Three Advanced Notification Features that Your Site Uptime Monitoring Vendor MUST Deliver

To say that site uptime vendors deliver notifications is about as insightful as saying that cars have steering wheels, planes have wings, or TikTok videos have cringe. It’s a given.  

But this doesn’t mean that all vendors use the same notification playbook. Some vendors offer basic (read: superficial) notification features, while others offer advanced notification features that include: 

1. Multiple Notification Methods

Within minutes of unresponsive site behavior (and after verification that the issue is not a “false positive”), a designated individual in your organization — such as a sysadmin, network specialist, etc. — should be notified of the problem via email, text and/or automated phone call. The use of multiple notification methods increases the chances of a quick response.  

2. Customizable Notifications

If a detected failure continues, you have the ability to configure your monitor settings to notify even more members of your team, or other departments. This assures you that long-lasting events get all the eyes on them as needed.

3. Comprehensive Site Issue Notification

There is more to site uptime than just availability. In other words: a site may be online and accessible, but certain processes within the site — such as those involving checkout, signing-in, customer portals, etc. — may be malfunctioning. You need to be notified of these issues as well, since they can be just as costly and damaging to your reputation as your entire site going down.

The Bottom Line

Site uptime notification is essentially about one thing: discovering issues BEFORE your customers and visitors, so that you can rapidly target and solve the problem(s). Choosing a vendor that checks both of these boxes is not only a good idea, considering the potential costs and consequences to your revenue and reputation, it is a mandatory move.

AlertBot’s advanced notification feature supports: multiple notification methods (email, text and phone), automatic notification escalation, and comprehensive site issue notification. Discover why leading organizations around the world choose AlertBot. Launch your free trial.  

“We’ve been using AlertBot for over eight years now. We were sick of finding out about problems with our website from end users first. While there are varying levels of complexity to AlertBot monitors, even the simple alerts let us know almost instantly when we have an issue. The prioritization of alerting groups and timing allow us to automatically escalate the notifications if someone is not immediately able to respond.” – Chris C., IT Director 

Read other verified customer reviews here!

3 Ways Site Uptime Monitoring Boosts SEO

About 25 years ago, if someone told you to “Google” something, you’d probably smile, nod politely, and walk (or perhaps run) away. But now, Googling is the unofficial international pastime. Consider these statistics:

• 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from search engines — primarily Google, which commands 91.75% of total worldwide search engine market share.
• Google handles around 2 trillion (that’s 12 zeroes) searches per year.
• 39% of customers were influenced by a relevant search.

Clearly, the ability to show up for relevant search queries — a.k.a. search engine optimization (SEO) — matters enormously. In fact, it’s beyond enormous at this point. It’s ridiculous. And there’s no slowdown on the horizon. On the contrary, SEO will only play a bigger part in the digital role in the marketing mix going forward, for two simple and satisfying reasons: it’s much more affordable than conventional marketing and advertising, and it works. And you don’t need to have an MBA or have a Bloomberg terminal on your desk to know that affordable + works = popular. But less clear is the connection between site uptime monitoring and SEO. In fact, at first glance (and second and third as well), there may seem to be no connection at all. However, as any SEO expert worth their Google Search Console will attest, there is a significant link — positive or negative. Below we highlight three ways that site uptime monitoring can boost SEO:

1. Keep Visitors from Bouncing to the Competition

Would-be visitors aren’t the only ones who are frustrated when sites are not accessible — Google takes a dim view of this as well. Now, to avoid triggering paranoia, be assured that Google has said that occasional, short-lived downtime typically won’t negatively impact search rankings. However, ongoing or prolonged downtime is another matter entirely, and will lead to a major downgrade. Site uptime monitoring automatically alerts your SysAdmins, CTOs, and other relevant individuals when a site goes down, so that immediate steps can be taken to get things back online — and make both visitors, and (especially) Google, happy.

2. Identify and Fix Broken Elements

Google wants to provide searchers with relevant and quality site recommendations. The first part of that equation is largely determined by elements like keyword optimization, page rank and domain authority. But the second is determined by what visitors actually experience once they arrive on a site. Site uptime monitoring helps you proactively identify broken elements like links and buttons, so that they can be fixed before Google’s web crawler notices them and starts handing out SEO citations.

3. Boost Page Loading Speed

For a long time, SEO experts demanded that Google reveal that page loading speed was a factor in evaluating sites — and consequently in search engine rankings. And for a long time, Google sat back with its arms crossed and silently smiled (when you make north of $300 billion in revenue a year, you get to do fun stuff like that). However, a couple of years ago Google finally revealed the worst kept secret in the SEO kingdom: speed is, indeed, a factor for search. Site uptime monitoring helps you keep a close eye on page loading times, so that you can ensure that your site blazes like a brand new luxury sedan on the Autobahn, and not like a rusted out 1984 Reliant K-car that shouldn’t go faster than a bike and can’t really make left turns. The Bottom Line Site uptime monitoring is not a magic wand that will transport your site (or sites) to the coveted number one spot for relevant keywords. But as discussed above, it will significantly help your business gain an advantage in the search engine jungle — which means more visibility, more clicks, and more customers.

Start your FREE TRIAL of AlertBot now, and discover why it is the trusted site uptime monitoring solution for some of the world’s biggest organizations. There’s no billing information required, no installation, and you’ll be setup within minutes. Click here.

AlertBot: How did you get into robotics?

Matthew Vasquez: In the early 2000’s, when me and my brother were little kids, my Dad saw [BattleBots] on TV, and at that time, wasn’t even an engineer or anything like that, he was just kind of a hobbyist – good with tools – and he decided he wanted to try it. So, me and my brother were exposed to it from a super early age, and we loved it then and we still love it now.

Jason Vasquez: My family introduced me to robotics as a concept, and brought me to my first event, called RoboGames. And in that event, my first time I bought a one-pound robot that was a kit, and I learned a lot from it and obviously gave me the need to keep doing robotics. Through that event, we were able to prep ourselves for BattleBots. So, once BattleBots came back on the air, we were in a good position to apply and get our foot in the door, and it’s been great ever since.

AlertBot: How did you get started in BattleBots?

Matthew: Me and my brother really got started on the TV show BattleBots in 2015 when the show got rebooted on ABC, and then eventually switched over to the Discovery Channel. But around that time, when combat robotics wasn’t really on TV, we were just doing smaller combat robot events in Southern California, sometimes traveling to Northern California, and occasionally other states. When we saw the show was coming back to TV, it was so exciting and [we] wanted to apply. We wanted to get on the show and kind of live up to our childhood heroes. In 2015, we barely made the cut for the TV show and ever since then, we’ve been competing and it’s been a pretty life-changing experience!

AlertBot: Do you plan on staying involved with BattleBots?

Matthew:  I think, as long as BattleBots is going, we want to be part of it in some way. We love competing. We love building. I love driving. I love the repair work. I pretty much love all of it! So, I think as long as BattleBots is around, we’re going to try our very best to be a part of it.

Jason: Yeah, whatever that may mean, I’d like to be involved in one way or another. It’s been great being on Whiplash and it’s been great having my own team. It’s a really great community and I’d like to stay involved in one way or another.

