{"id":5469,"date":"2026-01-05T16:51:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/?p=5469"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:53:07","slug":"downtime-alerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/downtime-alerts\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtime Alerts &#038; Incident Response: Practical Playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:var(--base)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-contrast-3-color\">[1475 words, 8 minute read time]<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Downtime doesn\u2019t usually start with a dramatic \u201csite is down\u201d moment. More often it begins as a vague signal: a few failed checks, a spike in response time, a customer saying \u201cI can\u2019t log in,\u201d a <a href=\"https:\/\/opsanarchy.substack.com\/p\/the-slack-overload-when-ping-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Slack ping<\/a>, or a support ticket with the subject line <strong>\u201cIs the site broken?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A strong <strong>downtime alerts<\/strong> and incident response setup does two things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Detects real user-impacting issues quickly<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Routes the right signal to the right person with enough context to act<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>This page is your practical hub for building ops maturity without enterprise bloat\u2014ideal for <strong>small teams and agencies<\/strong> who need reliable coverage, clear ownership, and fewer false alarms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What \u201cgood\u201d downtime alerting actually looks like<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A good alert system is not \u201cas many alerts as possible.\u201d It\u2019s:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fast detection<\/strong> (minutes, not hours)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Low noise<\/strong> (you trust alerts instead of ignoring them)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Clear ownership<\/strong> (someone is responsible to act)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Repeatable response<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Runbook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">runbooks<\/a>, not improvisation)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Good communication<\/strong> (internal + customer-facing when needed)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Measurable improvement<\/strong> (MTTR down over time)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re drowning in notifications right now, skip ahead to the section on noise and then come back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Alert channels and escalation paths<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Different channels are good for different jobs. The key is using them intentionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Common alert channels (and what they\u2019re best at)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Email:<\/strong> reliable, searchable, good for non-urgent notifications and summaries<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Slack\/Teams:<\/strong> great for coordination, rapid team visibility, incident channels<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>SMS \/ phone \/ push notifications:<\/strong> best for true \u201cdrop everything\u201d incidents<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Webhooks:<\/strong> best for routing alerts into your system (ticketing, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pagerduty.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">PagerDuty<\/a>, custom workflows)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you want a deep breakdown of pros\/cons by channel, read <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/uptime-alerts-best-practices\/\">alert channel best practices<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The escalation ladder (sample)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a simple escalation ladder that works for most small teams and agencies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Level 0 \u2014 Informational (no action required)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cMonitor recovered\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cLatency briefly elevated\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Route: Slack channel or email digest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Level 1 \u2014 Action needed (primary responder)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Confirmed downtime (after retries\/confirmation)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Route: Slack\/Teams + email to primary owner<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Expectation: acknowledge in \u2264 5\u201310 minutes (business hours) \/ \u2264 15 minutes (off-hours)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Level 2 \u2014 Escalation (backup responder)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Incident persists 10\u201315 minutes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Route: SMS\/push to backup responder (or agency lead)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Level 3 \u2014 Critical escalation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Revenue or safety risk, broad outage, active security incident<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Route: phone call \/ on-call paging + open incident channel + status page update<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can keep this lean even as you grow. The goal is not complexity\u2014it\u2019s coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Avoiding noise: retries, confirmations, and thresholds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Alert fatigue is the fastest way to make monitoring useless. When alerts are noisy, teams start treating them as <a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/muzak\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">background music<\/a>\u2014and that\u2019s how real downtime slips through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Start with the \u201c3 levers\u201d that prevent most noise<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1) Retries<\/strong><br>Don\u2019t alert on a single failed check. Require 2\u20133 failures before triggering a \u201cdown\u201d alert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2) Confirmation checks (multi-region or multi-probe confirmation)<\/strong><br>If possible, confirm downtime from a second region or second check before alerting. This prevents \u201cone probe hiccup\u201d alerts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3) Sensible thresholds<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Set timeouts that match reality (e.g., 10 seconds is a common starting point)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For performance\/latency alerts, avoid hair-trigger thresholds; require sustained degradation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Common sources of false alarms (and what to do)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cisco.com\/site\/us\/en\/learn\/topics\/security\/what-is-web-application-firewall-waf.