[1,057 words, 6 minute read time]
A monitoring setup that’s perfect for a blog is dangerously incomplete for a SaaS product. And a “standard” uptime check that works for a SaaS might be overkill (and noisy) for a small content site.
Monitoring priorities should match business impact.
This guide gives you a practical website monitoring strategy by site type—what to monitor, recommended intervals/regions/alerting, what “critical user journey” means in each context, and a maturity ladder you can use to level up without overbuilding.
If you want the universal foundation first, start with the complete guide.
The principle: monitor what would hurt if it failed
All monitoring boils down to two questions:
- What breaks most often?
- What costs the most when it breaks?
For some sites, the answer is “homepage uptime.”
For others, it’s “login works” or “payments succeed.”
That’s why the right plan changes by site type.
What “critical user journey” means (by site type)
A critical user journey is the smallest sequence of steps that equals success for your business. It’s what you must protect.
- Blog/content site: visitor → article loads → ads/analytics load (optional)
- SaaS: login → dashboard loads → key action succeeds (create/export/save)
- Membership/community: login → member content loads → billing/renewal works
- Marketplace: search → listing page → add to cart/contact → payment/transaction → confirmation
Your monitoring should validate these journeys—not just “server responds.”
If you’re ready to go beyond basic checks, the deeper techniques are in advanced monitoring.
Strategy matrix: priorities, settings, and journeys by site type
Use this matrix as a decision tool. Start with the “Starter” column and move right as your impact and maturity increase.
Monitoring strategy matrix (example)
| Site type | Monitoring priorities | Critical user journey | Suggested interval | Regions | Alerting approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blog / content | Homepage + 1 top article + DNS/SSL basics | article loads correctly | 5–10 min | 1–2 | Email + Slack (no paging unless revenue-critical) |
| SaaS app | Login + app dashboard + core API | login → dashboard → core action | 1–5 min | 2–5 | Slack + on-call escalation for prod incidents |
| Membership site | Login + member content + billing portal | login → member page → billing access | 1–5 min | 2–3 | Paging for auth/content failures; comms ready |
| Marketplace | Search + listing + cart/checkout/payments + key APIs | search → listing → checkout → payment | 1 min (money flow), 5 min elsewhere | 2–5 | Paging for checkout/payment; strict dedupe/confirmation |
Notes
- “Regions” assumes your audience is broader than a single city/ISP. If your users are global, multi-location is non-negotiable.
- “Interval” should tighten during launches, promos, or campaigns.
For alert design and escalation ladders, use the downtime alerts hub.
Recommended settings by type (intervals + regions + alerting)
1) Blog / content site monitoring plan
Priority: keep the site reachable, avoid slow/blank pages, catch DNS/SSL surprises.
Starter
- Monitors: homepage + one high-traffic article (HTTP)
- Interval: 5–10 min
- Timeout: ~10s
- Retries: 2
- Regions: 1 (add a second if ad revenue is meaningful)
Alerting
- Email + a shared Slack channel
- No SMS paging unless downtime costs real money (ads, paid newsletter signups)
Upgrade journey
- Add keyword check to confirm correct article content
- Add response time “slow” alert if performance affects SEO/revenue
2) SaaS monitoring plan
Priority: protect login, core app availability, and key APIs. “Up” means “usable.”
Starter
- Monitors: login page + dashboard landing + one core API endpoint
- Interval: 5 min (1–3 min if customers expect higher)
- Regions: 2 (minimum); 3–5 if global
- Keyword checks: on login/dashboard pages
Alerting
- Slack/Teams + escalation (on-call)
- Dedupe so one incident creates one thread
- Clear ownership and incident channel
Upgrade journey
- Multi-step synthetic check: login → dashboard → core action
- Dependency monitoring (auth provider, email, payments if applicable)
- Error budget + SLO reporting
3) Membership / community monitoring plan
Priority: users must be able to log in and access protected content. Billing failures create churn.
Starter
- Monitors: login, member content page load (or a health page), billing portal page
- Interval: 5 min (tighten to 1–3 min if your community is active 24/7)
- Regions: 2–3
- Keyword checks: confirm “member content” is actually loading (not a login loop)
Alerting
- Auth failures page someone (membership sites often fail at login)
- Comms plan ready (private status updates at minimum)
Upgrade journey
- Multi-step checks for login + access content
- Monitor renewal/billing API endpoints (high-level)
- Add status page workflow if support load spikes
4) Marketplace monitoring plan
Priority: protect discovery (search/listings) and the money flow (cart/checkout/payments).
Starter
- Monitors: search results page, listing page, cart page load, checkout page load
- Interval: 1 min for checkout/cart; 5 min for discovery pages
- Regions: 2–5 (match your top customer geos)
- Keyword checks: validate the checkout page isn’t a cached error or WAF block
Alerting
- Checkout/payment issues trigger escalation fast (revenue incident)
- Use confirmation logic to avoid paging on blips
- Separate “down” from “degraded” so you don’t page on minor latency spikes
Upgrade journey
- Multi-step synthetic: product → add to cart → checkout loads
- Dependency monitoring: payments, tax/shipping, fraud tools
- Incident comms workflow + status page
Maturity ladder: starter → intermediate → advanced
This ladder applies to any site type. Your site category determines what you monitor; this determines how mature you are about it.
Starter (good for most small sites)
- 2 monitors (homepage + one critical page)
- 5-minute checks
- email + Slack alerts
- retries/confirmation enabled
Intermediate (where teams stop getting surprised)
- keyword checks on critical pages
- 2+ regions for key services
- “slow” alerts for revenue-critical pages
- clear escalation ladder + incident checklist
Advanced (where monitoring matches real user success)
- multi-step synthetic checks (“is working,” not just “is up”)
- API monitoring and dependency monitoring
- alert routing at scale (dedupe/grouping, maintenance suppression)
- SLOs + MTTR reporting (metrics that drive action)
If you want the universal roadmap, see complete guide.
If you want the response system and alerting structure, see downtime alerts.
If you want the multi-step/API/dependency techniques, see advanced monitoring.
How to pick the right next step (without overbuilding)
Ask:
- What’s your critical user journey?
- Are you currently monitoring it?
- Are your alerts actionable (or noisy)?
- Would a 15-minute outage materially hurt revenue or trust?
Then choose the smallest upgrade that addresses the biggest risk:
- Add one keyword check
- Add two regions for confirmation
- Add one multi-step check for a critical flow
- Add one on-call escalation rule for true incidents
CTA: Choose the next maturity step for your site category
Look at your site type, then choose one next step:
- Blog: add a keyword check to your top article
- SaaS: add a login → dashboard synthetic check
- Membership: monitor a protected content page with keyword validation
- Marketplace: monitor checkout with 1-minute checks + multi-region confirmation
CTA: Choose the next maturity step for your site category—because the best monitoring plan is the one aligned with your business impact and actually maintained.