Monitoring Best Practices for Website Owners

Website Monitoring Best Practices

Effective monitoring helps you catch issues before they affect your visitors. This guide covers best practices for monitoring your website and services with the Faciotech Server Monitor.

What to Monitor

Uptime / Availability

Is your website accessible? Use HTTP(S) monitoring to check your site regularly and receive alerts when it goes down.

Performance

How fast does your site load? Monitor response times and track trends to identify slowdowns before they affect visitors.

SSL Certificates

Is your certificate valid? HTTP(S) monitors automatically check SSL validity and alert you before certificates expire.

Ports and Services

Are your backend services running? Use Port monitoring to check that database servers, mail servers, and other services are accepting connections.

Content Integrity

Is your content loading correctly? Use Keyword monitoring to verify that specific text appears on your pages — useful for detecting errors, defacement, or broken dynamic content.

Setting Up Effective Monitoring

Choose Check Intervals

• Critical services — Every 1-5 minutes.
• Standard websites — Every 5-15 minutes.
• Low-priority services — Every 30-60 minutes.

Set Appropriate Alert Thresholds

• Require 2-3 consecutive failures before alerting to avoid false positives.
• Use shorter thresholds (1 failure) only for mission-critical systems where every second counts.
• Set repeat intervals to stay informed without alert fatigue — every 30 minutes is a good starting point.

Use Multiple Alert Contacts

• Add both email and SMS contacts for critical monitors.
• Set up a secondary contact as backup in case the primary contact is unavailable.

Alert Configuration

Notification Methods

The Faciotech Server Monitor supports two notification channels:

• Email — Detailed notifications with full incident context. Good for all alert types.
• SMS — Short, immediate notifications. Best for critical issues requiring fast response.

Configure both from the Alerts tab in the Server Monitor.

Escalation

Set up escalation for critical issues:

1. First alert to primary contact via email.
2. If not resolved within 15 minutes, send SMS to primary contact.
3. If not resolved within 30 minutes, alert secondary contact.

Using Maintenance Windows

Before performing planned maintenance on your servers or websites:

1. Go to the Maintenance tab in the Server Monitor.
2. Schedule a maintenance window with start and end times.
3. Select the monitors to suppress during the window.

This prevents false alerts during planned downtime and, if you have a status page, displays a maintenance notice to your users.

Using Status Pages Effectively

Status pages let you communicate the health of your services proactively to your users, team, or stakeholders. Here are best practices:

Create a Status Page

1. Go to the Status Pages tab in the Server Monitor.
2. Click Create Status Page.
3. Give it a name, URL slug, and description.
4. Choose whether the page is public or private.
5. Enable subscriber notifications so visitors can sign up for email updates.

Add Components

Link your monitors as components on the status page. Give each component a user-friendly display label (e.g., "Website", "API", "Email Service") and reorder them to prioritise the most important services.

Use a Custom Domain

For a professional look, set up a custom domain for your status page:

1. Add a CNAME record in your DNS pointing to status.faciotech.com.
2. Enter the custom domain in the Status Page settings.
3. Click Verify to confirm DNS propagation.
4. Once DNS is verified, our team activates the domain on the server.

Your status page will then be accessible at your own domain (e.g., status.yourdomain.com).

Share Your Status Page

• Link to your status page from your website footer or support pages.
• Include the URL in your support email signatures.
• Encourage users to subscribe for automatic incident notifications.

Responding to Alerts

1. Acknowledge — Let others know you are handling the issue.
2. Investigate — Check the actual status and error logs.
3. Communicate — Update your status page if the issue affects users.
4. Resolve — Fix the issue.
5. Document — Record what happened and how it was fixed.

Avoiding Alert Fatigue

• Only alert on actionable issues.
• Use maintenance windows to suppress expected downtime alerts.
• Set repeat intervals that keep you informed without overwhelming your inbox.
• Review and adjust thresholds regularly based on your experience.

Regular Review

At least once a month, review your monitoring setup:

• Are all critical services and pages monitored?
• Are your alert contacts and phone numbers up to date?
• Have there been false alarms that need threshold adjustments?
• Are there new services or domains that need monitoring?
• Review the Reports tab for uptime trends and response time patterns.

Faciotech Monitoring Services

Faciotech's Server Monitor includes everything you need to keep your websites and services running reliably:

• Multiple monitor types — HTTP(S), Ping, Port, and Keyword.
• Flexible check intervals — From every minute to every hour.
• Email and SMS alerts — Configurable thresholds, contacts, and repeat intervals.
• Maintenance windows — Suppress alerts during planned work.
• Status pages — Public or private, with custom domain support and subscriber notifications.
• Historical reports — Uptime data, response time charts, and export options.
• REST API — Programmatic access to your monitoring data.

Get started at the Server Monitor or contact our support team for help.