AlertBot: How did you come up with the name ‘Whiplash’?

Matthew: To this day, we’re not 100% sure. I was pretty convinced that I came up with it. There was another very unknown smaller robot named “Whiplash;” I really liked the robot, really liked the name, and I just kind of ended up using it for a different event that was not BattleBots, and then it kinda got carried into BattleBots. But we have other team members who are not convinced that it was me who came up with it…

Debbie Vasquez: Yeah, no, it was me. *laughter* It was me. I remember when I came up with it! I remember thinking I really liked “Backlash” back in the day in Comedy Central BattleBots days. And I was thinking “’Backlash.’ Alright, what else can we name it kind of like that?” And I was like, *Gasps* “Whiplash!” But… some people think otherwise.

Matthew: Yeah… *shaking his head* That’s not true. *Debbie laughs* But, whatever, it’s fine. We’ll never know!

Jason: Well, when people first asked us that, we’d like to joke around and say “Because Whiplash wins!” We chose that name [because] it’s a great name, I like it, and it’s been good ever since we chose it!

AlertBot: Is BattleBots a full-time job?

Matthew: Believe it or not, BattleBots is not a full-time job. Pretty much every competitor either works an engineering job, or some other job, or is a student, but BattleBots is not a profession. We go to our jobs for 8 hours a day, come home, work another 8 hours on our BattleBots and rinse, repeat when BattleBots season comes.

Jason: Well, during the two-plus weeks of filming, it is a full-time job, and up until the event with prepping and getting the robot ready, it certainly feels like it. We usually do it on top of school and our actual jobs, too. It’s a lot of time, but we just make the time for it and make it happen.

AlertBot: What do you do in the off season?

Matthew:  I have other hobbies: I play tennis, play guitar and bass. My brother does a lot of mountain biking. But in the off season, there are also plenty of other combat robot tournaments going on. There are lots of local ones. Sometimes we travel out of state to go to different ones, but combat robotics is really an all-year-round sport. But it’s that few months a year where BattleBots really takes over our lives.

Jason: I used to be really big into biking, but right now I’m focusing on school and work and, honestly, other types of robotics. I’m really trying to expand my horizons and just continue learning about robotics. It’s great!

Thank you, AlertBot!

Watch the full interview on our YouTube channel below!

A Closer Look at AlertBot’s Email Reports

At AlertBot, we know our customers don’t want too much data about their websites and tasks. Instead, they want clear, organized, and reliable intelligence that tells them: what happened recently, what’s happening now, what’s likely to happen in the near future — and what they can do about it. That’s where email reports enter the story.

Here are the five sections in AlertBot’s email reports: Availability, Performance, Common Errors, Failure Events, and Confirmed Failures.

Availability

The Availability section of the email report displays the overall uptime of the websites that you are testing. Additionally, it is color coded.

• Green indicates that everything is working perfectly (or nearly perfectly).
• Yellow indicates that there may be some minor concerns.
• Red indicates significant concerns that should be addressed.

Performance

The performance section of the email report provides details for the websites that you are testing. It displays a breakdown (measured in seconds) of each process, along with individual web pages that are associated with that process.

This is useful for daily website monitoring and studying long-term patterns to ensure their functionality. It helps in checking the performance of websites on a regular basis and analyzing trends over time. This is important to ensure that websites are functioning properly and meeting their objectives.

Common Errors

The email report’s common errors section shows all failures and transition errors that happened within a certain time. The list includes confirmed events, as well as those that are intermittent. Use this information to check for problems with websites or processes, or issues that need more investigating and analyzing.

Failure Events

Here, you will find a list of all confirmed failures (as indicated in the Common Errors section) for each hour in the past week. The failure events are also color coded:

• Red indicates significant areas of concern.
• Yellow indicates minor areas of concern (some confirmed failures).
• Green indicates no areas of concern.

Confirmed Failures

Finally, the confirmed failures section of the email report logs all problem areas. Notably, these have all been confirmed from a secondary location — i.e., they are actual failure events and not false positives.

With this in mind, there can be scenarios where confirmed failure events do not necessarily indicate a problem. For example, you may see that over the past week a website failed 10 times at 1:00am. However, after digging deeper you may discover that this is happening due to maintenance. If so, then you can simply set up a maintenance window.

The Final Word

In the 1990s flick Apollo 13, the big brains at NASA said that “failure is not an option.” Unfortunately, down here on earth, sometimes things in general — and websites and their related processes specifically — don’t work as expected.

Fortunately, that’s where AlertBot’s detailed, yet clear and focused, email reports make a transformative difference. It’s not just raw information. It’s actionable intelligence!

But what sets AlertBot apart is not just the information it provides, but how it presents it. Our reports are clear, concise, and focused, ensuring that you can quickly grasp the key insights without getting lost in a sea of technical jargon. We understand that not everyone is a tech expert, and that’s why we’ve made our reports accessible to all.

So why wait? Take control of your online presence and ensure that your website is running smoothly. Don’t let website issues hold you back – let AlertBot be your trusted companion in the digital realm.

Getting started with AlertBot is a breeze. With our free trial, you can experience the power of our email reports without any commitment. No need to download or install anything, and rest assured, we won’t ask for any billing information. In just a matter of minutes, you’ll be fully set up and ready to uncover the hidden potential of your website: click here.

As you may have already discovered (or will soon encounter), many vendors that offer uptime monitoring solutions charge a setup fee. But instead of seeing this as a legitimate cost, you should view it as stop sign. Here are three reasons why:

#1: Set up…what exactly?

A site uptime monitoring solution should be fast and simple to set up. A vendor that wants to charge for this is revealing one of two things: 1) their solution is excessively complex; or 2) their solution isn’t excessively complex, but they’re trying to squeeze extra money out of you.

Either reason is unacceptable. If it’s the former, then you can count on plenty of hassles and headaches in the future. If it’s the latter, then ask yourself why you’d want to do business with a vendor that, from day one, is trying to deceive you.

#2: Transparency isn’t optional.

Nothing is wrong with a vendor that wants to raise their prices. It’s a free market. But what IS wrong, is when a vendor tries to hide this through a setup fee — which as noted above may be (and probably is) bogus to begin with. Basically, a vendor that tacks on a setup fee is trying to manipulate customers. After all, it’s not like customers have a choice: the setup fee is mandatory. So why not just integrate this amount into the overall price?

Transparency with customers should be a principle — not an option.

#3: Setup fees are probably just the beginning.

If you agree to pay a setup fee, the vendor will continuously ask for additional money. This will happen regardless of whether you agreed to it directly or indirectly. Of course, they won’t hit you with more setup fees down the road — because they don’t want you to wake up and realize that they have normalized something that isn’t normal. Instead, they will likely try and add some other mystery costs like “upgrade fees.”

These upgrade fees may seem harmless at first, but they can quickly add up and leave you questioning the true cost of the service. It’s like a never-ending cycle of hidden charges that you never signed up for. And let’s not forget about the dreaded “maintenance fees” that may conveniently pop up after a few months of using the service. It’s as if the vendor is constantly finding new ways to squeeze more money out of you.

