Does your website suddenly screen at you saying ‘error 509 bandwidth limit exceeded’? This is a common error message that appears when the bandwidth usage on your website exceeds the limit provided by your hosting provider. Bandwidth itself is maximum data exchange at one time that your website can accept. In order to know the amount of bandwidth your hosting provider gives, you can check it through cPanel.
If the bandwidth used on your cPanel exceeds the limit, the error message will appear. The main factors are related to high traffic volumes, too many plugins, excessive large file themes, and setting files. We will take you through easy ways to eliminate the error.
Delete Plugins You Do Not Use
Plugins on your website are indeed helpful for adding special functions. But it does not mean you should install a lot of plugins at the same time. Instead, only install and use essential plugins according to your needs. Uninstall the ones that you do not use. This way, the bandwidth use of the plugins on your website will reduce and you will not face the bandwidth limit exceeded error.
Compress Your Website Files
Consider compressing various files on your website so that it will not cause the bandwidth limit exceeded error. In order to do so, you can use a variety of tools, such as Brotli and GZIP. With the tools’ compression techniques, you will be able to reduce the size of HTML, SVG, JavaScript, and CSS files on your website. This way, you can save more bandwidth. There are many hosting providers that offer file compression functions.
Choose the one that supports Brotli or GZIP so that your website will be more optimized, thanks to the compression techniques that automatically run.
Use Optimized, Light Themes
Light website themes can save your bandwidth so that you can effectively overcome the ‘509 bandwidth limit exceeded’ error. But light website themes do not mean the poor-quality ones with limited features. There are plenty of options for quality, light website themes that you can install for free. For instance, ColorMag, Neve, Astra, and OceanWP. Also for more information on how to increase your website speed and decrease bandwidth check out our tips on speeding up your WordPress website
Prevent Hotlinking on Your Website
Hotlinking can quickly drain your bandwidth because there is another party who uses your assets and bandwidth for their website. Imagine if they have a website with a lot of visitors. This will surely put you at loss. Fortunately, you can easily prevent this issue so that you can avoid the bandwidth limit error. You can access the protection hotlink menu on your cPanel and enable it. This way, other people will not be able to use your bandwidth and assets without you knowing it.
Use Content Delivery Network
CDN or Content Delivery Network is a server network spread on various points around the world. Such a network is able to save caches of various files from your hosting server, then displaying what users are requesting from the closest CDN server. As the result, your hosting server’s bandwidth load will drastically decrease because each request is not necessary from the main server. Moreover, your website speed will also increase because visitors’ requests are handled by the server nearest to the visitor. One of the most popular Content Delivery Network services is Cloudflare. Besides super-quick, this service is also able to boost your website security.
Optimize Your Images
Image optimization is helpful for significantly reducing the use of your bandwidth. So, you can avoid the bandwidth limit error. Especially if you have a lot of images on your website. There are several ways that you can try to optimize your images. First, image compression. Image compression aims to reduce the file size without sacrificing the image quality. This is important to save your bandwidth while keeping your visitors’ satisfaction at the same time.
You can compress your images for free by using tools like iLoveIMG and TinyPNG. If you are using WordPress, you can automatically compress your website images by installing plugins like Shortpixel or Smush. Second, use the Webp image format. This image format allows you to have high-quality images in a smaller size compared to PNG or JPEG. Therefore, using the Webp image format can be a solution to overcome the bandwidth limit exceeded error.
In order to change your JPEG or PNG images to Webp images, you can install plugins like Optimole, Imagify, or Shortpixel. The last way to optimize your images is by resizing them. The larger the image dimension, the larger the size as well. Consider resizing your images if you want to overcome the bandwidth limit exceeded error. Some tools that you can use to do so are Resizeimage.net and iLoveIMG.
Upgrade Your Hosting Plan
By upgrading your hosting plan, you will surely get more limits. But the cost will be more expensive as well. You can usually upgrade your hosting plan on your cPanel or hosting member area. If you do not know how to do it, do not doubt to contact the customer service of your hosting provider. If it is possible, it is better to opt for a plan with unlimited bandwidth. If it is too pricey, you can consider switching to other hosting providers.
For the switching process, you can contact the customer service of the new hosting provider, then ask them if they are willing to help you with the process. Most professional hosting providers are willing to do so. Do not forget to ask if there is any additional cost for it.
The Causes of the ‘509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded’ Error
High Traffic
When you have too-high traffic on your website, such an error can appear due to a data exchange that exceeds the specified bandwidth limit. If your website has a lot of visitors, consider upgrading your hosting service plan to support your website performance.
Web Crawlers and Spiders
As we all know, search engines like Google often index your website. And it turns out that the Google Search Spider that indexes your website, consumes a lot of bandwidth.
