What it should watch
- Up and fast: the site answers, and quickly.
- Content: the page still says what it should, without injected links, redirects or a defacement.
- Certificate: valid and not about to expire.
- DNS: the domain still points where it should. A changed record is how domains get hijacked.
- Email records: SPF, DKIM and DMARC unchanged.
- Security headers: still being sent after an update.
- Domain registration: expiry, renewal and lock status.
How often
Every few minutes for uptime and content, so a problem is caught while it’s small. One machine shop near us had its web address send customers to a gambling site for six weeks before anyone noticed. A five-minute check catches that the first time.
Who gets the alert
An alert that goes to an inbox nobody reads isn’t monitoring. It should reach a person who can act, and that person should tell you what happened in plain English. Our monitor checks every site we run every five minutes, and you can see its results live on our proof board.
Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.