I needed a haircut. The place I go to instituted a “cash only” policy during the lockdowns, but I use plastic for just about everything and don’t carry much cash. I went to the shop’s website to make sure I would have enough with me (and hoping they’d finally gone back to accepting credit cards).
Their website was down.
I told the owner this when I got to the shop and she said she never checks the site and would tell her niece who takes care of these things for her.
Turns out, the site was down. The hosting company had emailed her niece that the company had been sold and she needed to (do something) but their emails went to an email address she no longer uses.
Her website is back up, but it looks like it was down for about two months. An eternity for a retail store that depends on new business.
How much business did she lose?
How much business would a law firm lose if their site was down that long?
Which prompted me to tell you this story and remind you to regularly make sure the hosting and domain names for your website are paid, the site is up and displaying properly, the subscription forms are working, the downloads are still downloadable, the links are linking, and everything is as it should be.
And to check your spam folder (and old email addresses) to make sure you’re not missing anything.
It doesn’t take a lot of time, and can spare you a bunch of trouble.
