# 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. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://help.isdown.app/website-monitors/best-practices.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.