Web Monitoring is essential to ensure that a web site available for users, minimizing downtime and to optimize performance . Users who depend on a website, or an application, for work or pleasure will become frustrated or even stop using the application if it is not available reliably.

Website Monitoring can cover many things that an application needs to function, such as network connectivity, domain name system registrations, database connectivity, bandwidth and computer resources such as free RAM, CPU load, disk space , events, etc. Commonly measured metrics are response time and availability (or activity time), but consistency and reliability metrics are gaining popularity as well.

Measuring the availability and reliability of a website under different amounts of traffic is often called a load test. Website monitoring also helps compare the website with a competitor’s performance to help determine how well a site is working. Website speed is also used as a metric for search engine rankings. Website monitoring can be used to hold web hosting providers accountable for their level of service. Most web servers offer a 99.9% uptime guarantee and, when the uptime is shorter, individuals can be reimbursed for excessive downtime.

Most paid website monitoring services will also offer security features such as virus and malware scanning. Website monitoring services generally have several servers worldwide: South America, Africa, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and other places. By having multiple servers in different geographic locations, the monitoring service can determine if a web server is available on all continents over the Internet.

Some providers claim that the more locations there will be a better image of the availability of your website, while others say that three stations distributed worldwide are sufficient and that more stations do not provide more information.