[Explanation on how to use] A story about how a free website monitoring tool made operation easier

(This article was updated on August 23, 2022)

Hello.
I bought a guitar for 360,000 yen in the summer I bought a laptop for 500,000 yen, so my daily diet has been reduced to bean sprouts and carbohydrates .
It is difficult to balance dieting and saving money, but I am careful not to rebound.
And during this frugal lifestyle, I realized once again that ochazuke is really delicious.

At Beyond, we mainly offer two web services:
the reservation system EDISONE , and the website monitoring service Appmill The operation of that web service is the job of the web services division, including myself.

Of course, Edison and Apmil mentioned above have developed this service for their customers, but we also use it internally.

I will share experiences on how I use the website monitoring service Apmil within my company

We will also introduce the overview of Apmil again from the perspective of the person in charge!

those in charge of website operations will find this helpful.

This article is recommended for people who:

• Website/web service operation personnel
• Those who work at a web production company
• People who are looking for an efficient way to manage their website

What you can learn from this article

• How does using a website monitoring service change the website operation system?
• How to set up website monitoring service Apmil
• Usage examples of website monitoring services

What is website monitoring service Appmill?

Apmil a website monitoring service that allows you to automatically check the status of a web page just by registering the URL .

If a problem occurs with the communication status or web page display speed, Apmil send a notification to the contacts you have set in advance .

allows website operators to quickly notice problems as they occur and take prompt action, without having to constantly monitor the status of the site

The video below briefly introduces Apmil in one and a half minutes

Please take a look at this as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFDnxAxeh4Y

With Apmil, you can detect most problems that occur in website operation.

Apmil can detect most of the typical problems that occur on websites.

Specifically, the following items can be monitored for each rate plan.

Items that can be monitored with the free plan

• Communication status check (aliveness monitoring)
• Response time check (display speed check)
• Status abnormality check
• SSL expiration date check
• Domain expiration date check
• Scenario monitoring of up to 5 URLs (checking the communication status of related pages)

With the security plan, you can also monitor the following items with the free plan's monitoring items + α

• HTML difference comparison
• Snapshot comparison
• Anti-malware
• Social engineering measures
• Broken link check

I want to know the details of each item! If so, please take a look at the official website.

Go to Apmil official website ››

What’s amazing about Apmil from the perspective of an operation manager [Comparison with other services]

If you have read this far, you may have already noticed, but this article a stealth marketing .

On Youtube, this is the type of article that would display a message saying, ``This video contains promotion.''

Well, I'm introducing my company's services, so naturally the content will be like this, sorry.

I guess this person will be punished by his boss if he doesn't write articles like this.I have no choice but to take a look.(although it probably won't be)Please feel free to contact us for a while.

(I declared it to be a promotional article, so maybe it's not a stealth marketing anymore?)

In fact, there are several other website monitoring services

compare and consider various website monitoring services ! If so, please see this article.

A comprehensive explanation of the functions of website monitoring tools and a comparative introduction of recommended tools [URL monitoring]

However, among the many website monitoring services out there, Apmil's is as amazing as any other! There are three characteristics that I felt, and I will introduce them below.

Free monitoring at 5 minute intervals

Like Apmil, many website monitoring services have free plans, but the number of URLs that can be registered is small, and the monitoring intervals are too long (1 hour to 1 day, etc.), so the usage is limited. There may be cases. allows you to perform life-and-death monitoring, response time checks, and status code checks every 5 minutes

You can register for monitoring 100 URLs for free.

There are probably not many monitoring services that allow you to register 100 URLs for free. This is especially useful in environments where multiple sites are operated in parallel , such as web production companies

The free plan supports scenario monitoring of up to 5 URLs.

In addition to the registered URL, Apmil supports the registration of up to 5 related URLs depending on the settings, so when an abnormality occurs in the URL registered for monitoring, it is possible to check if an abnormality has also occurred in the related URL at the same time. You can know.

This is a convenient feature to use on inquiry pages , purchase pages on e-commerce sites, etc.

