Website Monitoring 101: Answers to Frequently Asked Website Monitoring Service Questions

Almost everyone who owns a website or operates one knows what website monitoring service is and what it entails, for the most part. The details, however, are often misunderstood or blurred and confused with other website services. If you want to truly understand the nature of website monitoring services and how such a service can be put to work to protect your online business’s profits, you need answers to the most frequently asked website monitoring questions.

What is Website Monitoring Service?

As mentioned, most people have a general idea of what website monitoring entails. A website monitoring service monitors your website’s uptime, looking for any incidents of downtime that may occur. If your site does go down, the service alerts you so you can go to work immediately to get your site back online. However, that is more of an explanation as to what website monitoring services do. What website monitoring actually consists of requires more of a technical answer.

Website monitoring, in and of itself, is the process of testing and verifying that end users can interact with your website as intended. Your site is checked multiple times per day to ensure that it is live and responding to visitors as it should be. The service is also used to generate reports that you’re your site’s performance trends over a period of time, alerting you as to different factors that may be affecting your website’s functionality. In addition, website monitoring service can be used to help you benchmark your site’s performance against the performance of your competitors. Most importantly, the service helps protect your site’s bottom line by alerting you when website downtime happens the moment it happens so you can minimize any lost revenue caused by downtime.

How Does Website Monitoring Service Work?

Website monitoring services use special servers that are, ideally, located in multiple locations to ensure that your site is up and running as well as performing properly. These servers check your website at set intervals, performing tests of your site based on a predetermined script. When the servers detect an issue with your site, they automatically send an alert message to all necessary contacts to alert you and your team of the issue.

How Do You Tell Which Website Monitoring Services Are the Best?

The best website monitoring services all have a few things in common. A quality website monitoring company will have multiple servers operating in multiple locations. They will also offer multiple methods of alert including phone calls and SMS text messages. In addition, real browser-based monitoring will be offered for the most accurate results. The service will also check for fault within the pages of your site in addition to a complete website outage. When a problem does occur, the website monitoring service will provide you with a root-cause analysis of the problem.

How Much Should You Pay for Website Monitoring Service?

One of the things you should never do when shopping for a quality website monitoring service is to shop based on price. Prices range from free to very costly, and how much your service will cost will depend on the needs of your site and the level of service and protection you desire. Remember, as with most things, you tend to get what you pay for. What you should keep in mind is that website monitoring service is one of the few businesses expenses that can actually pay for itself over time. What you spend on a quality website monitoring service can be paid back by the lost revenue you can avoid by eliminating extended periods of downtime.