Why Monitor your website?
The Night The Web Site Went Out
By David Leonhardt
What is web site monitoring all about? Here is Carl's story:
Carl returned to the office after a tough day of negotiations. He still was
not sure if the crucial deal was on or off, but dinner would soon be waiting and
he had just enough time left to check his emails and his phone messages.
He had twelve phone messages, every one of them urgent. Too late to call back
right away; that would have to wait for morning.
His inbox held that familiar report from the web
site monitoring service. He smiled. As usual, there were no error alerts.
That's what he liked to see -- his web site still performing well.
He looked carefully at the report. All the forms were functioning. The
shopping cart, too. Password protection was functioning. At least he did not
have to worry about his web site this evening.
There were still some download speed issues reported by that new Chinese
monitoring post. He made a mental note to raise the issue with his web host
contact in the morning.
Just as he was putting on his jacket to leave, his cell phone rang.
A few minutes later, he called his wife. "Hi Ruby. How's dinner doing?"
"Great, Carl. You'll be home soon?"
"I was just about to leave when my cell phone rang. It was Dotcom-Monitor calling. It seems the
web site went down. They were reporting from London."
"You mean your European customers can't access the site?" Ruby asked.
"That's what I thought at first. When the Hong Kong monitoring station
reported an alert, I assumed the transatlantic connection was blocked. But when
the Florida monitoring station reported in, I had to check the site. And guess
what?"
"I guess that you won't be home for dinner."
"Sorry. I have to get on the line with the web host and straighten this all
out."
"Hey, that's OK. I'm just happy you get instant those alerts. I would hate to
see you get that call during our dinner and have to go all the way back into the
office. Let me know when you're coming home."
"OK. I'll let you know as soon as I do. Bye."
Carl checked the more detailed report online.
As Carl dialed his ISP, he realized it would likely be a long evening. But
not as long as if he received less frequent reports. And not as long as the next
day would be if the web site had been offline for the next.
And that's what web site monitoring is all about.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Leonhardt is a website marketing
and SEO consultant from Canada. Get more details on website
monitoring or website management.