Why do we offer free website monitoring services?

▲The image shows Beyond's representative Haraoka (right) and director Morita (left).

As mentioned above, Apmil is a free service that can be used practically.

(More advanced monitoring automation is possible by using a paid security plan.)

what are they thinking behind the scenes when it comes to free services like Apmil Don't you get suspicious?

*The initial cost is of course free, and you can rest assured that you will never be charged a large amount later.

I would like to talk about the reason for providing it for free from the perspective of the person in charge

① We want many people to know the convenience of building a monitoring system.

For those who are currently operating a website without automatic monitoring of content and servers or outsourcing operation and maintenance, we will first realize how much peace of mind you will be able to operate your website by building a monitoring system I have a feeling that I would like you to do it.

②We want people to know about Beyond through Appmil.

Beyond, the company that develops and provides Apmil, not only provides web services, but also develops game APIs and EC sites, and maintains cloud/servers. We hope that you will be interested in our business.

The aim is as stated above.

Of course, not all functions are available for free, but most of the functions are available for free, mainly because we want Apmil to fulfill its role as an advertising tower

Try using the website monitoring service Apmil

Now, how to set it up below.

Please watch the video below for instructions on how to install it.

introduction

Installation is very simple, just register your email address and any password . (takes less than 1 minute)

Try introducing Apmil ››

Monitoring URL registration - basic settings

After completing your membership registration, register the URL you want to monitor.

You can start using the service without doing anything special during the initial settings, but you can make various settings by proceeding to the monitoring rule settings

Joint monitoring with other users is now possible! User invitation

By inviting users by email address, you can share the monitoring status with other users.

For example, if you are running a client's site, it is especially easy to use because you can share information with the client smoothly

The following items can be set on the Apmil basic settings screen.

Notification destination for alert occurrence

You can choose to receive alerts email, SMS, or phone

From December 2021, ChatWork collaboration is also possible!

Chatwork integration now available for free. I think there are many companies that use chat tools as a means of communication, so I think this will make it even more practical.

Automatic closing of alerts

If an alert occurs, Apmil will be displayed in the alert list with a status of "Open"

If automatic closing of alerts is set to ``Yes'', if the alert content is improved, it will be automatically ``Close'' , and the alert list will be able to distinguish between alerts that are still unresolved or not. Masu.

timeout (seconds)

For timeout, set how many seconds the response time (web page display speed) is delayed before an alert is sent.

If you set this to a strict value, you can use it to improve your SEO

Status code monitoring rules

By default, "200" is registered as the normal status code, and an alert notification is generated when "404", "500", etc. are actually confirmed on the page, but depending on the settings, it is normal. You can change the system status code. In most cases, this item can be left at its default setting.

Patrol monitoring when an alert occurs

Here, you can register up to 5 URLs for each URL to be monitored by the scenario.

Please note that the URLs that can be registered here will not consume the 100 URL credits that are given to you at the time of membership registration.

Example of using the website monitoring service Apmil

Next, based on my experience, I the following points that are particularly useful! I would like to introduce an example of how Apmil

Useful in times like these ① Reminder of domain/SSL expiration date

This really comes in handy if you're managing a large number of websites.

It's a task that doesn't happen often, so it's easy to forget. If you register a URL with Apmil, you can check the expiration date of your domain and SSL certificate from the management screen at any time, and you can also send an alert notification 90 days before the expiration date.

The details are also introduced in the article below.

[Easy] How to manage domain and SSL certificate expiry dates for free [Website operation]

Useful in times like these ② SEO improvement

leaving conditions that reduce user convenience , such as communication abnormalities, delayed response times, and broken links, will

As a content operations manager, this is very useful because I want to quickly improve the situation where the above problems occur on the web pages I am operating.

[Summary] Apmil is a useful tool that makes website operation “easy”

This time, I gave a quick introduction to Apmil, from its overview to how to use it.

If you are interested, please try using it!

Thank you for watching until the end.