Five Website Monitoring Service Musts

When you decide to invest in website monitoring services, and you most definitely should if you're serious about the success of your business, you need to realize that not all services are created equal. If you want to invest in the services of a quality website monitor, you need to know what you should be on the lookout for. Here are five things to look for and never settle on when it comes to choosing the website monitoring service that's right for you.

1. Email Notifications Don't Cut It

Your website goes down. It's your website monitoring service's job to let you know about it. The problem is that many of the "free" services on the Web only notify you via email. Now what good is that going to do you when your email server goes down with your site? You still won't know your site is suffering an outage and you won't be doing anything about it. That's why quality website monitoring services employ phone calls and SMS text messages to notify you of downtime and performance issues in addition to email messages.

2. Forego Cached Name Checking

Some website monitors check cached name servers when monitoring your site. This can lead to huge problems because the time it takes your service to notify you of an outage depends on your site's TTL, or time to live. Let's say you have a hosting company with a TTL of 24 hours. That means your website monitoring service won't even realize your site is down until 24 hours after the outage has occurred. You need to use a website monitor that utilizes technology that doesn't rely on checking cached name servers.

3. One Server Is Not Enough

When you utilize the services of a website monitoring company you need to use one that has more than one server in more than one location. The reason for this is simple. What happens if your monitoring service's server goes down? Your site is no longer protected. What happens if a power outage occurs? Your site is left to fend for itself. With a company that offers multiple servers in multiple locations, you can ensure that your site is being checked as it should be regardless of what happens at one server location.

4. Don't Deal with Software

Unless you're really good with software and installations of software onto your site, you probably want a service that doesn't require too much technical savvy. Some website monitoring services don't require you to install software on your site. This means your site can be protected without you having to endure the headache of having to figure out exactly how the service's software works.

5. Don't Settle for Extensive Time Lapses between Site Checks

A good website monitor will allow you to check your site every minute of the day. Some services only check your site every 15 minutes or half an hour. That means you could experience half an hour of downtime before your service even notifies you. Since time is money, this isn't an acceptable scenario. You need to do business with a website monitoring service that will check your site as frequently as you want it to.

Remember, there are a number of website monitoring services to choose from. Make sure you go with the one that offers the most for your money. Keep the above five tips in mind any time you consider doing business with any website monitoring company.