Have you ever watched a movie (*cough* Godfather III) and said to yourself: “wow, this is so incredibly bad — I don’t think this can get worse!” But then it does. Much, much worse. Well, having a down, slow, or dysfunctional website is similarly nightmarish — just when you think the reputation devastation is finally over, there’s more on the horizon. With apologies to Shakespeare: hell hath no fury like a customer scorned. Not convinced?

It is arguably the most important 3-letter acronym on the digital marketing landscape. No, it’s not ROI. It’s SEO. Consider that: Clearly, effective SEO is extremely important. And for many businesses — especially smaller companies that are competing against big, established enterprises — it’s a matter of survival. However, for some decision-makers outside of the digital marketing world, the link between SEO and site uptime is less clear. Let’s fix that.

The term “essential” is thrown around pretty loosely these days. That new show about the hospital (no, not that one… not that one either… yeah that one) is advertised as essential viewing. A newly-released track by a hip hop artist that describes how little they need to release new tracks in order to live much, much better than the rest of us? That’s essential listening.

If those von Trapp Family singers from The Sound of Music collectively woke up in a really, really bad mood and decided to write a song about their least favorite things, then it’s a safe bet that not being able to connect to a website would make the list (alongside airline passengers who tilt their seat back, and clam shell plastic packaging).

The year was 1993. Beanie Babies invaded the planet. Dinosaurs dominated cinemas worldwide when they escaped from Jurassic Park. Seinfeld won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series (you might say that Jerry & co. were masters of their domain). And righteous rockers Aerosmith extolled the virtues of “living on the edge.” A lot — and we are talking A LOT — has changed since 1993; especially that advice about living on the edge.

We all know the pleasure we feel when we dig into an old pair of jeans and pull out a crumpled $5 bill, or when we finally get around to vacuuming our car (“Hey, I don’t remember eating onion rings in here”) and find a few bucks in loose change. It’s as if the universe has taken a moment to smile on us.

What Exactly is a Website Monitoring “False Alarm” and Why You Should Care About It You know what falsehoods are. You know what false teeth are. You may even know some falsehoods about false teeth. But do you know what a website monitoring false alarm (also known as a “false positive”) is? If not, then please keep reading to find out — because it’s a very big deal.

“Frodo, We Aren’t in the Shire Anymore”: The Importance of a Customer Journey & How to Avoid Wrecking It Fans of Lord of the Rings — otherwise known as “Ringers” — never grow weary of reading or watching Frodo and his fellow Hobbits journey through Middle Earth on an epic quest to Mordor (where rumor has it there now exists a very stylish Starbucks at the base of Mount Doom). Well, customers who visit a website are on an important journey as well.

Debunking 3 Website Availability Monitoring Myths Some myths in life are harmless, or even helpful. For example, Santa Claus has come in very, very handy for parents who want to nudge their kids from the naughty list to the nice one. And let’s give a round of applause to the Tooth Fairy, whose promise of nominal financial compensation has turned the prospect of losing a tooth from a meltdown trigger into a motivational factor.

You have spent a small — or perhaps a large — fortune on your website, and now you’re ready to reap the rewards. You can picture it now: delighted visitors gushing about speed, performance, features, and functions. Except…that’s not happening. Instead, visitors are running into browser compatibility issues — which means instead of moving forward on the buyer’s journey, they are heading straight to a competitor. That’s the bad news.