Keeping a close eye on your website and/or website application is a task that’s often neglected by businesses. Oftentimes, this neglect isn’t malicious. Employees simply have other tasks to complete that seem more pressing, which can lead to an unintended drop-off in website performance. Users have high standards and do not care that your employees are too busy with other tasks, however, so it’s important to prioritize website monitoring.
Users expect websites and applications to load in just a couple of seconds. If a website or website application does not load quickly, users will quickly click the ‘back’ button and move on to your competition. The solution is rather simple though, and most issues that turn users away from your website can be identified by implementing website monitoring.
Website monitoring is no longer a luxury afforded only to companies with deep pockets. It’s a requirement for most businesses — especially if the majority of your business is conducted online. Many companies are unaware of just how important website monitoring is and/or key stakeholders believe that the business cannot afford such services. However, that has changed in the past few years, and business owners are now looking for more information about website monitoring and integration.
What Is Website Monitoring?
Website monitoring is the process of ensuring that a website or website application is up and running. Website monitoring tools measure a number of factors that optimize website performance, availability, and functionality. These monitoring processes ensure that users who visit your website can properly utilize its features.
In the past, website monitoring was performed manually by IT employees to check that the website was functioning as it should. Manual checks are often sporadic and unreliable though, making them poor fits for our modern world. Additionally, your employees are not your users. Your IT employees will not interact with your website or website application in the same manner as your users. This results in a level of bias, which would lead an employee to miss an issue that a user is experiencing.
Luckily, website monitoring is mostly automated these days. Software can keep an eye on your website and website application 24-hours-a-day, and your team can be automatically notified whenever an issue arises. Website monitoring software can also measure key metrics that you can use to improve your website and application. Yes, businesses still perform manual tests when necessary, but the majority of monitoring is performed via automation.
Why Is Website Monitoring Important?
Keeping your website running smoothly will improve customer satisfaction and retention, meaning greater success for your business. After all, any downtime your users or customers experience will result in a loss of revenue and a decreased customer retention rate. Yes, this is the case even if your business is conducted mostly in-person. No matter what, your brand will be negatively impacted if your website is down for an extended period of time.
Website monitoring helps your team keep your website up and running, while also finding areas on which to improve. Artificial intelligence and automated software can find issues with website performance, user experience, and uptime before they become an issue for your end users. IT employees can also spend vital time on projects that will drive website improvement and increased revenue, instead of spending time manually reviewing your website.
Businesses commonly struggle to identify which website projects they should prioritize, but website monitoring eliminates that guessing game and helps you determine which performance issues should be taken on first.
What Types Of Website Monitoring Are There?
Every website and website application has different needs. An eCommerce business that is selling stuffed animals will want to utilize certain website monitoring techniques that may not be of concern to a local deli. Therefore, in addition to standard website monitoring, businesses can also create their own set of monitoring tools to meet their unique needs.
Availability Monitoring
Availability monitoring focuses on measuring metrics that ensure your website service or website stays online. Your team can take action to keep your website available to customers and users. This type of monitoring can involve web pages, servers, domains, and more. Your team will receive an alert via their preferred communication method whenever there is a serious issue with website or website application availability.
Transaction Monitoring
Abandoned online shopping carts can occur when a potential customer has a difficult time checking out. Creating a smooth experience for your customers during the checkout process is imperative to running a successful online business, and transaction monitoring (synthetic and real) can measure exactly where potential customers are having trouble.
Your team can identify any bottlenecks that are occurring in the purchasing process and subsequently address them for increased revenue. Even if you are not an eCommerce business, ensuring that your signup, logins, and contact forms are functionally properly will help turn visitors into customers and users.
Real-User Monitoring
Real-user monitoring allows your team to directly measure how users interact with your website or service. When utilizing this feature, you’ll be provided with data on everything from user session replay (videos of your user sessions browsing your apps), user behavior, Cohort metrics, and other metrics such as load speed, page views, errors, etc. Your team can then use this data to identify performance issues and optimize user experience.
Your website is the face of your business, so it is imperative that it experiences as little downtime as possible. Website monitoring tools will enable your team to not only prevent downtime, but to optimize your website and grow your business.