But why should you have to deal with all these additional fees and hidden costs? Shouldn’t the price you initially agreed upon cover everything? It’s frustrating to think that you’re being taken advantage of, especially when you were promised transparency.

That’s why it’s crucial to carefully review any contract or agreement before committing to paying any setup fees. Don’t just skim through the fine print; take the time to understand what you’re getting into. Ask questions, seek clarification, and don’t be afraid to negotiate. Remember, you have the right to know exactly what you’re paying for and how much it will cost you in the long run.

If a vendor is not willing to be transparent about their pricing structure or tries to brush off your concerns, it might be a red flag. Trustworthy companies understand the importance of building a strong relationship with their customers, and that starts with being upfront about all costs involved.

So, the next time you come across a service that requires a setup fee, think twice before agreeing to it. Consider whether the vendor’s pricing practices align with your values and expectations. Don’t settle for hidden fees and surprise charges. Demand transparency and hold companies accountable for their pricing strategies. After all, you deserve to know exactly what you’re paying for without any unpleasant surprises along the way.

The Bottom Line

When evaluating site uptime monitoring vendors, naturally you will focus on things like features, functions, technology, and integrations. But you should also scan for setup fees (which may be called something else like “deployment fees” or “implementation fees” — they all mean the same thing).

Regardless of what a vendor might tell you: setup fees are not an “industry standard.” And we’re the proof! AlertBot is a top site uptime monitoring solution provider. We have never charged any setup fees. Our solution is remarkably easy to setup and configure, and our pricing is 100% transparent with absolutely no hidden costs.

Launch a free trial of AlertBot’s acclaimed site uptime monitoring solution. No credit card. Nothing to download or install. Get started in minutes. And if you decide to purchase our solution, rest assured there are NO setup fees!

A Closer Look at AlertBot’s Alert Group Feature

If we start by sharing that AlertBot’s alert group feature lets you, well, alert certain groups, then you might wonder what earth-shattering revelations we have in store — such as water is wet, fire is hot, and the pain of Game of Throne’s final season will never, ever go away (seriously, whatever happened to Gendry?!).

Yes, you’re right: the alert group feature IS about alerting groups of people about a site failure — but as George R.R. Martin would say: there is much more to the story! Here’s a rundown of some interesting details that you may not be aware of:

Notes

When you set up an alert group, you can add notes if you feel that it would benefit your team. For example, you can let your Web Team know who the communication point person during a failure event should be or if it should include several people from the team, provide updates about vacation schedules, and anything else that you deem relevant.

Notification Order

You can choose when members of an alert group are notified of a site failure, from immediately all the way up to 48 hours later. For example, your Web Team can be alerted right away during a site failure event, and your CTO can be alerted 1 hour later into a site failure event and so on (if the problem persists). You can choose the frequency of alerting and how many times individuals or a group of people can be alerted during downtime events on your site.

Contact Method

You can also choose which email address will be contacted, based on the notification order. For example, an immediate alert can be sent to [email protected] and other teams/emails if selected, and then an hour later another alert can be sent to [email protected] and so on until the site is back up and running.

Monitors

What happens if you’re doing some testing or updating, and you don’t want failure events across all site monitors to trigger an alert (and maybe spark some anxiety)? No problem: you can choose which specific monitors are associated with an alert group.

But don’t worry: if you have a whole bunch of monitors and want to include them all, then you don’t have to manually add each one to an alert group. Simply select “All monitors in the account” and you’re good to go!

Do You Have 30 Seconds?

We’ve saved the best part for last: setting up a new alert group doesn’t take hours, or even minutes — it takes seconds. Simply choose the options you need, and you’re all set. And changing an alert group’s settings is just as fast (maybe even faster).

Try AlertBot Now

Reading is fun. But experiencing is better (unless you happen to be reading Game of Thrones and are perfectly happy learning about White Walkers vs. hanging out with them). Put AlertBot to the test by launching your free trial today. Play around with alert groups, along with many other features and functions.

 There is nothing to download or install, no billing information is required, and you will be 100% setup in minutes. Get started now: click here.

Unleashing the Web Guru: How Website Monitoring Boosts Traffic

by Louis Kingston

In the vast, mystical realm of the internet, where websites come to life and cat videos rule the land, there resides a hidden hero – Website Monitoring. Armed with lightning-fast reflexes and a vigilante’s keen eye, this unsung champion is the secret sauce to soaring traffic.

Picture this: your website is a thriving carnival, with merry-go-rounds of content and rollercoasters of creativity. But, alas, like an absent-minded wizard, you’ve forgotten to keep an eye on the gates. Enter Website Monitoring, the loyal gatekeeper who ensures no trolls sneak in to mess up your virtual fiesta. With a mischievous grin, it sends you real-time alerts the moment any gremlins try to mess with your website’s uptime. Your website’s downtime days are numbered!

Now, let’s journey into the realm of speed. In a world where every second counts, your website’s performance is its very heartbeat. But fret not, dear web adventurers, for Website Monitoring is the swiftest hare in the web-jungle. Armed with its trusty stopwatch, it tracks your page loading times like a hyperactive roadrunner, shouting, “Faster! Faster!” before your visitors can even say, “Are we there yet?” Voilà! Your website now zooms like a caffeine-fueled cheetah on the digital savannah.

Oh, but the fickle web travelers; they change their minds like chameleons change colors. Fear not, for Website Monitoring is here to unravel this enigma. With its mystical analytics, it becomes your crystal ball, revealing the mysteries of visitor preferences and behaviors. You’ll know what they like, what they loathe, and what they yearn for more than a lifetime supply of authentic New York style pizza. Armed with this newfound wisdom, you’ll sprinkle enchanting content like fairy dust, keeping your visitors spellbound and coming back for more.

Behold the battlefield of the mighty search engines, where websites engage in an epic struggle for visibility. But alas, valiant webmasters, Website Monitoring dons its armor of SEO prowess. It crawls through the darkest corners of the interwebs, sniffing out broken links and bad keywords like a digital bloodhound. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll climb the search engine ranks like a warrior scaling Mount Everest – and trust me, you won’t need oxygen!

In this whimsical tale of website wonders, we’ve unveiled the magical powers of Website Monitoring – the tireless protector of uptime, the guardian of speed, the oracle of analytics, and the knight of SEO. So, dear webmasters, heed this advice: with Website Monitoring by your side, you’ll wield the mighty sword of traffic-increase like a modern-day King Arthur.

Embrace the power of Website Monitoring and may your website’s journey throughout your site be filled with joy, triumphs, and an army of loyal visitors marching towards your digital domain!

Say goodbye to web nightmares and embrace the hero you deserve: AlertBot! Our supercharged website monitoring service is the ultimate sidekick you need to keep your online kingdom running smoothly. With AlertBot by your side, you’ll enjoy 24/7 vigilance, lightning-fast alerts, and more data than you can shake a unicorn horn at. So, what are you waiting for? Join the epic quest for flawless websites and unleash the power of AlertBot today – because even Gandalf would agree, “You shall not pass…without website monitoring!”

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

What is Proactive ScriptAssist and Why is it a Game-Changer?