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WAF<\/a>\/bot protection blocks monitors<\/strong> \u2192 allowlist monitor IPs or use keyword checks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Redirect chains<\/strong> \u2192 ensure the monitor follows redirects and targets the final URL<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>TLS\/SSL issues<\/strong> \u2192 monitor certificates and validate correct hostname<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Transient network blips<\/strong> \u2192 retries + confirmation logic<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dynamic pages<\/strong> \u2192 use stable keyword checks and avoid volatile content for validation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If your alerts already feel unreliable, fix that first with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/reduce-false-positives-uptime-monitoring\/\">false positives<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The first 5 minutes: triage checklist (use this every time)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When an alert fires, the job is not to \u201csolve everything instantly.\u201d The job is to <strong>confirm<\/strong>, <strong>scope<\/strong>, and <strong>route<\/strong>\u2014fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">First 5 minutes checklist<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1) Confirm it\u2019s real<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Check the monitor history: is it one failure or confirmed?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Verify from an independent source (another location, a browser, a quick external check)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ask: \u201cIs this impacting real users or just monitoring?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2) Define the blast radius<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>One URL or many?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One region or global?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Only logged-in users or everyone?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Only checkout\/login or the whole site?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3) Identify the likely layer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>DNS layer:<\/strong> domain not resolving, intermittent resolution<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Network\/hosting:<\/strong> timeouts, connection refused<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Web server:<\/strong> 5xx errors, overload<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Application:<\/strong> 200 OK but broken flows, bad deploy<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Third-party dependencies:<\/strong> payment gateway, auth provider, API dependency<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4) Stop the bleeding (if obvious)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>If it\u2019s a bad deploy: rollback \/ disable feature flag<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If it\u2019s a capacity issue: scale up \/ enable caching \/ pause heavy jobs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If it\u2019s third-party: route to incident comms and mitigation<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5) Declare ownership and open an incident thread<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Create an incident channel\/thread<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Assign a primary responder + comms owner (even if same person)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Start an incident log (timestamped notes)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For a fuller, printable guide, use the expanded <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/website-down-incident-response\/\">incident checklist<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Runbooks + ownership: the difference between panic and progress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A runbook is a simple document that says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What to do<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Who does it<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In what order<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Where the links are<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>How to communicate<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t need a 40-page <a href=\"https:\/\/sre.google\/books\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SRE manual<\/a>. You need a <strong>one-page runbook<\/strong> you can copy, paste, and follow at 2 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ownership model (simple and effective)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Primary responder:<\/strong> investigates + mitigates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Comms owner:<\/strong> posts updates internally and (if needed) externally<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Decision maker:<\/strong> approves rollback, pauses campaigns, contacts vendors (often the same person in small teams)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Agencies should add one more role:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Client liaison:<\/strong> handles client updates and sets expectations<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Communication: internal updates + status pages<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Communication is part of incident response, not an afterthought. It reduces duplicate work, calms stakeholders, and prevents support from getting crushed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Internal communication (minimum viable)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Post a short update immediately after confirmation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What\u2019s happening (symptom)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Who\u2019s owning it<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What\u2019s affected (blast radius)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Next update time<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Use a consistent cadence: every <strong>15\u201330 minutes<\/strong> during active incident, even if the update is \u201cstill investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">External communication (when to use a status page)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If customers are affected, a status page can reduce support load and increase trust\u2014when done well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Use a <strong>status page<\/strong> when there\u2019s meaningful impact (login failures, checkout issues, widespread downtime)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Don\u2019t over-post for tiny blips that resolved in 2 minutes<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep updates short, factual, and timestamped<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Close the loop with a resolution note<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you haven\u2019t set one up yet, start here: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/status-page-guide\/\">status pages<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Metrics that matter: MTTR and SLO (keep it practical)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t need a dashboard jungle. Track metrics that improve behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">MTTR (Mean Time To Recovery)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>MTTR is the time from:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>incident start \u2192 service restored<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>How to improve MTTR in real life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Better alert routing (right person sees it fast)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fewer false positives (less hesitation)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clear runbooks (less \u201cwhat do we do?