Uptime Monitoring for Small Business Websites
Many small business owners find out their website is down when a customer calls to say so. Uptime monitoring flips that around: a service checks your site regularly and alerts you the moment something is wrong.
What uptime monitoring does
A monitoring service requests your pages from servers around the world at set intervals, such as every one to five minutes. If the page doesn't respond correctly, it sends an alert by email, text message, or an app. It also records response times and builds a history of outages.
What to monitor
- Your homepage, the basic check
- Key pages such as contact, booking, and checkout
- Forms. Some tools can check that a form submission works
- SSL certificate expiry, so you can renew before browsers show warnings. See SSL and HTTPS
- Domain expiry, to avoid losing your domain. See who owns your website and accounts
- Keyword checks, which confirm that a page contains expected text and isn't an error page or blank
- DNS and email, if you use advanced tools
Check that the page returns a normal success response, and consider checking for content, because a server can respond "OK" while showing an error message.
What uptime percentages mean
Uptime is the share of time your site is available. It sounds high even when it isn't:
| Uptime | Approximate downtime per year |
|---|---|
| 99% | About 3.7 days |
| 99.9% | About 8.8 hours |
| 99.99% | About 53 minutes |
Hosts often advertise 99.9 percent. Read what the guarantee actually covers and what compensation you get. Scheduled maintenance may be excluded.
How to set it up
- Choose a service. Many monitoring providers have free tiers for a handful of checks at intervals of a few minutes. Paid plans add faster checks, more locations, and text alerts.
- Add your URLs. Use the exact, canonical addresses, with HTTPS.
- Choose the check frequency. Every one to five minutes is typical.
- Set alert contacts. Use more than one person and method, such as email and mobile push. Make sure the alert doesn't depend on your own domain's email, which may be down too.
- Avoid false alarms. Require a failure from more than one location or two consecutive checks before alerting.
- Test the alert. Make sure it arrives.
Consider a status page
Some services provide a public status page you can link to. It builds trust and cuts support questions during incidents. For most small sites, a simple social post is enough.
Monitor performance too
Response time trends can warn of trouble before an outage. A steady slowdown may mean it's time to optimize or upgrade. See what is TTFB and how to test website speed.
Have a response plan
Decide who gets alerts and what they do next. Keep your host's support details handy. See website downtime: what to do.
Privacy and security
Monitoring services request your public pages, so they don't need access to your accounts. Don't give them logins unless required for a specific check, and use reputable providers. See how to keep your website secure.
Add it to your routine
Review reports monthly with your website maintenance checklist.
The bottom line
A free or low-cost monitor checks your site every few minutes and tells you first. Monitor key pages and SSL expiry, alert more than one person, and keep a plan.