Sometimes — not often, but every now and then — we come across an invention that is so remarkably useful, that we wonder: how did I survive without this?

High speed internet comes to mind. So do GPS devices. And who wants to imagine a world without the cronut?

Well, it’s time to add one more invention to the list: Proactive ScriptAssist.

The Back Story
Websites are not static things. They change over time; sometimes in minor ways, and other times in major ways (for fun, check out the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to see what some of your favorite websites looked like in the past — like Apple’s home page from 1996 which invites folks to learn about “the future of the Macintosh”).

Now, for visitors, the fact that websites constantly change is not a problem. In fact, it’s often a good thing because the change is an update, addition, or improvement of some kind.

But for IT and InfoSec professionals who are in charge of (among other things) website monitoring in their company, these changes can — and often do — trigger all kinds of bugs and errors. Fields and forms stop working, elements stop loading (or they load v..e..r..y….s..l..o..w..l..y), and there can be security vulnerabilities as well.

Multi-Step Monitoring
Thankfully, there is a way to verify that everything is working before site visitors start sounding the alarm bells — or worse, disappearing never to return.

This method is to implement an easy-to-use web recorder to create scripts of what site visitors actually/ typically do on various web pages, and make sure that everything is working properly. This is highly effective. That’s the good news.

The not-so-good news, is that when changes occur — even fairly small ones — re-scripting monitors can be a complex process that, in some scenarios, may require a level of expertise and experience that some IT/InfoSec professionals don’t have.

What’s the solution to this obstacle? Let’s all say it together: Proactive ScriptAssist!

About Proactive ScriptAssist
Available EXCLUSIVELY from AlertBot, Proactive Script Assist is an optional plan that includes the following:

• Our team watches over an account, and proactively re-scripts any monitors that fail. We do all of the work, and our team has years of experience. After all, we created the technology, and we know how it works!
• Failing monitors are evaluated within 3 hours, and the customer is notified of the situation.
• Failing monitors are re-scripted within 3 to 24 hours (our response time is rapid, but the actual duration depends on the complexity — some re-scripting efforts take longer than others).
• Customers get unlimited re-scripting and configuration updates from our team year-round.

Plus, if needed our team offers advanced support over remote desktop sessions (join.me sessions). This is not always necessary, but it is another layer of help just in case.

The Bottom Line
Inventions that changed our lives: High speed internet. GPS. Cronuts. And now, AlertBot’s Proactive ScriptAssist. It’s an elite list, and one that we’re honored to join.

Learn More
Ready to make your IT/InfoSec teams weep with joy (which is nothing like the weeping they did that time the intern wiped out the backup)?

If you’re a current AlertBot customer, then contact your Account Manager today.

If you haven’t yet experienced AlertBot, then start your free trial today. You’ll be setup in minutes. No billing information, nothing to install, and no hassle.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to read about the future of the Macintosh while enjoying a cronut or two (or 5).

It’s Cyber Week! All new AlertBot signups this week get 20% off for the life of their account! Use promo code 2021CW20 when you sign up to claim this deal! https://www.AlertBot.com

It’s Black Friday all week for AlertBot! All new signups this week get 20% off for the life of their account! Use promo code 2021BF20 when you sign up to claim this deal!

https://www.AlertBot.com

What Exactly is a Website Monitoring “False Alarm”
and Why You Should Care About It

by Louis Kingston

You know what falsehoods are. You know what false teeth are. You may even know some falsehoods about false teeth. But do you know what a website monitoring false alarm (also known as a “false positive”) is? If not, then please keep reading to find out — because it’s a very big deal.

What is a False Alarm?

Remember back in grade school, when the fire bell suddenly went off in class and you were instructed to exit the class single-file and march outside? As you rose from your desk, heart racing, you wondered if you’d ever see your Trapper Keeper, Real Ghostbusters lunchbox and JanSport backpack ever again. But after you and your classmates were wrangled into the parking lot to stand in the brisk autumn air for what felt like an eternity, you soon learn it was just some older kid who thought it’d be funny to pull that shiny red lever on the hallway wall.

Well, that’s essentially what a false alarm is: a result that incorrectly indicates that a particular condition or attribute is present (i.e. it wasn’t a real fire consuming your place of education; it was merely a “false alarm” thanks to that jerk in the grade above yours).

What is a Website Monitoring False Alarm?

What you need and expect from a website monitoring tool is to know precisely when your website goes down. Why? Because research has found that the average cost of site downtime is $5,600 per minute. And remember, we are just talking about the average cost here. Some site downtime fiascos are much more costly. Just ask Amazon, which lost an estimated $99 million after going down for 63 minutes during Prime week in 2018. Granted, most businesses (including yours, unless you happen to be Jeff Bezos) won’t have to shell out $1.65 million a minute due to website downtime, but the basic point should be clear: site downtime is costly, and false alarms are supposed to minimize this financial damage.

But what happens when a website monitoring downtime alarm goes off, but nothing is actually wrong? It gets chalked up to a false alarm.

Why Website Monitoring False Alarms Are So Common

Many website monitoring tools — and virtually all of the free kind — have a test server in one location. If that test server detects that a website is not available, it does the only thing it can: sound the alarm. And that seems to be the correct thing to do, right? Well, not exactly.

Let’s say that that the website in this example is only down for a few seconds due to an isolated power outage. The test server has no way of knowing this (i.e. that the website is back up). And so, it is going to generate a false alarm.

The Solution: Multiple Testing Server Locations

Now, imagine that there are multiple test servers spread out across the country — say, one in New York and one in Los Angeles. The test server in New York detects that a website has gone down, and triggers a red alert (this test server is a big Star Trek fan). But it doesn’t sound the alarm. Instead, 60 seconds later the test server in Los Angeles checks in. If the website is up, then it cancels the red alert. If the website is down, then it confirms the initial diagnosis by the test server in New York, and the alarm goes off.

The AlertBot Advantage

At AlertBot, we hate false alarms even more than our customers. That’s why unlike many other website monitoring tools — and again, virtually all of the free ones — we have test servers located across the U.S. and worldwide. We don’t guess whether our customer’s website is down. We know.

Plus, when it is necessary to send out an alert, our system automatically and immediately contacts key people — such as network administrators, SysAdmins, CIOs, etc. — through email, SMS/text message, or phone (or any combination).

What’s more, our test servers keep checking for website site availability, and provide an update (again, in the preferred method) if it goes back up. We also highlight the amount of time that the website — or a specific portion/page of the website — was down. Our customers use this information to keep an eye on overall website performance, proactively detect problems, and ensure that their web host is consistently meeting uptime standards.

Ready to bid false alarms a true farewell? Then start a FREE TRIAL of AlertBot now. There’s no billing information required, no installation, and you’ll be setup within minutes. Click here.

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and their German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

Debunking 3 Website Availability Monitoring Myths

by Louis Kingston

Some myths in life are harmless, or even helpful. For example, Santa Claus has come in very, very handy for parents who want to nudge their kids from the naughty list to the nice one. And let’s give a round of applause to the Tooth Fairy, whose promise of nominal financial compensation has turned the prospect of losing a tooth from a meltdown trigger into a motivational factor.

