Keyword monitors

What it checks

A keyword monitor requests a URL from Mon's locations, checks that the page answers, then searches it for a word or phrase. A page can load perfectly and still be wrong - an empty shop, a missing sign-up button, an error message in place of the content - and the words on it are what show that.

The page has to answer first: with a 2xx or 3xx status code, within the timeout. If it doesn't, the monitor is down whatever the keyword.

Adding one

Under Monitors, choose Add Monitor, then Keyword, and enter the URL, including http:// or https://. Then, under Validation:

• Keyword - the word or phrase to look for.
• Keyword must exist - on by default: the monitor is down when the keyword is missing. Turn it off to be told when it appears instead.
• Case Sensitive - match capitals exactly. Off by default.
• Raw Keyword Check - search the page's HTML source instead of the text a visitor reads.

The monitor is named after the page and the keyword - example.com/pricing - In stock - until you type over it. To add several at once, choose Add several at once and paste one URL per line; each gets the same keyword. A URL in the list without http:// or https:// is taken as https://.

How the keyword is found

Mon searches the text a visitor reads on the page: the title, scripts, styles and HTML comments are left out, & and the like are read as the characters they stand for, and any run of spaces or line breaks counts as one space. The keyword can be a whole phrase or part of a word, in any language.

With Raw Keyword Check on, Mon searches the response exactly as it arrives - the page's HTML, the title and attributes included, or a JSON or XML response as it is.

Mon reads the page as the server sends it, without running its scripts. Text that only appears after the page's JavaScript runs won't be found - look for something in the page's source instead.

The request

Under Advanced options:

• HTTP Method - GET by default. A HEAD request fetches no page, so a keyword monitor set to HEAD sends GET instead.
• Body - for POST, PUT and PATCH: raw content with a content type, or form fields. A request with one of these methods and no body is counted as a failure.
• Custom Headers - extra headers to send, such as an API key. Paid plans.
• Username and Password - for pages behind HTTP authentication. Paid plans.
• User Agent - left blank, it's Mon Bot v1.

Mon follows 301, 302, 303, 307 and 308 redirects, up to 10 of them, and searches the page it ends up on.

What it reports

Result	Meaning	Monitor
Keyword exists	Found, and Keyword must exist is on	Up
Keyword does not exist	Not found, and Keyword must exist is off	Up
Keyword does not exist	Not found, and it should be there	Down
Keyword exists	Found, and it shouldn't be there	Down

A page that doesn't answer is down for the same reasons as an HTTP monitor: an error status code, a timeout, a refused connection, a failed DNS lookup or a redirect loop. A missing keyword looks the same from anywhere, so Mon doesn't retry it from another location - see How checks work.

A down keyword monitor raises a Monitor Down alert on its contacts - by default on the 1st failed check. See Alerts and contacts.

Plans

Keyword monitors are on every plan. Paid plans check as often as every minute; the Free plan, every 5 minutes at most. Custom headers and HTTP authentication need a paid plan.

Keyword monitors and HTTP monitors

An HTTP monitor can look for a keyword too, alongside everything else it checks: your own up status codes, an expected final URL, and the site's certificate with Monitor SSL. A keyword monitor does none of those - it doesn't check the certificate, and counts any 2xx or 3xx code as an answer. Use one when the words are what you want to watch, and an HTTP monitor when you need the rest.

For a page changed by an attacker, a defacement monitor loads it in a browser and judges whether it looks defaced, without your having to guess the words.