Trying to go viral? Planning on a lot of site traffic? Our techs have helped sites stay online during Super Bowl ad campaigns and opening weekend movie premiers. And along the way, they’ve learned what it takes to stay online during a massive flood of traffic.
So before going live with the next greatest Internet meme, here’s a checklist of what to do to keep your site alive:
- Understand the scope of the project. How many people will be exposed to your campaign? What is the expected turnover rate? What time of day do you expect traffic to hit your site? How will your site’s application handle a dramatic increase in visitors?
- Allocate enough time for planning. The right amount of prep time depends on the scope of the project. Is one week really enough time to bring everything together? One month? The bigger the project, the more time you will want in advance to make sure everything goes smoothly.
- Be prepared for all the what-ifs. Expect the unexpected; people, especially visitors to your site, never behave exactly the way you expect them to. Map out all of the scenarios and have a plan ready for them.
- Have a back-up and back-out plan. As much as you prepare for success, never assume that failure is impossible. Failing gracefully can make a big impact on retaining the trust of your visitors. Also, you don’t want to lose valuable data. If your site crashes under the load, make sure you can retrieve the data gathered before the crash.
- Make sure your configuration is scalable. Being able to add an additional web server without downtime means that you won’t interrupt the traffic surge in order to accommodate an unexpected volume of visitors. If your site relies on a database or dedicated application server, make sure you can add more power to these areas, as well.