However, other myths are on the opposite end of the spectrum: they lead to stress and costs. The bad news is that there are some rather notorious website availability monitoring myths out there. But the good news is that debunking them is simple. Here we go:

Myth #1: Free website monitoring tools are just as good as paid versions.

The Truth: So-called free website monitoring tools are riddled with gaps and vulnerabilities — simply because they’re free, and the folks who make them aren’t trying to provide a public service or earn some good karma. They’re in business, and that means there’s always (always!) a hook. Here are some of the drawbacks: zero technical support, excessive false positives, reduced test frequencies, limited testing locations, and s-l-o-w product updates. For a deeper dive into these pitfalls, read our article here.

Myth #2: Buying website availability monitoring from your host is a smart idea.

The Truth: Your web host probably offers website availability monitoring, and keeps pestering you to buy it. What’s the harm? Well, here’s the harm: your web host is a web host. That’s their jam. They don’t specialize in website monitoring, which means that customers like you are going to pay for their lack of competence and capacity. And on top of this, your web host has an inherent conflict of interest when it comes to giving you the full picture — because your hosting agreement includes uptime standards. As such, they may be less inclined to be fully transparent if they fall below this standard. Or to put it bluntly: they might lie, and you’ll have a really hard (if not impossible) time trying to detect and prove it. For more insights on why it’s a bad idea to buy website monitoring from your host, read our article here.

Myth #3: Website availability monitoring is just about website availability monitoring.

The Truth: This last myth is especially tricky. Yes, website availability monitoring is about website availability monitoring. But that’s not where it ends. Comprehensive (i.e. the kind your business needs) website monitoring also analyzes key aspects such as website usability, speed and performance — because there are situations where a website can be available, but not accessible or optimized. To learn more about why comprehensive website availability is not just a technical necessity but also a customer experience requirement, read our article here.

The Bottom Line 

Does your kid have a toothache, threatening to go to DEFCON 1? Do a myth tag team of the Tooth Fairy + Santa to avert a meltdown (and hey, you might even enjoy some extras out of the deal like getting them to clear the dishes after dinner or clean out the cat litter — kids are tough negotiators, but see what you can get).

But if you want to keep your business safe and strong, then steer clear of all myths, and equip yourself with the clarifying truths revealed above.

And speaking of clarifying truths: AlertBot TRULY offers world-class, surprisingly affordable and end-to-end comprehensive website availability monitoring — which is why it’s trusted by some of the world’s biggest companies. See for yourself by starting your free trial now.

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

3 Reasons Why It’s a Bad Idea to Buy Site Monitoring from Your Web Host

by Louis Kingston

For baseball pitchers, the two most glorious words in the English language are “perfect game.” For actors, it’s “Oscar win” (forget all that nonsense about how “it’s an honor just to be nominated.”). For school-aged kids, it’s “snow day.” And for businesses, of course, it’s “captive audience.”

Indeed, it doesn’t matter how compelling or clever a marketing and advertising campaign might be. If audiences don’t take notice and pay attention, it may as well not exist. And if you doubt this, think of the last time you sat through 20 minutes of movie trailers — not because you wanted to, but because there was nowhere else to go (at least, not without saying “excuse me…” 10 times as you painfully twisted and squirmed your way past annoyed fellow moviegoers).

Why does this matter? It’s because your web host is singing from the captive audience songbook when it repeatedly urges you to add site monitoring to your existing hosting package. At first glance, this may seem like a good idea. After all, you know that site monitoring is important. Why not just grab it from your web host, the same way you grab a side order of fries from a fast food restaurant? Well here’s why not:

1. Lack of Specialization

Your web host doesn’t specialize in site monitoring, which means they aren’t using the latest technology or hiring the most qualified professionals. Just as you wouldn’t want your doctor to sell you a timeshare during an exam (“You know what might help that bronchitis? Two weeks a year in a sunny and warm Florida condo, as you can see from this lovely brochure”), you don’t want your site monitoring company to do anything but site monitoring. It’s not something anyone should be dabbling in.

2. Lack of Service Offering

When web hosts offer site monitoring, they typically focus on uptime. But site monitoring isn’t just about letting you know when your site goes dark. It’s also about making sure that your site is performing the way it’s supposed to — which means that all elements are functional (e.g. buttons, forms, multi-step processes, etc.), and all pages are loading rapidly. Without this critical information, you may believe that everything with your site is fine and all lights are green; that is, until you begin hearing from irate customers and start losing sales.

3. Potential Conflict of Interest

Last but not least, your site host is supposed to meet an uptime standard as part of their service commitment. But if that same host is also monitoring your site performance, they may be less inclined to be completely transparent if they fall below this standard. And if they did fudge some of the numbers, how would you even know? With this in mind, are we saying that all hosts that offer site monitoring are unethical? Absolutely not. Are we saying that there is an inherent conflict of interest that should be at least concerning and troubling? You bet.

The Simple, Smart Solution

The best (and really, the only) way to solve this problem is to avoid it completely — which means not site monitoring from your host, and instead getting it from a proven, reputable vendor that:

• Specializes in site monitoring — it’s all they do 24/7/365.
• Offers both uptime monitoring and comprehensive performance monitoring — not just the former.
• Has zero conflict of interest telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth regarding how your site is doing.

Ready to safeguard and strengthen your business with world-class, surprisingly affordable site monitoring? Then you’re ready for AlertBot! We check all of these boxes, and are trusted by some of the world’s biggest companies. Start your free trial now.

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

The Basics of DNS Monitoring: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It’s Essential for Your Business

by Louis Kingston

On Star Trek, there’s an incredibly useful device called the universal translator. As you’d expect, it allows everyone to understand each other. For example, if Captain Jean Luc Picard bumped into a race of aliens that bore a striking resemblance to Commander Riker’s beard, then they could set a date for some Earl Grey tea (hot) thanks to the universal translator. Without it, there might be grave misunderstandings and the firing of photon torpedoes.

DNS: The Next Generation

Well, the internet has its own kind of universal translator, which is somewhat less gloriously called a Domain Name System, or DNS for short. Essentially, DNS is a protocol that establishes the standards for how computers exchange data on the internet, as well as private networks. The purpose is to convert domain names into an Internet Protocol (IP) address, so that computers can identify and communicate with each other. Without the universal language of DNS, surfing the web wouldn’t be surfing at all. It would be more like wading through quicksand because we’d all have to keep track of hundreds, if not thousands, of IP addresses.

How DNS Works

Let’s say that you type “Google.com” into your web browser. Behind the scenes, your browser sends out a request to a recursive name server in order to get the IP address for Google.com (if the recursive name server comes up empty, then the back-up plan is to check with an authoritative name server, which has information on every domain). Ultimately, provided that the website in question exists, the browser is provided with an IP address that tells it precisely where to go.

Now, does this mean that you could type in the IP address and cut out the middleman? Yes. For example, if you really wanted to, then you could type 172.217.10.14 — which is Google’s IP address — into your browser and head straight to Google.com without passing a DNS (or collecting $200). But why would you want to!? A DNS allows you to remember simple names instead of complex 10-digit numbers.

