Website monitoring is essential for maintaining a reliable online presence. In this guide, we'll walk you through setting up your first monitor in MonitorPlatform.
Why Monitor Your Website
Downtime costs money. Every minute your website is down, you're losing potential customers, damaging your reputation, and missing out on revenue. Website monitoring helps you detect issues before users notice, minimize downtime and revenue loss, maintain customer trust, and meet SLA commitments.
Setting Up Your First Monitor
Follow these simple steps to create your first monitor.
Step 1: Create an Account
Sign up for a free MonitorPlatform account at monitorplatform.com. No credit card required!
Step 2: Add Your First Monitor
Navigate to the dashboard and click "Add Monitor". Fill in the following details:
- Name: My Website
- URL: https://example.com
- Check Interval: 60 seconds
- Timeout: 30 seconds
Step 3: Configure Alerts
Set up alerts to be notified when your monitor detects an issue. You can configure multiple alert channels including email notifications, Slack integration, SMS alerts for Pro plan users, and custom webhooks.
Best Practices
Here are some tips for effective monitoring:
Monitor critical pages like homepage, login, and checkout pages. Set appropriate check intervals between 1-5 minutes for critical services. Use multiple notification channels and don't rely on just email. Always test your alerts to make sure notifications actually reach you.
Monitoring Intervals
Different types of monitors require different check intervals:
Critical production services should be checked every 1-2 minutes. Standard websites work well with 5-minute intervals. Development environments can use 10-15 minute checks. Background services are fine with 30-minute intervals.
Understanding Response Times
Response time is a key metric in monitoring. A good response time is under 200ms for excellent performance, 200-500ms for good performance, 500-1000ms for acceptable performance, and over 1000ms requires optimization.
Alert Configuration
Configure your alerts wisely to avoid alert fatigue. Set up escalation policies so alerts go to the right people at the right time. Use different channels for different severity levels. Critical alerts should go via SMS or phone, important alerts via Slack or email, and informational alerts via email only.
Next Steps
Now that you have monitoring set up, explore these advanced features:
SSL certificate monitoring helps you track certificate expiration dates. API health checks let you monitor your REST APIs with custom validation. Status pages allow you to create public or private status pages. Custom alert rules give you advanced alerting based on multiple conditions.
Getting Help
If you need assistance, check out our documentation at docs.monitorplatform.com. Join our community forum to ask questions. Contact our support team via email. Follow us on social media for tips and updates.
Start monitoring your website today and sleep better at night knowing you'll be alerted to any issues immediately!