Set up uptime, SSL and domain monitoring for your site

The short version

• Monitor two pages: the home page and the page that brings in business (contact, booking or checkout).
• Use a keyword check, not just “did the server answer,” so an error page counts as down.
• Check every few minutes, from more than one location, and confirm before alerting.
• Watch expiry dates: SSL certificates and the domain itself.
• Alert two people by a channel they’ll actually see, and agree who acts.

What should I monitor?

The keyword check matters more than people expect. A basic check only reads the status code the server sends, from the list in MDN’s status code reference. A page can return “200 OK” and still show an error message, a blank layout or someone else’s content. A monitor that only checks the status code can report “up” when customers see nothing useful.

How do I set it up, step by step?

1. Choose a monitoring service. Many offer a free tier for a handful of checks. Look for keyword checks, SSL expiry checks, checks from several locations, and text or app alerts as well as email.
2. Add the home page check. Use your main https address, the one you redirect everything to. Set the interval to a few minutes.
3. Add a keyword. Pick text that’s always on the working page and never on an error page, such as your business name or a heading. Set the check to fail if the word is missing.
4. Add your money page, the contact, booking or checkout page, the same way.
5. Turn on SSL expiry alerts at about 14 days. Let’s Encrypt stopped emailing expiry reminders on June 4, 2025, so don’t count on the certificate provider to warn you. See why SSL certificates expire so often now.
6. Add domain expiry. If your monitor can’t do it, put the date from ICANN Lookup in a shared calendar with a reminder a month ahead. Our free domain and SSL expiry checker shows both dates.
7. Set the alert rule. Ask the monitor to confirm a failure from a second location before alerting, so a single network blip doesn’t wake anyone.
8. Choose who gets alerts. Two people, one of whom can act: your web company, or someone who knows how to reach the host. Use text or an app notification for downtime and email for expiry warnings.
9. Test it. Most services have a test alert. Send one and make sure both people get it.
10. Write down the plan: who acts, who to call at the host, and where the login details are kept. Our help page on why a website is down is a good first-response guide to link from it.

What can’t a monitor tell me?

• Whether form emails arrive. A monitor can see the form page loads. It can’t tell if the email reaches your inbox. Submit the form yourself once a month and confirm the message arrives. If it doesn’t, see making your website send email properly.
• Whether backups work. Only a test restore proves that; see the backup section of our website basics guide.
• Whether you’ve been quietly hacked. Hidden spam pages may not change the home page. Google Search Console’s Security issues report helps; our answer on why Google says a site may be harmful explains it.

Why does it matter?

Without monitoring, you find out your site is down when a customer tells you, or when the phone goes quiet. A monitor gives you the time it went down and how long it lasted, which helps your host find the cause. It also catches the slow-burn problems, like expiring certificates and domains, that cause the most avoidable outages. Our glossary entry on uptime monitoring has a short example.

What are the common mistakes?

• Alerts to one inbox nobody watches, or to someone who’s left.
• Checking only that the server answers, missing white screens and error pages.
• Monitoring the http address or an old domain, so the check follows redirects and hides problems.
• Too-sensitive settings, so alerts fire for every blip and people start ignoring them.
• No plan for when it fires. An alert with nobody to act on it is just noise.

What if the monitor says the site is down?

1. Open the site on your phone with Wi-Fi off. If it loads, it may be a local problem or a short blip.
2. If it’s down for everyone, note the time and the exact error, and follow our help page on why a website is down.
3. If it shows a white screen or “critical error,” see my site shows a critical error or a white screen.
4. Afterward, look at the monitor’s history with your host to find the pattern.

How much does it cost, and how long does it take?

Free tiers from monitoring services cover a small site’s basic checks. Paid plans add faster checks, more locations and text alerts. Setup takes about 30 minutes, plus a monthly form test of a few minutes.

How does E-3 handle this?

For the sites we host, our monitoring tracks domain and premium plugin license renewal dates, PHP versions, waiting updates, known plugin vulnerabilities, and disk and database space, so slow-burn problems show up before they turn into outages. Website care also includes uptime monitoring and security alerts. If your site is down, call 814-399-4655.

Related questions

• What is uptime monitoring?
• Why is my website down?
• Why do SSL certificates expire so often now?
• How do I protect my domain from expiry and theft?
• Back to the complete guide to website basics

Sources

1. Ending support for expiration notification emails (Let's Encrypt)
2. HTTP response status codes (MDN Web Docs)
3. ICANN Registration Data Lookup (ICANN)