How often have you dreamt of a sudden huge traffic to your site? Well, are you prepared if it happens? Increase in traffic is a moment of ecstasy for most website owners, but if the surge is too much for your site to handle, it may crash!
This happens normally if you have the opportunity of putting something very viral onto your site. Suppose it's the death of Osama Bin Laden that you are featuring in a video just after the instance he is being shot or the aftermath of a nuclear disaster that just happened. Visitors come flooding in to read the news as it happens. The moment your site becomes popular, there is a high chance that it may go down. Phew! While this is not a regular phenomenon, you must be able to handle the demand. There are several ways you can downsize the pressure of a sudden surge.
1. Having a lighter version of your site: In case you see a sudden increase in traffic to your site you can effectively switch onto the lighter version of it. A recommended way of doing so is by enabling the mobile version of your site. During traffic spikes you could allow the mobile version to be available in desktops.
2. A lighter version of your homepage: Generally it's the homepage of your site that is requested in the event of a traffic spike. It's from the homepage that the specific link is requested. If a specific picture or video in your site has been responsible for the surge, prepare a lighter version of it. This can be achieved by replacing images with texts, using more of HTML content, excluding Flash images wherever possible and using static pages over dynamic ones. The ones replaced puts a higher load on the servers.
3. Third party services: There are platforms like Google Blogs, Google Docs that you can seek use of. These servers will be able to handle the high traffic. What you need to do is transferring a copy of your site to these platforms such that the traffic gets divided.
4. Using lightweight formats: Downloadable information if provided by your site should be of lighter formats. Consider using a text or MS word file instead of a PDF file. These lightweight formats are easier to index fully and the same information is provided at a fraction of the original file size.
5. XML and CSV data: When providing numerical data use the lighter XML and/or CSV formats. These are easily retrievable and your information passes on easily to more number of requests.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Handling-a-Traffic-Spike&id=6880221This happens normally if you have the opportunity of putting something very viral onto your site. Suppose it's the death of Osama Bin Laden that you are featuring in a video just after the instance he is being shot or the aftermath of a nuclear disaster that just happened. Visitors come flooding in to read the news as it happens. The moment your site becomes popular, there is a high chance that it may go down. Phew! While this is not a regular phenomenon, you must be able to handle the demand. There are several ways you can downsize the pressure of a sudden surge.
1. Having a lighter version of your site: In case you see a sudden increase in traffic to your site you can effectively switch onto the lighter version of it. A recommended way of doing so is by enabling the mobile version of your site. During traffic spikes you could allow the mobile version to be available in desktops.
2. A lighter version of your homepage: Generally it's the homepage of your site that is requested in the event of a traffic spike. It's from the homepage that the specific link is requested. If a specific picture or video in your site has been responsible for the surge, prepare a lighter version of it. This can be achieved by replacing images with texts, using more of HTML content, excluding Flash images wherever possible and using static pages over dynamic ones. The ones replaced puts a higher load on the servers.
3. Third party services: There are platforms like Google Blogs, Google Docs that you can seek use of. These servers will be able to handle the high traffic. What you need to do is transferring a copy of your site to these platforms such that the traffic gets divided.
4. Using lightweight formats: Downloadable information if provided by your site should be of lighter formats. Consider using a text or MS word file instead of a PDF file. These lightweight formats are easier to index fully and the same information is provided at a fraction of the original file size.
5. XML and CSV data: When providing numerical data use the lighter XML and/or CSV formats. These are easily retrievable and your information passes on easily to more number of requests.
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