It’s that time of year again. The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are changing colors and system administrators are working around the clock to get their sites ready for the holiday rush. Try these seven tips to get your online business in shape for all the increased sales.
1. Improve Search Engine Optimization Efforts
This is probably the best time of year to work on SEO since you’re already seeing an increased amount of traffic making its way to your site. Post new material to your blog and make sure that you’re focused on the right keywords for your business.
2. Run a Consistency Check
Simply using a standard file system tool can go a long way to keeping your site going this holiday season. This is an often forgotten-about step, especially among those who have a lot to get done before things really heat up. The good news is that it should only take a few moments on most servers.
3. Invest In Better Host
Fully managed website hosting services offer a greater level of control over the material you post to your site. They’re also going to enjoy much better uptimes than what you’d see from other kinds of hosts. Those who use currently multiple co-location servers will especially want to look into this since these may not be able to handle the large amount of traffic seen at this time of the year.
4. Delete Old Temporary Files
Head over to your administration panel and get rid of all the old logs and temporary objects you’re not using. Simply clearing these out can dramatically improve performance. While you want to be careful not to get rid of anything you still need, it makes sense to periodically purge these files to prevent them from becoming a major drain on system resources. Core dumps and other things you’re not using can go with them in a majority of cases.
5. Refactor Old Solutions
Get rid of code that dates back to a time when abandoned systems were still in use. You might have huge amounts of your site written in dated language, and you’ll want to get rid of this before the shoppers really start coming in droves.
6. Wait to Try New Frameworks
On the other hand, it’s not smart to make unnecessary changes if your site seems to work well under stress currently. As long as you’re not dealing with security-related bugs, you can feel free to leave that library in place at least until the holiday shopping season is over.
7. Install All Relevant Security Updates
Those who do find themselves behind on hotfixes should take the time to install all of the security packages they missed out on while they still have time. Your team should bring all of the server-side blog and shopping cart management apps you use up to their latest stable version. Those who don’t want to risk big revisions can always look toward an extended support release option if one is available.
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