Small client to launch product line with Walmart. What potential issues should I prepare for with the website?

Question

I didn't know which of the SE sites was best for this question. It is not a code question, but more of a "tell me your experiences and give me advice" question.

I recently landed a client who already has a website, an old static HTML site. The client is somewhat small, and work on the project has not begun. The contract is for a complete redesign using Wordpress as the platform.

Today, the client emailed me with their "good news". They have landed a deal with Walmart for a few of their products. They have not yet revealed which products.

What should I expect and prepare for, should the site begin getting a large volume of traffic all of the sudden.

Answer 1

I wouldn't worry too much about a sudden rush of traffic unless these products are going to be heavily promoted and marketed. Just having these products in Walmart won't create a mass amount of traffic quickly. And chances are the people that do find the products will visit the site at different times of the day, they all would visit at once.

If you do end up with a lot of traffic a Content Delivery Network may be the way to go. They cache your images, css, scripts, etc, and serve them from their servers instead of from your site.

Usually these services are paid services, however there is a free website security product called CloudFlare that also has a CDN built-in. If you set up that service it could take some of the load off of your server, and it's probably not a bad idea anyways. It gives you added security for your site, speeds up page loading times, and reduces the load on your server, all for free. I use the service now on a few sites and so far so good.