Why DNS Monitoring is Essential: Part 1

The first reason why your business needs DNS monitoring should be self-evident: if for any reason your site name isn’t resolving, then visitors won’t be able to reach it. For all intents and purposes, it will be down. Constant and automated monitoring checks to see that everything is working and there is no need for anyone to scream “RED ALERT!”

Why DNS Monitoring is Essential: Part 2

DNS monitoring also checks to see that the name resolution process is swift vs slow. Why is this so important? Consider this:

• A study by Kissmetrics found that a one second delay in load time can send conversion rates plunging by seven percent.
• Google — a company notorious for never confirming or denying anything to do with its ultra-secret search engine algorithm, has bucked tradition and formally verified that page speed is a significant SEO ranking factor for mobile and desktop searches (now please hold still for memory wipe procedure).
• Thanks (or make that “no thanks”) to a phenomenon that psychologists dub the perception of speed, visitors don’t just dislike slow websites: they hate them with a passion that borders on — and often surpasses — blinding hatred. With apologies to Shakespeare: Hell hath no fury like a visitor delayed.

Why DNS Monitoring is Essential: Part 3

Hackers frequently target DNS servers to redirect visitors to sites that deliver malware. Even scarier, hackers can obtain SSL encryption certificates that allow them to intercept and decrypt email and virtual private network (VPN) credentials.

The Bottom Line

DNS Monitoring lets you know three things that are more important than not plugging in a hair dryer  when the U.S.S. Enterprise goes to warp speed: that your site is up, that your DNS server has not been hijacked by hackers, and that it’s resolving quickly. Without this information, the only way you will know that something is wrong is when angry customers or panicked colleagues start calling.

Boldly Go with AlertBot!

AlertBot automatically and continuously monitors your DNS servers (regardless of where they are located) to ensure that everything checks out, including A records (IPv4), AAAA records (IPv6), aliases (CNAME), SMTP mail server mappings (MX records), DNS zone delegates (NS records), SOA serial numbers, and more. And if an issue is suspected or detected, your team is immediately alerted so they can take action and solve the problem.

Start a free trial now and boldly go with AlertBot!

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

10 Reasons for Site Crashes

by Louis Kingston

In the classic movie The Sound of Music, the whimsical governess Maria and the Von Trapp children sing about their favorite things — like raindrops and roses and whiskers on kittens. It’s joyful, it’s inspiring, and it’s in perfect harmony backed by a full orchestra. Isn’t Austria lovely?

Well, if Maria and co. were running a website (perhaps something to do with selling lederhosen or offering hiking tours in the hills), here are 10 things that absolutely wouldn’t be among their favorite things since they cause sites to crash:

1. Coding errors, usually after a maintenance or an upgrade.
2. Bugs in the programming that, alas, should have been spotted and destroyed long ago.
3. Incompatible plugins and extensions. This is a BIG problem with WordPress sites!
4. Traffic surges, which may require upgrading the hosting package to get more disk space and/or implementing a content delivery network (CDN).
5. Malware attacks, which not only lead to site crashes, but can land businesses on blacklists that block legitimate emails from getting through.
6. Hacker attacks, such as DDoS. Sometimes businesses are targeted directly by bad actors or unhappy ex-customers, and sometimes businesses are caught up in the net as part of a large scale campaign.
7. Service provider and host errors, which are probably the most frustrating of all reasons for site crashes. There is virtually nothing that a business can do but wait for a third party to get their act together.
8. Domain expiry. Yes, sometimes sites crash simply because the domain wasn’t renewed.
9. Google blacklists, which happen when Google decides that a site is deceptive (note: this technically doesn’t cause a site to crash, but it effectively does the same thing since it blocks traffic).
10. Data center shutdowns, which happens during an emergency such as a fire or flood, or sometimes even by accident. For example, back in 2017 Amazon’s web host crashed due to an employee taking more servers offline than he intended (wonder what that guy’s next performance review was like?).

First, the Bad News…

AlertBot’s acclaimed technology cannot prevent these dreadful things from crashing your site — although now that you know what you’re up against, you can be proactive. For example, you should test all plugins/extensions before adding them to your site; make sure that you have the right hosting package, and so on.

…now, the Good News!

AlertBot’s acclaimed technology CAN make sure that your team is immediately notified whenever your site crashes, so that you can take switch action and resolve the problem before your visitors get frustrated and head to the competition.

Try AlertBot free and discover why it will quickly become one of your business’s favorite things. Heck, you might even start singing about it in the halls.  

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

How To Keep Traffic Spikes from Crashing Your Website

by Louis Kingston

At first glance — and probably second and third as well — having too much traffic seems like a really nice problem to have; like when billionaires struggle to decide which yacht to buy (“I say Thurston, the one with the tennis courts is quite lovely, but the one with the outdoor cinema is so charming”).

However, too much traffic really is a problem, because it causes websites to either dramatically s-l-o-w down (which is terrible) or crash (which is worse than terrible). And right now, as hundreds of millions of people are advised or obliged to stay at home, there are a bunch of e-commerce businesses around the world that are experiencing this harsh, costly reality.

The good news is that your business can — and should — take proactive steps to keep traffic spikes from impaling your website, and causing revenue losses and reputation damage.  Here is the to-do list:

1. Use a content delivery network (CDN), which is a geographically distributed network of proxy servers and data centers. A CDN helps ensure that visitors — regardless of where they’re located — enjoy fast-loading pages, images, videos and other content, and it also leverages a network of servers to manage traffic spikes. Instead of a single server struggling to handle the load, multiple servers share the burden.

2. Check, double-check, and while you’re at it, triple-check whether your current server is capable of handling a traffic surge (pay particular attention to any data caps). This assessment is especially important if your business’s website has expanded over the years, but your server capacity has remained the same since day one.

3. Make sure that all of your software is up-to-date. In addition to patching vulnerabilities, updates can help lower the risk of a virtual traffic jam.

4. Run a daily backup. No, this won’t prevent traffic-induced website crashes. But yes, it’s a lifeline back to normalcy if a crash is on the horizon.

5. Use a reliable 24/7 website uptime monitoring solution like AlertBot, which proactively and immediately informs designated individuals (e.g. system administrators, CTO, CSO, etc.) if your website goes down, and can also check to make sure specific scripts and pages are working correctly. What’s more, if required you can use AlertBot’s logs as evidence to inform your host that they need to do a much better job of keeping your website online — or else you’ll head elsewhere.

The Bottom Line
More potential customers than ever before are using the web to find products and services — everything from digital gadgets to financial advisors to home repairs, and the list goes on. When the surge reaches your virtual address, you want to definitively know — and not just hope — that your website is ready, willing and able to handle the traffic.

Give AlertBot a try for FREE. There’s no billing information, no installation, and you’ll be setup within minutes. Click here

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

Beware These 5 Possible Dangers Lurking in Free Website Monitoring Tools

by Louis Kingston

We’ve been told by the poets that the best things in life are free: A sunrise in spring, the scent of a flower, the coo of a baby, having a buddy who can get his hands on football tickets. It’s all so beautiful and uplifting (especially the football tickets).

