Just what is Website Transaction Monitoring, Anyway?

Have you ever wondered how you can make sure that your website login forms, shopping carts, and search are working? Enter website transaction monitoring.

What is website transaction monitoring?

Website transaction monitoring tracks a website’s multi-step transaction uptime and performance, alerting site operators the moment a problem arises. It collects data covering load-time, errors, and other metrics using a real browser, and displays them from a user perspective. You can think of website transaction monitoring as both a preventative and restorative uptime and performance tool.

Why do I need website transaction monitoring?

The idea of what a website is has evolved considerably over the years. What we once thought of as a simple repository for data has developed into various living, breathing systems in which we interact with data, and each other. Facebook, Netflix, Mint, Amazon, Wikipedia – the list goes on – they all represent the evolution from static website to dynamic web application.

We’re constantly posting, commenting, searching, and purchasing, arguably to the point of dependence. But with that dependence comes the popular expectation that these complex websites will “just work.” Website transaction monitoring helps web teams stay on top of website transaction uptime and performance, so that they can make informed decisions once a problem is detected.

What are some benefits of website transaction monitoring?

The average user expects a website to be up and performing optimally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you’re a web developer or administrator operating an e-Commerce site (or any website), these expectations can be a nightmare – especially during high traffic times like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

By monitoring your website transactions, you can minimize the potential for lost revenue, security breaches, and public relations damage when downtime or errors occur. It empowers you track every step of your transactions, identify bottlenecks such as load and execution times, and give you comprehensive performance reports.

Is it possible to try website transaction monitoring before buying it?

We’re glad you asked! We offer a free 4-week trial of the Uptrends Website Monitoring Service, which includes the ability to monitor your multi-step transactions. No credit card is needed, and setup is easy!26