[How to use it] How a free website monitoring tool made operations "easier"
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(This article was updated on August 23, 2022)
Hello. This is Goto from the Web Services Department. I bought a 360,000 yen guitar around summer , but recently I added a 500,000 yen laptop, and as you can see, my daily diet has become just bean sprouts and carbohydrates . Balancing dieting and saving money is difficult, but I'm trying to be careful not to rebound. And during this frugal lifestyle, I've rediscovered how delicious ochazuke (rice with tea poured over it) is.
At Beyond, we primarily offer two web services: the reservation system EDISONE and the website monitoring service Appmill . The operation of these web services is the responsibility of the Web Services Division, which includes myself.
The Edison and Apmil services mentioned above were of course developed for customers, but they are also being used extensively within the company
In this article, I will share our experience using the website monitoring service Appmill within our company
We will also introduce the overview of Apmil from the perspective of the person in charge!
We hope this will be helpful to those in charge of managing websites
This article is recommended for the following people
- Website/Web service operators
- People working at web development companies
- Those looking for a way to efficiently manage their currently operating websites
What you'll learn in this article
- How will using a website monitoring service change your website operations?
- How to set up the website monitoring service Apmir
- Website monitoring service usage examples
What is the website monitoring service Appmill?
Apmilla website monitoring service that automatically checks the status of web pages simply by registering their URLs.
If there are problems with the communication status or the speed at which web pages load, Appmillsend a notification to the contacts you have set up in advance.
This allows website administrators to quickly detect and address problems without constantly monitoring the site's status
The following video provides a concise introduction to Apmir in just 1.5 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 pricing plan:
Items that can be monitored with the free plan
- Communication status check (alive monitoring)
- Response time check (display speed check)
- Status abnormality check
- SSL Expiration Check
- Domain Expiration Check
- Scenario monitoring for up to 5 URLs (checking the communication status of related pages)
With the security plan, you can monitor the following items in addition to the free plan monitoring items:
- HTML difference comparison
- Snapshot Comparison
- Malware Protection
- Social Engineering Countermeasures
- Broken Link Check
If you want to know more about each item, please check out the official website
Go to Apmil official website ››
What's great about Apmil from the perspective of an operations manager [Compared to other services]
As those of you who have read this far have probably already noticed, this articlea sponsored post.
If this were YouTube, this would be the type of article that would display the message "This video contains promotional content."
Well, since we're introducing our own company's services, it's only natural that the content will be like this, sorry
This guy must be scolded by his boss if he doesn't write articles like this. I guess I'll have no choice but to take a look(But it probably won't happen)I hope you will feel this way and bear with me a little longer
(I declared that this was a promotional article, so maybe it's not stealth marketing anymore?)
In reality,website monitoring servicesbesides Apmill.
If you'd like to compare and consider various website monitoring services , please check out this article.
However, among the many website monitoring services available, there are three features of Apumillwere truly outstanding and comparable to other services, which I will introduce below.
Free monitoring every 5 minutes
Many website monitoring services, like Apumill, offer free plans, but they often have limitations such as a small number of URLs that can be registered or monitoring intervals that are too long (e.g., 1 hour to 1 day), which can restrict their use . In contrast, Apumill's free plan allows you to perform website health checks, response time checks, and status code checks at 5-minute intervals
You can register 100 URLs for monitoring for free
It's rare to find a monitoring service that allows you to register 100 URLs for free. This is especially useful for web development companies and other environments that manage multiple websites simultaneously
The free plan supports scenario monitoring for up to 5 URLs
In addition to the registered URL, Apmil also allows you to register up to five related URLs depending on the settings. Therefore, when an abnormality occurs in a URL registered for monitoring, you can simultaneously find out whether an abnormality has occurred in the related URLs
This feature is useful for use on inquiry pages , e-commerce purchase pages, and other similar pages
Why do we offer free website monitoring services?
