What Is Your Website Platform?
As the Internet churns forward at warp speed, it’s even more important to understand what technology is used for your website. We recently updated our website and published managed services first bootstrap website.
Even though local testing functioned properly, the public site would not display. All of the files were verified as copied to the web server with FTP so something else was wrong. Upon contacting the host, they mistakenly reported that no valid web files were present. The technology was new enough that the host simply wasn’t familiar with modern conventions.
When we asked what version of Windows was hosting our site, it was revealed that our site had been running on the over 10 years old Windows Server 2003. As soon as we purchased hosting on a newer Windows platform, the site was published and publicly accessible.
After checking a few dozen customer sites, we found they were also running older versions of Windows or Unix/Linux. So here are our recommendations:
- Check your website platform. Go to Builtwith and lookup your website. The service will display a full technology profile including: web server version, name server providers, email services, SSL certificate, frameworks, analytics, and more.
- Increase search performance. Newer platforms are inherently faster and more responsive web sites are listed ahead of slow or broken sites in search results.
- Provide better protection. Windows Server 2003 is no longer supported or updated by Microsoft posing a security risk for users. Similarly, Unix and Linux web servers should be patched and latest versions for increasing vulnerabilities like Heartbleed or Bash.
Builtwith may also be used for regular competitive or industry analysis. Correspondingly, you’ll likely want to migrate or re-publish your website to a newer platform every 3 – 5 years.
Matrixforce has no affiliation and derives no revenues from Builtwith.
