| 24hourcontactStudies show that while many | | | | month and spending major dollars on maintaining |
| businesses are investing in expensive metrics | | | | promoting the site may sound like false economy |
| packages, they neglect something as obvious as | | | | there are some free options as well. Some |
| monitoring that their website is up and running. | | | | established companies give away the site uptime |
| Reliably, 24-7. A web metrics package that is | | | | service in order to attract customers for other |
| designed to give you intimate detail about your | | | | businesses. As long as there are no strings |
| visitors habits is useless, if the underlying site is | | | | attached, this is a great way to go. As an |
| dead. Whether itâ€4010 Carlsbad CA™s a | | | | example, Sofizar( away the site uptime service |
| server problem, a web hosting SNAFU, a DNS foul | | | | for free at Another factor to keep in mind is that |
| up or a problem with billing. Dead websites | | | | some of these companies SMS you on your cell |
| don’t generate cash! Our company is in | | | | phone if your site ever goes down. So, you could |
| the business of Click Fraud Detection, and every | | | | be out bowling, skiing or even sleeping when you |
| once in a while we get complaints from our clients | | | | can get notified of the site downtime. While the |
| that they are not getting any visitors to their site, | | | | SMS may wake you up, it should hopefully |
| but are getting charged by Google. Incredible as it | | | | prevent sleepless nights. You should be able to |
| may seem, sometimes their PPC cost is over | | | | specify an escalation schedule and go from there. |
| 5dollar/Click. While click fraud does exist, and it | | | | It’s a feature worth looking for, when |
| may even be rampant—sometimes a | | | | evaluating the uptime company. A natural question |
| much more mundane problem is to be blamed. | | | | to ask is, what if the site uptime company itself |
| Site downtime. This seemingly easy to monitor | | | | goes down? Who is minding the minder so to |
| problem sometimes cost our customers | | | | speak. Here, the reputation of the company is |
| megabucks—the search engine charges | | | | very important. You want to go with a company |
| our clients whether the page displays something, | | | | that has been in business for a few years and |
| shows a hacked page, the infamous 404 redirect | | | | which can demonstrate that they have |
| or nothing at all. These people are essentially | | | | geographical redundancy. In other words, they |
| paying 5 dollar/click to have alienated customers. | | | | have POP(Point of Presence) in at least 3 |
| Why would people disregard such an obvious | | | | different continents and the servers can monitor |
| issue. Part of it is the reliability statistics that their | | | | each other as peers. Without this level of |
| web hosting companies claim, that are meant to | | | | redundancy, we can have false alarms, or not |
| lull the site owner. It’s also because | | | | report real alarms. A point that many people |
| they don’t think it’s worth | | | | overlook is that having your website up, is not |
| the 60-200 dollar/year/website for monitoring | | | | enough. You need to be able to check contents |
| service of their website. They also | | | | on your website. If a website does get hacked, |
| don’t think they would benefit, because | | | | or if the page gets trashed, a ping to the website |
| they don’t have access to E-mail all the | | | | will still show it live, while human visitors will not |
| time. Lets break down these myths. The web | | | | benefit. Therefore, the service for uptime must |
| hosting companies claims notwithstanding, even | | | | use “content checkâ€쳌 to see if |
| 99% reliability means that their site will be down | | | | the marker is present. While site uptime alone is |
| around 88 hours every year. That is, or should be | | | | not going to make your site a roaring success, it |
| unacceptable. For a reasonable traffic site, it | | | | is cheap ( or free ) insurance against mishaps, |
| should be constituted a disaster. Even if the site is | | | | allowing you to focus on the goals of your site. |
| only making money through CPM/CPC advertising, | | | | Ron Arthur is a Search Engine Marketer working |
| the lost opportunity is simply too big to ignore. | | | | for Carlsbad, CA based web-metrics company |
| Furthermore, the search engines drop ranks if the | | | | Sofizar: He is a member of the team developing a |
| site doesn’t show up when they crawl. | | | | click fraud detection software, ZarTective. While |
| Site hacking is another unfortunate phenomenon | | | | not writing expose’s on the darker side of |
| and it happens more than most people expect. | | | | the web, he plays with his cat “Mano” and |
| Given the other myriad of problems that could | | | | watches “Rocky Horror Picture Show” for |
| occur, this number could be a lot larger if not | | | | the 17th time. Or maybe 117th. |
| checked in time. While saving a few dollars a | | | | |