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Abstract: Few things are as discouraging as discovering that your company's website has a broken signup form, a cart failure or an embarrassing page display.

Site Monitoring Services

To ensure that this doesn't happen to you, you can use a site monitoring tool to report on site behaviors and alert you when problems arise.

There are excellent free and/or low cost monitoring services which check everything from load time to links to cart and form functionality. A search on Google for "site monitoring" will reveal several, such as Website Pulse, which is our favorite. A website monitoring modest plan should cost under $25 per month. You could recover the cost of a years' service by quickly resolving only one or two problems that might otherwise go undetected.

Do You Really Need Site Monitoring?

A couple of examples from our usability practice will show the value of site monitoring.

A new customer contacted us to help improve site sales. Upon review, the problem was a broken sign-up form. It had worked when the site was new, but broke for some unknown reason. A site monitor would have advised the site owner immediately of the failure. As it was, there was no way of knowing when it failed or how many visitors left the site frustrated.

Another client found wide fluctuations on a key webpage's exit rates in their analytics program. Some days website visitors would just leave, but on other days many would engage. We instituted a site monitoring service. Now reports showed that the page normally loaded in 3 seconds, but at certain times, it was taking up to 30 seconds to load, causing visitors to leave. These exits had nothing to do with page design or the persuasiveness of the offer, and everything to do with load time. We had instructed the monitor program to alert us immediately when load times exceeded reasonable time parameters and were able to fix the problem.

My Site Works Fine. Why worry?

Simply because your site worked last week, doesn't mean it is functioning reliably today. There are many reasons why site problems can occur -- even if you haven't made any changes to your site. For example:

• Your web hosting vendor could experience problems from software upgrades, server changes, power outages, bandwidth changes, or even the addition of large new accounts. Hosting companies don't usually announce changes until significant problems occur, so it's best to be proactive.
• Browser changes can affect how your site appears and functions. While site monitors do not normally check functionality across many browsers, they can still point to a variety of browser problems.
• Links on your webpage to external sites can fail if the target site deletes the page or changes the URL.
• Third party providers such as shopping cart services can make unannounced changes that can cause failures with essential pieces of your site.
• Security failures could cause your site to be hacked or attacked. Monitors do not prevent security breaches but they can alert you when certain problems occur.

What's the next step?

Site monitoring takes place invisibly without you having to change anything on your site. Their software just goes to your site on a regular basis to perform a test. You select the pages to test and the "alerts" and reports you want to receive. Testing options include test frequency, location of where the test originates (helpful for international sites), and the "emergency procedures" to follow when a problem is detected.

How often should I test the site?

Since your web monitoring service is often free for the first month or so, begin with hourly testing as a starting point. If you suspect problems -- particularly load time problems -- increase testing frequency. Explore the range of monitoring services during the free trial and decide what is cost effective testing frequency. If you choose to discontinue paid monitoring after the trial, many companies still offer some worthwhile free services.

What should you test on your site?

Options vary with various vendors, but here is a starting point:

• Up time. Is your host (ISP) up nearly 100% of the time?
• Load time. Are your pages presented quickly and completely? Be sure to include your cart provider and any external service that may be on another server.
• Signup forms and cart transactions. Are all the key pieces working?
• Broken Links. Test both external and internal links.

What happens when a problem is detected?

After setting the test options and the alert triggers, you select how you want to be notified of a problem. Alerts can range from a simple email or text message all the way to automatically rebooting a remote server. Next, take steps to ensure you have action plans in place before you receive your first alert.

•  Decide who receives alerts and what happens if key personnel are on vacation or unavailable?
•  Make sure you have someone who has access to and is familiar with your site code, especially if you are no longer working with your original web developer.
•  Contact your hosting company and third party providers ahead of time to understand what steps you should take for any problems you anticipate. Keep important contact information handy in case you cannot get online.

Begin your Site QA program today with a site monitoring program. In under an hour you can have the peace of mind from knowing that a silent partner is watching your site 24/7.

Reprints Policy - This article is free for reprint as long as you provide a link to this site and acknowledge ownership. For more information or special permission, please email me. - Thanks, Todd