# Best Practices

#### Start from user impact

Before creating a monitor, ask:

* What would hurt customers if it went down?
* What would hurt the business?
* What would slow the team down?
* What would just be annoying?

Not everything needs monitoring.

#### Choose the right monitor type

Each monitor answers a different question:

* HTTP checks response correctness
* Ping checks reachability
* Keyword validates expected content
* SSL prevents certificate surprises

Add monitors that answer your main question, not all possible questions.

#### Avoid redundant monitoring

If one monitor gives a strong signal, adding more rarely adds value. More monitors do not mean better monitoring.