Website Uptime: How Important is Your Website?

Your website is important to your business, right? It's either somewhat important or it's crucial, depending on what you do. But one thing all the evidence is pointing toward is the fact your website is going to become ever more important to your commercial success.

We're living more and more of our lives online. We use it for work and play. We now do so many things on the internet that it has become part of our daily routines. We buy products, look for information, chat with friends, find jobs, review products, donate to charity, participate in discussions, make phone calls, research products to buy, make travel reservations, play games, check out classified ads, pay to access news content. And on and on and on.

And the trend is toward more digital interactions. In other words: our digital lives are here to stay.

Your customers are online - make sure your website is

• 80% of the adult US population is now online. This percentage increases further for younger adults, for example 93% of 18-29 year olds are online.
• We spend on average 17 hours per week online. But the range between light and heavy average use is wide: 2.8 hours to 42 hours respectively.
• 69% of internet users who buy products or services online said that their online purchasing had reduced their buying activity in traditional retail stores.
• 58% of all American adults now perform online research about products or services they are considering purchasing (this is 78% when you focus on the group that have the internet only)
• 24% of American adults say they posted comments or reviews online about the products or services they buy (this is 32% when you focus on the internet only group)

What are these stats showing you? They're showing you that most people are online, most people use the internet to research a purchase before making it. And after they buy, a huge group of people take the time to review the product or service on the web.

They're showing you how important your website has become. And your online presence will only increase in importance over the coming years. So when your website goes down it matters. It matters more now than it did a few years ago. And it will matter more in the future than it does now.

Eventually the internet will become an intrinsic part of our consumer behavior. In fact, it already is for millions and millions of people.

So now is the time to get in the habit of monitoring your website uptime. When things go wrong (and they do even for the biggest companies in the world) you need to know about it immediately, so you begin to solve the problem quickly. Whatever the reason for website downtime, in a world that is putting more and more importance on the digital side of life, ensuring you know what is happening - when it's happening - can only be a smart move.