Kevin O’Leary’s Cheap Web Hosting Just Crashed His Website
Well, this is awkward. Just one day after launching his bid for leadership of the Conservative Party, Kevin O’Leary’s website has crashed. The problem? His cheap web hosting.
We spotted the issue around noon Thursday, after O’Leary shared a Facebook post pushing people to his website, olearyforcanada.ca.
After some cursory googling, the problem, while obscure, seems common to websites hosted on GoDaddy’s managed WordPress services. The WhoIs information confirms the site is registered with GoDaddy. The issue involves the company’s shoddy cacheing techniques, or the way GoDaddy compresses the site to make it load faster.
GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting runs from $5.99 a month to $20.99 for their top Developer level package. According to online traffic tool, SimilarWeb, olearyforcanada.ca is estimated to have had 27, 200 visits last month. In his announcement video yesterday, he thanked the 40,000 Canadians who visited his site encouraging him to run.
GoDaddy is a popular web hosting service thanks to their Carls Jr. approach to advertising. Known for their aggressive sales tactics, the service is often derided as predatory and manipulative.
As candidate to be leader of the Conservative party, O’Leary’s website is more important than ever, as he races to sell new party memberships ahead of the May 27 election.
