If you’re planning a marketing campaign, it’s crucial to load test your website to ensure it can handle a surge in traffic. The beginning of the year is often a time of change, when business owners implement new strategies to expand their customer base. Start-up entrepreneurs use marketing and social media to attract new visitors, while SMEs might launch local voucher schemes or video campaigns offering discounts.
No matter how you plan to attract new customers, it’s vital that your website is up-to-date and ready to handle increased traffic before launching a major campaign. Imagine if your promotional video with a downloadable voucher unexpectedly goes viral, drawing in a flood of new customers. The last thing you want is for your website to crash or your order system to fail. Online, attention spans are short, and if customers experience issues with your site, they’ll quickly move on to a competitor.
Incorporating load testing into your website design and development is a simple way to prevent these problems, yet it’s often overlooked or considered an unnecessary expense. But it doesn’t have to be costly—ensuring your site’s reliability can be as affordable as your team’s daily coffee.
Ideally, web design firms should work with testers from the start, running visitor scenarios to guarantee smooth performance. However, content decisions and visual design often take priority when building a site, especially when high traffic isn’t initially expected.
