Website Monitoring – Performance Check and Maintenance

 

We are faced with a generation of netizens whose attention spans are measured in seconds rather than minutes.  It is a world populated people with instant gratification syndrome.  Why? It’s because in this world, next greatest experience possible is a click away.  And if you own a website that caters to the needs of this market, a back click means opportunity lost. By opportunity that means a loss in sales and profits. This is why webmasters and business owners must be diligent in website monitoring.

One of the reasons why visitors click the back button when they do not find what they are looking for, or the website does not contain what is promised. However, the most disastrous example for a webmaster is to lose sales because the site is experiencing system failures or communication failures that result in major downtime.  Even a well-built site experiences these glitches and the more elements you have on your site, the more difficult it is to monitor your website’s performance and its availability 24 hours a day.  It is a time consuming yet extremely necessary part of maintaining and owning a website.

There are several reasons why websites fail to function properly from simple bugs to script errors or network connectivity issues.  The bottom line is to know what happens so that necessary adjustments are made in real time, minimizing your site’s downtime and maximizing viewer traffic.  Monitoring website performance involves quite a number of things that an application needs for it to function properly and there are metrics that are most commonly measured as performance indicators such as response time and availability or uptime.  Here a list of the essentials.

1.       Website availability or Uptime – Monitoring your website’s uptime should be the first and foremost concern.  You are online because you want to be visible and visible you must be at all times.  It is essential for websites that are intended to reach global audience, uptime of key pages should be checked from different locations.

2.       Full Page Loading – Monitoring the functionality of each element should also be monitored, from images to videos to flash files, etc.  For viewers, the visuals matter.

3.       Broken Links – It is frustrating for viewers to find that certain links do not take them further.

4.       Sign Ups and Log-ins - Let your viewers feel that they are important, welcome them and answer their queries promptly.

5.       Page Loading Speed – As mentioned, the internet is fast paced and the loading speed determines whether your viewer would decide to explore your site further and stay longer.

6.       Query Forms and Shopping Carts – These applications should always be working well.  One keeps clients interested and the other one is of course income generating.

7.       Your site has been hacked and is flagged by search engines and anti-virus softwares.

Remember that if a website’s monitoring processes are overlooked, you may be missing out because of issues that may be easily addressed if you only you know what they are.  

Website Maintenance and Quality Assurance

The process of website maintenance involves several tasks but one of the most important is Quality Assurance.  The level of work and the hours required would depend on the complexity and size of the website.  So what exactly is Quality Assurance?

By definition, quality assurance is a series of tasks that ensures that the website is operationally sound and every detail is in conformance with an organization’s standards. The key word is conformity both to the whole web system and particular business goals.

The two major tasks involved in quality assurance is data collection and data analysis.

Data Collection

                Data collection is all about checking and website monitoring for issues in the functionality of the website and the quality of output.  This task is overwhelmingly time consuming as the level of website complexity gets higher.  The task involves:

·         Checking for broken or non-functioning links

·         Checking for missing content or objects in every page of the website and this includes not only texts but also images, buttons, and other plug ins

·         Checking for missing browser titles

·         Checking for grammar and misspelled words in the texts

·         Checking  the file size of pages

·         Checking for missing metadata

·         Checking the compatibility of the website to all existing browsers and it may also include compatibility with mobile devices

·         Checking for proper application functions, for example, inquiry forms, order forms and check out forms.

·         Checking that legal and regulatory guidelines are being adhered to – such as privacy and copyright laws and data protection and privacy.

·         Making sure that the pages conform to the business’ or the organization’s Web Accessibility standards (if there is any in place)

·         Checking for issues in web design

               

Data Analysis

All the data collected after the checking is then compiled.  There are tools that web masters use to collect these data for more efficient and effective website maintenance.  An “Issues Log” is created.  The purpose of this log is to have a database of items that are in violation of and QA checkpoint.  These are then allocated to the developers to be addressed.  This way, the people assigned to a particular problem are able to fix, adjust or address issues in time and lower website down time.

Website maintenance may be outsourced so that the organization or company is able to allocate time and be able to focus on managing the actual business or reach particular goals.  

Monitoring Your Website’s Performance – Check This out or Miss Out

The Internet is an alternate universe where people’s attention spans are shorter than in the physical realm.  It is a world populated by citizens who are used to instant gratification.  And why not, considering that the next possible greatest experience is a click away?  And for an online business, that back click means loss of opportunity and possible sales.

Why does this happen? 

For the most part, viewers click the back button when they do not find what they are looking for, or the website does not contain what is promised. But the most unfortunate instance for a webmaster is to lose sales because the site is experiencing system failures or communication failures that result in major downtime.  Even a well-built site experiences these glitches and the more elements you have on your site, the more difficult it is to monitor your website’s performance and its availability 24 hours a day.  It is a time consuming yet extremely necessary part of maintaining and owning a website.

Monitoring website performance

There are several reasons why websites fail to function properly from simple bugs to script errors or network connectivity issues.  The bottom line is to know what happens so that necessary adjustments are made in real time, minimizing your site’s downtime and maximizing viewer traffic.  Monitoring website performance involves quite a number of things that an application needs for it to function properly and there are metrics that are most commonly measured as performance indicators such as response time and availability or uptime.  Here a list of the essentials.

1.       Website availability or Uptime – Monitoring your website’s uptime should be the first and foremost concern.  You are online because you want to be visible and visible you must be at all times.  It is essential for websites that are intended to reach global audience, uptime of key pages should be checked from different locations.

2.       Full Page Loading – Monitoring the functionality of each element should also be monitored, from images to videos to flash files, etc.  For viewers, the visuals matter.

3.       Page Loading Speed – As mentioned, the internet is fast paced and the loading speed determines whether your viewer would decide to explore your site further and stay longer.

4.       Sign Ups and Log ins - Let your viewers feel that they are important, welcome them and answer their queries promptly. 

5.       Query Forms and Shopping Carts – These applications should always be working well.  One keeps clients interested and the other one is of course income generating.

6.       Broken Links – It is frustrating for viewers to find that certain links do not take them further.

7.       Your site has been hacked and is flagged by search engines and anti-virus softwares.

There are other more technical aspects of monitoring website performance and the list above is just a small portion. If you think you need help in monitoring your website, visit Site-Monitor, you may be missing out because of issues that may be easily fixed if you know where to start.