But at the same time, the economists remind us that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. And of course, we know from experience that this is often the case. How many times have we taken advantage of a so-called free offer, only to end up disappointed instead of delighted? A handful? Dozens? Hundreds? (And we haven’t even brought up that notorious gym membership yet…)

And that brings us to website monitoring. You know that this is important — or make that vital — to your business’s success. Indeed, going off-the-grid for even a minute can lead to lost sales and lasting reputation damage, and ongoing downtime issues can negatively impact search engine rankings. Hell hath no fury like Google and Bing scorned.

But what you may not know, is that the throng of free site monitoring tools out there may be part of the problem — not the solution. Here are five potential dangers lurking in these tools:

1. No Technical Support

Many free site monitoring tools offer no technical support to help you pinpoint issues and identify potential vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Instead, they provide you with a FAQ (or some other similar resource), and expect you to solve your own problems. You can’t even complain about this, because there’s nobody to complain to.

2. Excessive False Positives

 When is a downtime alert not a downtime alert? When it’s a false positive. These are truly (not falsely) frustrating and terrifying, and they’re a common problem among some free site monitoring tools.

3. Reduced Test Frequencies

In their marketing, all free site monitoring tools promise to “constantly scan your site.” That sounds comforting. But some of these tools define “constantly” differently than you would— and not in a good way. Several minutes can pass between test frequencies, which means that if something goes wrong, you’ll be left in the dark for quite a while.

4. Limited Testing Locations

Many free site monitoring tools test from one or two locations (which is a worst practice) instead of from multiple locations around the world (which is a best practice).

5. Slow, Limited Product Updates

Many free site monitoring tools don’t get the latest, greatest and safest product updates — because the companies that make them can’t afford to do so. After all, someone has to pay for that stuff.

Why Free in the First Place?

In light of the above, you may be asking a very sensible question: with so many fundamental drawbacks and limitations, why do some companies offer free site monitoring tools in the first place?

In two words: loss leader.

In more than two words: these companies use a free site monitoring tool to get customers onto their roster, after which the upsell parade starts — and it never, ever ends. Eventually, some of these customers end up buying a premium (license/subscription) site monitoring solution at a hefty price tag. The company does a happy dance, rings a bell, updates a giant telethon-like tote board, and smokes a bunch of cigars.

OK, they don’t do any of those things (at least, we hope they don’t), but the fact remains that the free site monitoring tool was never a legitimate, functional business-grade solution in the first place. Economists 1, poets 0.

And Then, There’s AlertBot!

AlertBot isn’t free, for the simple reason that we:

• Provide exceptional technical support
• Filter out and prevent false positives
• Conduct frequent testing
• Test from multiple locations around the world
• Regularly update our technology

At the same time, AlertBot is refreshingly affordable and makes CEOs and CFOs as happy as it makes CTOs and CSOs. So yes, the best things in life are free. But second best is getting a GREAT deal on a solution that over-delivers. That’s AlertBot. Try it now and see for yourself.

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

The (Not-So-Magnificent) 7 HTTPS Errors that Infuriate Customers and Ruin Reputations

by Louis Kingston

In the classic flick The Magnificent Seven, a pack of essentially decent but “don’t you dare park your horse in my spot or else you’ll get your spurs blasted” gunslingers come together to rid a village of some nasty bandits. There’s action. There’s drama. There’s tragedy. There’s humor. There’s romance. There’s Steve freakin’ McQueen. What’s not to love?

Well, on the dusty and dangerous internet landscape, instead of a magnificent seven to save the day, there exists seven not-so-magnificent HTTPS errors that are impossible to like, let alone love. Why? Because their purpose is to block visitors from reaching websites — which leads to lost customers and wrecked reputations.

Here’s a look at the reprehensible HTTPS errors that have their picture on Most Wanted Lists in every post office from Tombstone to Dodge City:

403 Forbidden: The 403 Forbidden error means that the server is absolutely refusing — no ifs, ands or buts — to grant permission to access a resource, despite the fact that a request is valid. Common causes include missing index files, and incorrect .htaccess configuration.

404 Not Found: The 404 Not Found error means that a web page or other resource can’t be found because they simply don’t exist. Common reasons for this include a broken link, mistyped URL, or that someone moved or deleted a page and didn’t update the server (which happens a lot).

408 Request Time Out: The 408 Request Time Out error means that the server can’t find the target or resource that it’s searching for, and after a while, just throws in the towel. Often, this is because the server is overloaded.

410 Gone: Whereas (as noted above) a 404 error implies that there might be some hope — i.e. the target file might be somewhere, just not where it’s supposed to be — the 410 Gone error snuffs out any possible optimism. It’s totally, completely and permanently gone.

500 Internal Server Error: The 500 Internal Server Error means that the server cannot process a request for any number of reasons, such as missing packages, misconfiguration, and overload.

503 Service Unavailable: The 503 Service Unavailable error means that the server is either down because of maintenance, or because it’s overloaded. Either way, the server is conjuring up its inner Gandalf and screaming: “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”

504 Gateway Time-Out: The 504 Gateway Time-Out error means that a higher-level upstream server isn’t working and playing well with a lower-level downstream server. After a while, the downstream server gets the message that it’s not wanted, and says “Oh yeah? Well, I don’t need you either!”

Calling in the Marshall
The bad news is that these reprehensible HTTPS errors, if left unchecked, can cause a lot of damage. Indeed, few things irk and offend website visitors more than seeing an error code. But the good news is that you can call in the Marshall— a.k.a. AlertBot — to restore law and order.

AlertBot constantly scans your site’s pages to watch out for these and other HTTP errors. If and when they are detected, authorized employees (e.g. webmasters, sysadmins, etc.) are proactively notified so they can take swift action and fix the problem.

It’s lightening fast, always reliable, and as smooth as Steve McQueen. Dastardly, good-fer-nuthin’ HTTPS errors don’t stand a chance!

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

If You Build It, They Won’t Come: 5 Big, Scary and Costly e-Commerce Site Mistakes

by Louis Kingston

In the 1989 flick Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner turns his Iowa cornfield into a baseball field because a voice tells him: if you build it, he will come. The “he” in question is his late father, and the movie has a magical, uplifting ending that makes us want to dream again (and possibly, play baseball or eat some corn).

Well, many folks who launch e-commerce sites also believe that: if I build it, they will come. This time, “they” means throngs of happy, profitable customers. Except…they don’t. And before long, the site is forced to scale down or shut down. Even writing to Kevin Costner doesn’t help — even if you promise to watch a double feature of The Postman and Waterworld (not recommended without a physician’s approval).

The bad news is that this kind of misery happens all the time. The good news — actually, make that the amazing, glorious, Field-of-Dreams-ending-like news — is that preventing this doom and gloom is largely a matter of avoiding these five big, scary and costly e-commerce site mistakes:

1. Lousy UX

Tiny buttons that are impossible to click on a mobile device without a magnifying glass and hands the size of a Ken doll. Search functions that neither search nor function. Elusive top level categories. Gigantic banners that pop open and chase customers around from page to page, like a kind of online shopping Terminator (“I’ll be baaaaaack!”). These are just some of the many ways that lousy UX destroys e-commerce sites.

