// INDUSTRY INSIGHT //
WHY UPTIME ISN’ T ENOUGH FOR GROWING SMES
SMEs no longer need to hire a specialist to get online. They can design their own websites if they want to, launch their own social media pages within moments and set up a business email account instantly. But customer expectations are high – websites are expected to perform, no matter what the size of the company. Suhaib Zaheer, SVP & GM, Managing Hosting at Cloudways, explains why SMEs need to focus on everyday performance fundamentals.
F or today’ s SMEs, being online is no longer the challenge it once was. Standing out and staying usable is.
There are an estimated 5.7 million SMEs across the UK, of which 5.4 million are deemed micro in size. Representing 99.9 % of all British businesses, these organisations are operating in one of the most competitive digital environments the UK has ever seen. Thousands of similar websites now compete for the same customers, attention spans and transactions.
Whether these companies are pushing the boundaries of science and innovation or running a beloved e-commerce site, they are all contributing towards a prosperous economy. Last year alone, it was estimated that SMEs turned over a huge £ 2.7 trillion.
Maintaining mission-critical platforms
The move to digital has allowed teams of any size, sector and location to scale faster and operate more efficiently than
// ever before. Over the past decade, cloud infrastructure, Software-as-a-Service( SaaS) tools and managed hosting have removed much of the technical heavy lifting, allowing SMEs to launch quickly, adapt to demand and reach customers far beyond their local markets. What previously required IT specialists or vast amounts of capital can now be achieved with a handful of tools and a reliable partner behind them.
THE MOVE TO DIGITAL HAS ALLOWED TEAMS OF ANY SIZE, SECTOR AND LOCATION TO SCALE FASTER AND OPERATE MORE EFFICIENTLY THAN EVER BEFORE.
Increasingly, this contribution hinges on digital performance. Lower barriers to entry and easier access to digital tools have made launching a website easy, but ensuring it performs well under real conditions is not.
For a growing number of SMEs, their website has since stopped being used as a supporting channel and is now the heartbeat of the business itself. Sales, bookings, customer support and marketing are all routed through digital platforms that must work reliably, often around the clock. Yet monitoring‘ uptime’ alone isn’ t enough, and marketers must dive deeper into the data to truly stand apart.
The rise of digital-first businesses over recent years has come with an important trade-off. As websites and applications take on more responsibility and importance for businesses, any vulnerabilities in performance become immediately visible – and immediately costly. To illustrate, websites that load in two seconds maintain an average bounce rate of 9 % according to research. Add just three seconds to that load time and the bounce rate jumps to a staggering 38 %. Just three seconds difference can see a business lose almost 30 % of its prospective customers.
Consumers’ expectations for seamless operations remain high, regardless of
Suhaib Zaheer, SVP & GM, Managing Hosting, Cloudways
Intelligent SME. tech
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