Website monitoring software allows users to consistently track performance metrics for websites in real time. These metrics can be displayed as reports or on a visual dashboard. Baseline performance metrics can be customized to meet the minimum requirements of maintaining the uptime and performance of websites.
A quality web page is usually the first line of contact customers, partners, and prospective employees have with a company. It can be a reliable resource for anyone wanting to know more about a company or an organization and legitimize a brand to a potential consumer. However, if a company’s web page has any issues, it creates a negative experience that leads to missed sales opportunities and a damaged reputation. Website monitoring tools are designed to ensure this second scenario never happens and that web performance remains consistent for all website visitors.
The term “uptime" means a website is running as expected, with a steady flow of data between the web server and the site’s users. Conversely, “downtime" means any interruption, when incoming web traffic can’t access a complete website. Website performance monitoring software maximizes uptime and minimizes downtime, so new and repeat visitors can enjoy a website as intended, whether learning about a company or engaging with a company’s content. Depending on a company’s network, the complexity of its site, and the level of web activity they experience, website speed, load time, and other performance metrics can vary by the hour. In some cases, a site can crash entirely without warning.
The tools in this category actively monitor a company’s site by web API and transaction monitoring, test it from all angles, and offer real-time alerts when there are outages so companies can quickly address the issue. Some tools in this category generate valuable insights from user activity monitoring that help adjust strategy and web offerings for optimal results. Performance dashboards in certain products offer complete visibility into a website (or websites), so companies can identify potential issues before they arise and continually improve the user experience, which translates to desirable business outcomes across an organization.
What Types of Website Monitoring Software Exist?
Free edition
Many website monitoring software offer free plans. These solutions check customers’ website uptime from a couple of times a day to every couple of minutes. They have a basic performance dashboard and can alert IT staff when the website goes dark. However, they might not offer advanced features such as root cause analysis on what is causing the outage. For small businesses, this is a true bargain if they don’t require an online presence.
Paid edition
Paid website monitoring software provides frequent uptime checks from every couple minutes to under a minute. They also provide comprehensive monitoring services including real user monitoring (web user analytics), website content monitoring (unexpected changes on website content), and multiple location checks (server performance in another geo). These features help companies quickly identify key performance errors which reduces downtime. Any companies that have online shopping transactions or digital-centered strategies are recommended to use the paid edition to ensure a consistent online user experience.
What are the Common Features of Website Monitoring Software?
The following are some core features within website monitoring software that can help users in tracking website performance, observing traffic and user data, and alerting users of technical issues plus their underlying cause:
Uptime monitoring: Uptime monitoring or availability monitoring is tracking a website’s live and accessible feed. An uptime robot tests the website at consecutive intervals with web APIs. These tests simulate attempted sessions from users in various locations or different channels. Following tests by an uptime robot, these programs generate uptime reports detailing a website’s availability. Depending on the platform used, uptime robots might test complete web pages including HTML, CSS, scripts, and images, with corresponding data for how these components load for users. Certain tools also help companies understand their site’s performance as it relates to different browsers, platforms, and countries. Uptime tests may be pre configured in a website monitoring service, or companies may be able to customize and manage tests to meet their preferred specifications.
Downtime alerts: Downtimes are gaps in a website’s uptime, and they usually last from a couple of seconds to hours. Downtime can happen at inconvenient hours or during high-traffic moments. Depending on the situation, it may require immediate attention to get the site back to its regular functionality. Several platforms offer downtime alerts or notifications that ping the appropriate users when a site or certain content becomes unavailable, regardless of the underlying cause. Every second that a site is down is translated to missed sales opportunities or negative user experiences. Downtime notifications instantly call attention to these situations, so administrators can work to quickly find a solution.
Downtime alerts may be customizable so the most appropriate actions can be taken. This can include varying levels of urgency based on the extent of site disruption, different data points related to the problem, or automatic escalations to specific users based on situation details. Downtime alerts don’t fix websites, but they draw attention to performance issues instantly, and in some cases, draw conclusions about the cause. With real-time information, teams can make informed decisions to remedy the problem with as little downtime as possible. Some vendors also set up site public status pages and social media posts to alert customers when the website is down.
Performance data: Along with uptime and downtime, it benefits web administrators to monitor the overall performance of company websites. With certain tools in this category, users collect data such as page speed, element load times, and network data flow, which helps deepen their understanding of the site and user experience. A great website is never complete and requires continued effort to run smoothly. If a company has multiple active web pages, it can benefit from as much data as possible. It’s important to consider various metrics that might help a team maintain each web page at the highest level, and to keep this in mind when researching the features in a possible web monitoring solution.
Real user monitoring (RUM): Digital businesses use RUM to analyze customers’ digital experiences by looking at how online visitors are interacting with a website. It analyzes everything from page load events to HTTP requests to bounce rates. Advanced website monitoring package includes RUM to correlate website performance to revenue generation. If customers start leaving the website and there is no performance issue, companies can identify content issues attributed to a high bounce rate. Since RUM tracks revenue generation on each site, it also allows users to optimize the areas on site that will bring the most revenue down to an accurate dollar amount on every page.
