In today’s day and age, speed is part of the customer experience, which is why even a latency of a few seconds can have a negative impact on your business.
Let’s take Google as an example – their algorithm uses page speed to establish if a site is worthy of prime-time position (aka the first page) in SERPs or not. Therefore, you can do everything right, but if your web hosting service provider doesn’t support fast speeds and quick database query processing, you risk losing the first page position in Google. This also translates to losing customers and high-quality prospects, resulting in a drop in sales and profits.
But why does Google care so much about your web page’s speed?
As it turns out, it’s all about customer experience. Users nowadays are not patient and want everything done on the spot. They won’t wait if a page doesn’t load in 3s or faster and they will drop a shopping cart if the retailer doesn’t offer same day or next day delivery.
The same goes for any type of software tool and business process that’s dependent on the speed of a database. If the database manager can’t process queries as quickly as they come, the business will be negatively impacted. However, it’s important to understand that this is not just a technical issue as there are many layers that lead to a slow database.
So, to make things a bit clearer, let’s see how to identify the problem and what to do once the culprit has been identified.
How to identify database issues
The cause behind slow database queries is not always straightforward. At times, there may be several factors contributing to the lag, which is why it’s important to keep an eye on a few database performance metrics such as response time and query performance. Additionally, to figure out what went wrong, make sure to check the event and error logs.
While the results of these enquiries may be in technical terms, someone from the IT department or the person in charge of administering the database will know how to translate and help identify the cause.
Now, once the issue is identified, it’s mandatory that you fix the problem and take supplementary measures to ensure such a scenario won’t be repeated. Otherwise, the business may suffer.
Why you should fix slow database queries ASAP
#1: Bad User Experience
Just like we mentioned above, the user experience is impacted by how your database moves. You want to provide customers and prospects with a smooth, flawless experience that’s representative of your reputation as a business. Therefore, when there’s query latency and the database moves slowly, the users may get frustrated and drop your business for the competition.
#2: Low-Performing System(s)
The architecture of modern interactive systems usually starts with a database. This is the foundation of the entire design, and each extra second of latency affects parts of the system that can’t get the data they need on time.
Let’s take the inner flow of a business. Employees have devices they use to access the main database which contains various resources they need. Now, if the queries sent by the marketing department are moving slower than usual, this means employees are stuck waiting for the system to work.
On the other hand, there are other departments (like sales) that wait for answers and resources from the marketing department, and now they can’t do their job either. Overall, slow database queries may block the business process if the situation is not resolved.
#3: Lost Opportunities and Low Productivity
Employees who can’t make the most out of their time at the office can’t reach their full potential. Additionally, a blocked system may also mean that customers and prospects will unsuccessfully try to reach you (resulting in lost opportunities).
Wrap Up
Not all businesses are impacted the same by slow queries, but it’s important to solve this issue as soon as possible. For instance, some businesses use cloud servers in order to avoid investing in high-end servers and maintenance. Of course, depending on the infrastructure and industry, you may choose a different path, but you must make the decision before a slow database has a definitive impact on your business’s profit and reputation.