▲The image shows Beyond's CEO, Haraoka (right), and director Morita (left)
As mentioned above, Apmil is a free service that is quite practical to use
(Even more advanced automated monitoring is possible by using a paid security plan.)
However, when it comes to free services like Apumil, don't you find yourself wondering what they're really up to behind the scenes ?
*Of course, there are no initial costs, and you can rest assured that we will never charge you any expensive fees later on
Therefore, I would like to explain the reason for offering it for free from the perspective of the person in charge
① We want many people to know how convenient it is to build a monitoring system
For those currently operating websites without automated content or server monitoring, or without outsourcing maintenance and operation, we want you to experience firsthand just how much more secure your website operation becomes when you build a monitoring system through Apmill
② I want people to know about Beyond through Apmil
Beyond, the company that develops and provides Apumil, is involved in various businesses in addition to providing web services,game API development, e-commerce site development, andcloud/server construction, migration, operation, and maintenance. We hope that you will become interested in our business through Apumil.
And there are the aims as mentioned above
Of course, we don't offer all features for free, but our mainan advertising platform, so most features are available for free.
Try out the website monitoring service Apmil
Now, I will explain how to set it up from Apmir below.
The installation method is also explained in the video below, so please take a look if you are interested
introduction
The setup is extremely simple;all you need to do is register your email address and a password of your choice. (It takes less than a minute.)
Registering a monitoring URL - Basic settings
Once you have completed your membership registration, register the URL you want to monitor
While initial setup is not required to begin using the service, various settings can be configured by proceeding to the monitoring rule settings for each monitoring URL
Joint monitoring with other users is now possible! User invitation
By inviting users by email address, you can share monitoring status with other users
For example, if you're managing a client's website , it's particularly useful because you can easily share information with the client
The following items can be set on the Apmil basic settings screen
Alert notification destination
You can choose to receive alert notifications via email, SMS, or phone
Integration with ChatWork will also be possible from December 2021!
Furthermore, Chatwork integration is now available for free. Since many companies use chat tools for communication, this should make the system even more practical and efficient.
Automatically closing alerts
When an alert occurs in Apumir, it will appear in the alert list with the status "Open"
If you enable automatic closing of alerts, the alert will automaticallyclose, and the alert list will then distinguish between alerts that are still unresolved and those that are not.
Timeout (seconds)
The timeout setting determines how many seconds of delay in response time (web page display speed) must occur before an alert is sent
Setting this to a stricter value can be used to improve SEO
Status Code Monitoring Rules
By default, "200" is registered as the normal status code, and an alert notification will be generated if "404", "500", etc. are actually confirmed on the page, but you can change the normal status code by configuring it. In most cases, there is no problem leaving this item at the default setting
Patrol monitoring when an alert occurs
Here, you can register up to five URLs for scenario monitoring for each URL
Please note that the URLs you can register here will not consume the 100 URL credits that are already given to you when you register as a member
Examples of using the website monitoring service Apmil
Next, based on my own experience, I'll share some examples of how I've found Apumil particularly convenient!
Useful in these situations ① Domain and SSL expiration date reminders
This is extremely useful if you manage a large number of websites
It's a task that doesn't happen often, so it's easy to forget. If you register your URL with Appmil, you can check the expiration date of your domain and SSL certificate at any time from the management screen, and you can also set up an alert notification to be sent 90 days before the expiration date
More details on this are also provided in the article below
[Easy] Free method to manage domain and SSL certificate expiration dates [Website Management]
Useful in these situations ② SEO improvement
It is said that leaving issues such as communication errors, delayed response times, and broken links unaddressed negatively impacts SEOを及ぼすと言われています。
This is extremely useful for content managers, as they want to quickly fix any issues like those listed above that occur on the web pages they manage
[Summary] Apmil is a convenient tool that makes website operation "easy"
This time, we gave a frank introduction to Apmil, from its overview to how to use it
If you are interested, please give it a try!
Thank you for watching until the end
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