The remedy? Monitor all pages and multi-step processes (e.g. login areas, signups, checkout, etc.), to identify bottlenecks where customers routinely encounter errors or unresponsive behavior, and fix any gaps and leaks right away. Learn more about doing this here.

2. S…l…o…w…n…e…s…s

Just how vital is speed? Behold these grizzly statistics:

• A one-second delay in load time can send conversion rates plunging by seven percent. (Source: Kissmetrics)
• 70% of customers say that a website’s loading time affects their willingness to purchase. (Source: Unbounce)
• As page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds the probability of bounce increases by 32%; from 1 second to 5 seconds the probability of bounce increases by 90%; and from 1 second to 10 seconds the probability of bounce increases by 123% (source: Google)

The remedy? Be ruthless about making your e-commerce site as fast as possible (and then make it even faster). Here are the usual suspects: bloated HTML, ad network code, images not optimized, and using public networks to transmit private data. There are other culprits, but look here first — you’ll be amazed at how much speed you unleash.

3. Not Focusing on SEO — or Focusing too Much on SEO

Let’s talk about health. Some people have poor health because they don’t exercise at all. Their daily calisthenic routine involves digging in the couch for the remote. And then on the other end of the spectrum, there are people who work out too much — like, we’re talking to extremely, unhealthy levels. You know the type.

The same phenomenon occurs in the e-commerce world when it comes to SEO. Some sites don’t focus on SEO, which means they aren’t going to get found by the 35% of customers who start their buyer’s journey from Google. And some focus too much on SEO, that they neglect other channels and tactics — including good, old fashioned pure promotion.

The remedy? Definitely make SEO part of the visibility strategy. But don’t make it the end-all-and-be-all of online existence. It’s important, but it’s not everything.

4. Bad Customer Service

 Customer service is as important in the online world as the brick-and-mortar world, and in some cases it’s even more important, because exiting the buyer’s journey is so simple — as is writing a scathing zero-star review that would have made Roger Ebert wince. Unfortunately, many e-commerce sites treat customer service as an afterthought or a necessary evil, rather than an asset that should be leveraged to optimize customer experience and generate loyalty.

The remedy? Make customer service — characterized by the ease, speed, and quality of responsiveness and resolution — a big part of the plan. It’s not an expense, but an investment.

5. Lack of Original, Compelling Content

E-commerce sites aren’t vending machines, yet many of them seem to take their inspiration from these handy contraptions that dispense candy and soda in exchange for money and the push of a button (be careful you don’t press the wrong one — you might end up with that oatmeal cookie that has been there since 2007, and not the Snickers bar that you’re craving).

However, most customers — even those who are very focused on getting a specific item, like a pair of sneakers, a smartphone, or a hotel room — want and expect to access relevant information to help them make a safer, smarter purchase decision. This could be videos, infographics, social proof (e.g. testimonials, reviews, case studies, etc.), articles, blog posts, and downloadable assets like ebooks,  checklists, and so on.

The remedy? Don’t skimp on creating original, compelling content. As a bonus, this will help with SEO and can connect you with profitable customers who are not in your primary target market.

The Bottom Line

Competition on the e-commerce landscape for the hearts, minds, and indeed, wallets of customers is ferocious. Avoiding these mistakes will go a long, long way to helping your e-commerce site survive and thrive.

You may even make enough profit to retire early, buy a cornfield in Iowa, and then turn it into a baseball field that inspires the feel-good movie of the year. Hey, it worked once before, right?

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and their German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.

Choosing a Website Monitoring Firm? Ask These 5 Questions Before You Buy — not After

by Louis Kingston

Hey brother, can you spare $5 million?

That’s about what Amazon estimates it lost in sales back in 2013, when its website went down for around 40 minutes. For the math junkies out there, that’s $125,000 a minute, or $2,083.33 a second.

Granted, most businesses won’t suffer this kind of hefty financial setback if their website goes down. Sometimes, it pays not to be a unicorn. However, it’s enough to say that there will be a significant and wholly unwelcome cost — either due to lost sales (as in the case of Amazon), or lasting reputation damage. There can also be compliance issues that lead to fines and sanctions. Fortunately, that’s where website monitoring firms ride to the rescue and avert disaster, right? Well, yes and no.

Here is why: just like any other marketplace, there are good website monitoring firms out there, and there are bad website monitoring firms.  Obviously, your mission is to make sure that you choose the former and avoid the latter. But how? All firms promise to offer “comprehensive and robust” web monitoring services. And based on this, you may believe that the only real difference between them is price — which is utterly not the case. There are major categorical differences. And you do not want to discover after you sign (or affix your e-sig) on the dotted line that you’re on the wrong end of an over-promise and under-deliver arrangement.

To avoid that fate and help you filter website monitoring firms worth exploring from firms best avoided, here are seven questions to ask before you buy — not after:

1. Is your platform fully integrated?

Ensure that you get a fully integrated monitoring platform that covers all of your digital properties —- including your websites, mobile websites, web apps, and cloud services (SaaS) — so that you can access all of the real-time information you need in one place. Juggling multiple tools isn’t just tedious and complicated, but it can lead to errors, oversights and disasters.

2. How deep do you dive?

Don’t settle for just monitoring the basic availability of your URL. That’s like taking your car into the mechanic for a tune up, and as long as it starts then everything is perfect (and you get a bill for $150). You want to dive deep and monitor full page functionality within real web browsers, verify all elements, scripts, and interactive features (like real clicks and keyboard interactions), and scan for errors to proactively detect problems. You also want the option to monitor any port on any server or device, and track load times since, as we’ve written about, businesses with s-l-o-w websites are hanging out a virtual “Going Out of Business” sign.

3. Is there anything to install?

Steer clear of (usually empty) promises that installation and setup is fast, easy, breezy, exciting, or any other adjective that you’d expect to hear in a shampoo commercial. You shouldn’t have to install anything whatsoever, and setup should take a matter of minutes — not hours or days.

4. Do we have to maintain anything?

That groan you hear is the echo of countless IT professionals who have valiantly fought — but lost — the battle to maintain website monitoring tools. End the suffering and be the hero that your IT team needs by choosing a firm that handles all maintenance, including ongoing updates and innovations.

5. Do you offer a free trial?

There may be “no such thing as a free lunch,” but there is indeed such a thing as a free trial. The firms on your shortlist should offer you a full two-week trial vs. a few days, so that you can put everything to the test in your environment. After all, you wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive, right? Except in this case, there is no salesperson sitting beside you saying, “what’s it going to take to get you to drive home in this baby?”

The Bottom Line

Choosing the right website monitoring firm — and avoiding the wrong ones — is a critically important decision that, sooner or later, will impact your bottom line: for better or for worse. Asking prospective vendors all of the above questions is a smart and practical way to ensure that your selection is rewarding vs. regrettable.

Louis is a writer, author, and avid film fan. He has been writing professionally for tech blogs and local organizations for over a decade. Louis currently resides in Allentown, PA, with his wife and their German Shepherd Einstein, where he writes articles for InfoGenius, Inc, and overthinks the mythos of his favorite fandoms.