Your website is the face of your business on the internet. It therefore makes it critical that everything is working as it is supposed to.

Now, although you are probably putting all the effort possible into making sure your website is healthy and performing well, there might come a time when something goes wrong, there is a lag in page load times or your website is simply down.

That is where website monitoring services come into play.

What is Website Monitoring?

Website monitoring can be defined as the process of checking and verifying whether a website’s visitors can access and use a website (or any of its applications) as is expected. Alternatively, businesses can use website monitoring to make sure that their websites’ uptimes, performances and functionalities are within the healthy ranges.

What other Features do they check?

Apart from connectivity issues, the service providers can keep track of “aesthetic” values of a website. They can keep clients updated on what their visitors from different parts of the world are looking at when they land on their sites. Thus, the clients can find out if any content is missing or whether it is all being displayed as it should be.

This can be very beneficial for businesses that use elements or link to content that is hosted on other, third-party, servers and content providers.

What are Website Monitoring Services?

Website monitoring services are the types of services that are offered by providers who make it their job to constantly watch a website, its servers and their functionalities to see if they are responding as they should.

Typically, these companies monitor their clients’ sites from several locations across the world. This allows them to pinpoint issues caused by latency and similar network issues. They keep their clients updated using various reports, analytical figures, charts and graphs. Alternatively, the clients themselves can log into the service providers’ website and access all the information through dashboards and see everything in real time.

In case they find something wrong with clients’ websites the providers can alert them via email, text, or even direct phone call and throw in some of their findings. The business (the client’s, i.e.) can then use the provided information to resolve the issues.

How can Website Monitoring Services help Businesses?

As the website monitoring is conducted round the clock, clients can rest assured that they will be informed of irregularities and failures in the shortest amount of time. They can even be made aware of problems that aren’t visible to them from their central location – their website maybe up and running when they test if from the head office, but visitors in another location might be met with an error page, for example. Unless someone from over there lets them know that their site is down, it would be a while before (and after probably irreversible bleeding of traffic, visitors and potential customers) they are even aware of the fact.

And so, once the service providers have sent in any error findings, businesses can go ahead and try to remedy the problem ASAP.

But, apart from finding problems with its website, a business can use website monitoring for other purposes. For one, the services can be used to monitor their site’s performance (load times, response times, application performance, etc.). The results can then be used by website administrators to fine tune and improve these performances.

Another function that website monitoring offers is to make sure that their web hosting provider, where the site is located, is actually delivering on the service(s) they have promised.

How often are Websites Checked?

Well, the testing time might differ from one service provider to another, but there are configurable times that allow clients to have their sites checked anywhere from every minute to greater amounts of time.

How much does the Service Cost?

Again, this depends on the service provider but the price starts from absolutely free onwards. As a matter of fact, there are some great free website monitoring service providers that can be used by businesses and perform just as well as (and sometimes even much better than) the premium ones.

What happens if you don’t use Website Monitoring Services?

If your website fails (especially on a regular basis) your business will be seen as an unreliable entity. Clients will lose confidence and opt for your competitors’ goods and services. Even if they remained loyal, your business will keep losing money as your clients won’t be able to trade with you since they can’t access whatever it is you are offering them.

Finally, not keeping an eye on and, hence, not resolving downtime issues will result in search engines assigning your site a very low SEO ranking. This will hurt your website’s search-ability and visibility – again making you lose clients, customers and revenue.

This all means, you need to keep an eye on your website at all times. In a time when every second of up time and customer satisfaction matters, you cannot afford to be caught off guard.