\u201d)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Faster rollback paths (feature flags, deploy pipelines)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Better dependency visibility (knowing what\u2019s actually failing)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SLO (Service Level Objective)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>An SLO is the target reliability you aim to meet\u2014like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cLogin page is available 99.9% monthly\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u201cCheckout success rate meets X threshold\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>SLOs help you:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Prioritize what to monitor first<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Decide how aggressive alerting should be<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Justify engineering time to prevent repeats<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if you never publish an SLA, internal SLOs are useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sample alert message template (copy\/paste)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s a template you can use for Slack\/Teams, email, or tickets. Keep it short enough to scan, but complete enough to act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Subject\/Title:<\/strong><br><code>[DOWN] {Site} \u2013 {Environment} \u2013 {Service\/Page} \u2013 Confirmed<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Body:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Start time:<\/strong> {timestamp + timezone}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Detected by:<\/strong> {monitor name} ({region(s)})<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Impact:<\/strong> {who\/what is affected}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Error:<\/strong> {timeout \/ 5xx \/ DNS \/ SSL \/ keyword mismatch}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Last known good:<\/strong> {timestamp}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Owner:<\/strong> @{primary_responder}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Incident thread:<\/strong> {link}<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Next update:<\/strong> {timestamp}<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A good alert reduces \u201cwhat\u2019s going on?\u201d messages and gets you straight to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Copy\/paste runbook template (CTA)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is a compact runbook you can paste into a doc, wiki, or repo today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Incident Runbook (Website Downtime)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Purpose:<\/strong> Restore service quickly and communicate clearly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Roles<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Primary responder: __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Comms owner: __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Backup responder (escalation): __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Client liaison (if agency): __________<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Links<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Monitoring dashboard: __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hosting\/provider status: __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DNS registrar: __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Deploy\/CI pipeline: __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Status page: __________<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Error logs\/APM: __________<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Severity levels<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sev 3 (minor): degraded performance, limited scope<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sev 2 (major): key flow impacted (login\/checkout), partial outage<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sev 1 (critical): widespread downtime, revenue\/security risk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Triage (first 5 minutes)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Confirm incident (retries\/second region\/manual check).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identify blast radius (which pages\/regions\/users).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identify likely layer (DNS\/hosting\/web\/app\/dependency).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open incident thread + assign roles.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Post internal update + next update time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Mitigation steps (choose what fits)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Roll back last deploy \/ disable feature flag<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Scale resources \/ restart services (only if safe)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bypass failing dependency (fallback mode)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contact provider\/vendor support<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pause campaigns\/traffic sources if needed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Communication cadence<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Internal: update every 15\u201330 minutes during active incident<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>External: status page update when customer impact is confirmed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Resolution: post \u201cresolved\u201d note + brief summary<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Post-incident (within 24\u201372 hours)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Timeline (start, detection, mitigation, resolution)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Root cause (what failed)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Contributing factors (why it took time)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Action items (prevention + detection + documentation)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Update monitors\/runbooks to prevent repeat<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <strong>Copy this runbook template and fill it in today.<\/strong> It\u2019s the fastest way to turn downtime from chaos into a process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Next steps (if you\u2019re building maturity)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tune alerting and routing using <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/uptime-alerts-best-practices\/\">alert channel best practices<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Print the expanded <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/website-down-incident-response\/\">incident checklist<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reduce noise immediately with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/reduce-false-positives-uptime-monitoring\/\">false positives<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Set up and use <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/status-page-guide\/\">status pages<\/a><\/strong> when impact is customer-facing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[1475 words, 8 minute read time] Downtime doesn\u2019t usually start with a dramatic \u201csite is down\u201d moment. More often it begins as a vague signal: a few failed checks, a spike in response time, a customer saying \u201cI can\u2019t log in,\u201d a Slack ping, or a support ticket with the subject line \u201cIs the site &#8230; <a title=\"Downtime Alerts &#038; Incident Response: Practical Playbook\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/downtime-alerts\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Downtime Alerts &#038; Incident Response: Practical Playbook\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guides"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5469"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5543,"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5469\/revisions\/5543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sslshopper.com\/website-monitoring\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}