Managing Your Website Uptime with a Website Monitor

In the world of ecommerce, website uptime is everything. Why? Because if your uptime goes down, so do your profits. So how do you ensure that you’re maximizing your site’s uptime? How do you know if you’re getting the uptime you’re being promised? Here are some tips to help you maximize your website uptime and your website profits.

Use a Reputable Web Host

First and foremost, make sure you’re using a reputable webhost. Anyone can boast an uptime rating of 99.9 percent, but that doesn’t mean they deliver on that promise. Even the uptime guarantees that are made by web host providers aren’t really worth much, considering they usually compensate you just pennies if your site is down more than what they promise it will be. And let’s face it, how will you know if your site is down more than your host says it will be? Chances are they won’t advertise the fact.

Monitoring Your Website’s Downtime

The only way to ensure that your website has acceptable levels of uptime is to monitor your site’s downtime. Unfortunately you can’t very well sit at a computer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week hitting the refresh button to make sure your site is up and running properly. Thankfully, that is where website monitoring services come into play.

When you utilize a website monitor that site monitor will ensure that your site is up and running, even when you’re sound asleep. Keeping an ever-vigilant eye on your site, these companies make sure that your profits aren’t put at risk by unacceptable levels of website downtime. If your website monitor notifies you that your site is down on a frequent basis, you can then take it up with your web host or switch hosts altogether.

Why Not Utilize Free Website Monitoring Services?

There are plenty of website monitors out there that offer services for free. The problem is that the free service is usually a “hook” to get you to upgrade to a paid service. If a company isn’t up front about their pricing, there’s usually a reason for it.

So what’s wrong with a free website monitor? Almost every free website monitor out there notifies you via email when your site goes down. This is a significant problem because when your site goes down, your email may go down with it. This means you’re not alerted to the site outage until it’s been resolved. If you want a comprehensive website monitor, you need one that notifies you via phone and SMS text message in addition to email. This way, if your email goes down with your website, you’ll still know about it and can work to resolve the issue.

Remember, every moment of downtime costs your company money. You need a trusted website monitor to make sure that those losses are mitigated if you want to maximize your website’s profits.