To ensure your website is running at its best, it is important that a website provides the best possible visitor experience 24/7. But as a business owner, you might not have the time to be checking up on your website at all times to ensure there are no server issues or problems with accessibility. This is why uptime monitoring is important, and in this article we will discuss what uptime monitoring is and how to find some free uptime monitoring resources.
What is uptime monitoring?
Uptime is the period when a website and its content are properly accessible and running correctly. Downtime is essentially the opposite, and is a period of time when a website cannot be properly accessed due to an issue with a server response. A system’s uptime is calculated by its total time minus any downtime it experiences.
An uptime request is sent to a resource to see if it responds. Uptime checks are often used to check the response of a specific server that a website is being accessed from. A desired uptime would be a percentage of about 99.99%, meaning that the website is available for use most of the time.
Uptime monitoring provides information on the percentage of total uptime a server is reachable. Uptime monitoring is helpful as it will provide you with information about how often a server experiences errors that might affect accessibility. If you own a website, you should be using uptime monitoring services to ensure that there are no server issues that could affect your visitors from being able to access your website properly.
What might happen if I don’t use free uptime monitoring?
High website uptime means that a website content is available to visitors and running as it should. If a website experiences a high range of downtime, it cannot be accessed by visitors, which can lead to a decrease in sales for the business as it creates frustration due to a poor user experience.
How do I set up free uptime monitoring?
An effective uptime monitoring system will provide ongoing alerts in response to your server’s uptime and if there are any issues. This will allow you to take action to address any downtime related issues immediately. The monitoring generally will take place in 1-5 minute intervals depending on desired preferences. Uptime monitoring is usually available for HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and SMTP protocols. The monitoring services should check these key areas:
- Website content
- Website servers
- Email servers
- Firewalls
The alerts should be generated automatically as notifications if the server where to go down for any reason. These alerts are usually sent via email or through a workspace of your choice.
Free uptime Services
Below are the best free website monitoring services for uptime checks and options available on the web to help you monitor your website’s uptime: