How to Prepare for a Surge in Website Traffic Don't let a website crash ruin your reputation. Optimize your site before traffic surges hit.

So Oprah mentions your product on her final show and just like that, traffic and sales surge on your website. It feels great until … your site crashes.

Every business needs a crash plan. Yet few small and midsize businesses are prepared for the possibility. In a recent survey, Neustar, a web infrastructure company, found that 73 percent of SMB sites wouldn't be able to support a sudden 200 percent increase in traffic.

"When you first build your business, you don't want to spend money, but this is something you need to plan for," says Rick Rumbarger, Neustar's senior director of product management. "The decision not to do it could end up being more expensive.