Here are a few things you probably didn't know about website downtime figures and statistics.

You may think that the only thing your business loses during an episode of website downtime is profits, but that isn't necessarily the case. Oftentimes, a business will also lose customer confidence, customer satisfaction, and respect after an instance of extended downtime. In fact, website downtime is one of the leading causes of damage to a site's reputation. How you handle that downtime and make amends with your customers after downtime happens can have a drastic impact on just how much that website downtime affects your business.

You came up with the perfect business idea. You designed your site and put it live on the Web. You advertised and marketed just as you were supposed to. All of your efforts paid off and your site is experiencing unprecedented success, just like you knew it would. The question is, do you know whether or not your site is actually ready for that success, or is that success a sign of impending downtime? Here are some things you need to consider if your site has experienced significant growth.

Website owners often talk about the importance of website uptime and how crucial it is to minimize your website downtime. How your web host plays an important role in the uptime of your website is also a hot topic of discussion. When it comes to minimizing your site's downtime, there are four things you absolutely must take into consideration.

Most website owners think a hosting provider won't suspend their website unless that site contains inappropriate content. The fact of the matter is that your host can suspend your site, resulting in unexpected and profit-eating downtime, for a plethora of reasons. For example, if your site starts eating up all of the resources of your "unlimited" server, you may find your site suspended. What do you do about the issue and how do you address the downtime? This is what you need to know.

When it comes to shopping for a web host, you look for things like the uptime ratings they publish and the amount of uptime they guarantee. After all, you know your site can't afford to lose profits and downtime equates to lost profits. When you are considering your hosting plan and your hosting provider, however, there are some factors that you may not have taken into consideration when choosing your plan. Before you decide on a plan or sit tight thinking you have the plan that is right for you, here are some things to consider about web hosting and website downtime.

Last week, companies that use Intuit's QuickBase project management services found out that it isn't only their own website they have to worry about when it comes to website downtime. If your business's productivity relies heavily upon an online program such as QuickBase, you need to worry about the downtime of the service provider that you use as well. The productivity of several businesses were ground to a halt while the QuickBase online project management application was unavailable during an unexpected outage.

Many a website owner is well aware of the ways in which website monitoring services can help their business and their business's bottom line. What some do not realize, however, is that website monitoring does not only help your business, it also helps your customers. Here are just a few ways in which a quality website monitoring service can not only help your business thrive in the cut-throat environment of the Internet, but can also help your customers as well.

Every minute your site is down is a minute of potential profit that is lost. Contrary to what some may believe, advances in technology do not mean a reduction in website downtime. In fact, even the biggest of sites go down, including giants like Amazon. The outages are not the only problem that downtime brings to light, however. The public looks to see how quickly downtime is resolved when a site goes down. How fast the downtime is addressed and the measures taken to keep the public informed of the downtime also have a significant impact on a company's reputation.

When you first decide to invest in a hosting plan for your website, shared hosting options are often the most cost-effective solutions out there. That is why so many business owners opt for a shared hosting plan when it comes to the hosting plan they choose for their site.