Predictive analytics has played an increasingly important role in website management. Many of my colleagues here at Smart Data Collective have published a number of articles on the benefits of using predictive analytics to improve the ROI of digital marketing campaigns. However, there are even more fundamental benefits of using this evolving technology. One of the biggest reasons that it is necessary is in that arena of web hosting. Website managers are facing a number of challenges with web hosting in the coming year. Some of these problems have persisted for the better part of this century, while others are more recent concerns. The good news is that predictive analytics is helping solve many of the biggest web hosting challenges. Here are some of the key benefits of predictive analytics in the coming year.
Addressing the threat of new cybersecurity threats
Have you ever watched the 1984 movie War Games? You probably got the impression that hackers were unsophisticated technocrats that used brute force attacks to cause damage on a wide scale. Even if you have been following developments in the cybersecurity industry over the past couple of years, you are probably still going to be surprised to hear how much these criminals have evolved. Hackers have come up with a number of new strategies to exploit their victims. They are rapidly deploying new types of ransomware attacks. According to some estimates, the Number of ransomware attacks rose 350% between 2017 and 2019. Approximately 30% of businesses expressed that they felt vulnerable to these threats. Although ransomware has received the most attention, there are even more serious cybersecurity threats on the horizon. The biggest threat in 2019 is crypto mining hacks. Predictive analytics is playing an essential part in helping stave off these threats. Webmasters have begun using predictive analytics to identify red flags of potential cyber attacks or malware and institute automated, real-time responses. These algorithms rely on tools such as:
- Geolocation technology to identify sources of web traffic and algorithms to compare those IP addresses against known cybercriminals
- Tools to monitor internal network activity in real time to identify red flags that employees are engaging in rogue activity or hackers have created administrator accounts within the network
- Evaluating activity on server logs for indications that an unusual amount of bandwidth is being consumed
- Analyzing newly downloaded applications in real time
- Evaluating email and social media messages to identify red flags of social engineering attempts usually used by hackers
These predictive analytics algorithms can be quite effective. However, they only work if the website relies on a hosting provider with the technology to utilize them.
Ensuring resource limits don?t bottleneck hosting
Some hosting providers need to improve their reliability standards. To find them, you can go on specialized websites that review hosting companies such as Hostadvice. There you can read real user reviews, see an example at this Bluehost hosting reviews page. Bluehost and other providers recognize the need to invest in more data solutions to address these shortcomings. These steps include helping customers recognize bandwidth limits and other issues. When website owners first purchase a new hosting plan, they must select the amount of bandwidth, server space, and memory. They initially choose a plan that is more than sufficient for a new website. However, as their website grows, it is easy to exceed the allowable resources with their existing plan. Predictive analytics helps mitigate these concerns. Algorithms are able to detect the acceleration rate of the website growth, so webmasters can be alerted if they are likely to exceed their resources in the near future. They are likely to receive an email notification letting them know that they might exceed their memory within the next 90 days or so. However, predictive analytics algorithms are still not perfect yet. One of the biggest issues is that website traffic can increase exponentially over time. Websites might grow slowly over the first few months while trying to improve their SEO rankings and social media footprint. They might unexpectedly get a massive surge in traffic within a couple of weeks that they might not be prepared for. Predictive analytics models are not always able to forecast these problems, but they are pretty reliable nonetheless.
Identifying areas for website speed optimization
Every website needs to be optimized for speed. Unfortunately, a number of factors can curtail speed. Predictive analytics can help identify these risks. One solution is helping websites identify the location of various website visitors. They can then use content delivery networks to reroute the traffic to the nearest server to make sure that it loads quickly.