The Planet Delivers An SEO Lesson

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

I know that search engine optimization is all about getting listed as high as possible in the SERP’s, however, if you’re not on the air then it doesn’t really matter how highly rated your site is. The fire that has virtually shut down around 9000 sites hosted through The Planet is probably a timely reminder to check your own contingency plans.

Search engine optimization has to be one part of an overall plan for your web site and that plan should cover everything from initial design through search engine optimization, hacking and of course the loss of a host.

You can lose a host for many different reasons. Catastrophe is a major one through fire, earthquake, hurricane or some other worldly event. Web hosts have also been known to simply go broke and close down overnight. For webmasters who have worked hard on their search engine optimization to get high ranks can then be left with nothing to show for their time and money.

The two areas that need to be looked at in the event of an emergency. The first is obvious. Backup – everyone tells us to do it – how often do you do it? I wonder how many webmasters leave it up to their hosts to back up the servers? The old saying will never die, back up and back up as often as possible. More importantly, make sure the back ups are not just stored on your web directories. Store them off site and somewhere safe.

The second contingency plan deals with your hosting. If your site is a busy site that generates income, have you considered a mirror site set up for any possible problems? With the backups from your site, can you establish a temporary hosting to keep things running until your host returns to full operation. A situation like The Planet could be resolved in a couple of days, or it could take weeks, depending on the amount of damage.

Having a complete plan that includes everything from search engine optimization through to host failure may prevent your site from facing traffic failure. Time to review and BACKUP.