Plan ahead

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” When it comes to your business website, that couldn’t be more accurate.

Disasters happen (server crashes, hacking, outages, corrupted files) and when they do, the consequences can be devastating. According to FEMA, 40% of small businesses never reopen after a disaster, and 25% more close within a year.

That’s why a proactive website disaster plan isn’t optional, it’s essential.

What a Website Disaster Plan Can Do for You

Having a plan in place can:

  • Increase your chances of recovering from an incident
  • Reduce downtime and financial loss
  • Protect your reputation and maintain customer trust
  • Ensure someone is responsible for monitoring and managing issues

Let’s walk through what a solid disaster plan looks like.

  1. Assign Website Responsibility

First, someone needs to own this process. It could be you, a team member, or your web developer but someone must be accountable.

Their responsibilities include:

  • Checking the website daily or using monitoring tools
  • Responding quickly when something breaks
  • Keeping track of backups and update schedules

Helpful Monitoring Tools:

  • Pingdom: Checks your site every minute and alerts you if it goes down.
  • IsItDownRightNow: Confirms if the issue is your site or just your internet connection.

You can’t fix a problem you don’t know exists—these tools help make sure you do.

  1. Troubleshooting When Something Breaks

If your site goes down or starts behaving strangely, you need to play detective.

Ask yourself:

  • Did a recent update or plugin change cause the issue?
  • Is the problem related to hosting, DNS, or the site itself?
  • Are all users affected or just a few?

The more you understand how your site functions, the easier it is to pinpoint problems. You don’t need to be a developer but you do need a process.

Think in terms of a checklist or flowchart:

  1. Confirm the site is down
  2. Identify recent changes
  3. Check hosting/server health
  4. Review logs or monitoring data
  5. Call in help if needed

  1. Backups: Your Safety Net

At the heart of any disaster plan is a reliable backup strategy.

Key backup best practices:

  • Back up regularly based on your site’s activity (daily, weekly or monthly)
  • Store backups in multiple locations—on your server and offsite (e.g., cloud storage or local drive)
  • Test your backups periodically to make sure they actually restore

📌 Important: A backup stored only on your server is not enough. If the server crashes, you could lose everything—including the backup.

  1. Know Your Resources

If you’re not comfortable troubleshooting, delegate it.

  • Start with your web developer as they know your setup best
  • If they can’t help, reach out to:
    • Your local Chamber of Commerce
    • A SCORE mentor
    • Fellow business owners

Don’t wait until you’re in a crisis to look for help. When panic sets in, you’re more likely to make a rushed (and possibly costly) decision.

  1. Plan Now

A disaster plan is useless if you wait until things go wrong to build it.

Take these steps today:

  • Assign responsibility for your site
  • Set up monitoring and backup tools
  • Keep contact info for your developer, hosting provider, and support resources handy
  • Review and test your plan quarterly

If you have a business website but no disaster recovery plan, you’re leaving yourself exposed. One mistake, one outage, one crash could cost you your entire business.

With Wheaton Website Services, we can help you build a disaster strategy to ensure your website stays online, secure, and recoverable. Are you ready to start building a smarter website protection plan? Contact us today to learn how we can help.