Keyword matching vs. checking the HTTP status code — which catches more outages?

Keyword matching vs. checking the HTTP status code — which catches more outages?

Q: My monitor checks for a 200. Isn't that enough?

A: Status codes miss a whole class of failures. A broken database connection often returns a 200 with a friendly error page; a hacked or defaced site returns 200; a cached blank page returns 200. Your monitor sees green while the page is useless.

Keyword matching fixes this. Tell the monitor to require a string that only appears when the page truly rendered — your footer copyright, a product SKU, the words "Add to cart." Better still, add a negative keyword: alert if "Database error" or "Service Unavailable" appears.

Use status codes as the first gate and keyword matching as the second. The follow-up people hit: pick a keyword from below the fold so a partial render still fails the check.

Got a question? Drop it in the comments.