Common Website Problems & Complaints - Help!

The majority of our business comes from helping clients who have - unfortunately - been shafted in one way or another by their current website provider/host.

A couple of the common complaints that we encounter are the following:
  1. Their website and email constantly go offline: Anyone can throw together a website - given that there are tons of free website platforms and thousands of plugins out there - but, not everyone knows the inner workings of these platforms and plugins. So, when the wheels start falling off the website, and you're with a wannabe type provider, then you're probably in for a world of pain. Also, I think, sometimes providers/hosts really just don't care about their clients.
  2. The website keeps on getting hacked: This follows the first point - being with a provider that doesn't know what they are doing means that you're probably going to get hacked at some point or another. A website has to be constantly hardened to make sure that it's protected against the latest website exploits.
  3. An incorrectly configured website publishes/makes public, files that are supposed to be private/password protected: A provider that doesn't know their stuff, will not know how to configure the website properly to secure your data. This can be embarrassing when Google ends up indexing all of the "private" files.
  4. The website loads slowly, sometimes as long as 20 seconds per page: Many things can slow down a website, such as an overloaded server, incorrectly configured plugins, badly programmed plugins or pages, an inefficient database structure etc. The provider that you select needs to be able to cover ALL of their bases, otherwise you'll run into problems. I personally know a couple hosting providers who, in all honesty, should not be hosting anything - their systems are so badly configured that it is a disaster waiting to happen.
  5. The provider/host takes several days to respond, if at all: Services that are offline, such as a website and email, really should get immediate attention from any provider. Failure to do so is really just pathetic and disrespectful and you should take your business elsewhere.
  6. Their host is threatening to switch off their website if they don't have it upgraded: This is the latest one that I've heard. So, they're on wordpress/joomla/drupal version X.XX and a newer version is out. Their provider now notifies them that they have 2 weeks to get their wordpress/joomla/drupal upgraded, otherwise their website will be disconnected. Upgrading opensource platforms is not always an easy task, especially for a non-technical user, and hiring someone to do this for you can run up a several hundred dollar bill. The other problem is that updates are constantly being released for these platforms, so it's an ongoing issue to stay up-to-date.

If you, or someone you know, are experiencing these problems - or any others - and need a lifeline, give us a call.

Posted in Choosing a Website Developer, Web Security. Tagged as Reliable Website Provider, Website Help, Website Problems.

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