Skip to content
Keyword monitoring

Know when your page loads but shows the wrong thing

Keyword monitoring checks that a page contains the text it should — or does not contain text it should not. StatusLoom fetches your page on a schedule and marks it down when a required word is missing or a forbidden one appears, even if the server answered 200 OK.

See how it works

What is keyword monitoring?

A normal uptime check asks one question: did the server answer with the status code you expect? A keyword check asks a second one: is the right content actually on the page?

That second question matters because a server can answer "200 OK" while showing a database error, a blank page, a hosting provider's "account suspended" notice or a defaced homepage. To a status-code check, every one of those looks healthy.

When you need it

Real failures this catches — each one invisible to an ordinary uptime check.

  • The database went away, the page did not

    WordPress answers "Error establishing a database connection" with status 200. A check for your site name in the page catches it within two checks; a status check never does.

  • A deploy broke checkout

    The product page still loads, but the "Add to Cart" button is gone. Requiring that text on a product page turns a silent revenue loss into an alert.

  • The site was defaced

    Spam links injected into an old site rarely change the status code. A "must not contain" rule for words like "casino" flags the injection before search engines do.

  • A health endpoint that always says 200

    Some health checks return 200 with {"status": "error"} inside. Requiring "\"status\": \"ok\"" makes the body, not the status code, decide.

How it works

  1. Step 01

    Add a website monitor

    Enter the URL as usual and, under Content check, the keyword — your site name, a button label, a line from the footer.

  2. Step 02

    Choose must contain or must not contain

    Required text guards against a broken page. Forbidden text guards against errors, maintenance notices or injected spam.

  3. Step 03

    We check the page on your schedule

    From every minute to every hour. The status code is judged first; only a page that passes it is searched for the keyword.

  4. Step 04

    Two failures in a row, one email

    The same rule as every StatusLoom check. The alert names the keyword, so you know it is the content, not the server, that broke.

A real failure, step by step

A WordPress blog on a five-minute interval, required keyword "Priya's Kitchen".

  1. 10:00

    Check passes

    200 OK, keyword found.

  2. 10:03

    MySQL runs out of connections

    The site starts serving a database error — still with status 200.

  3. 10:05

    First failure

    Status 200, keyword not found. Recorded, nothing sent.

  4. 10:10

    Second failure — outage declared

    Email: Keyword "Priya's Kitchen" not found on the page.

  5. 10:30

    Recovered

    Keyword found again. One more email, with the downtime.

Choosing a good keyword

Pick text that is always on the page and rarely changes. Avoid prices, dates and anything personalised.

Good required keywordsYour site name, a footer line, a button label such as "Add to Cart"
Good forbidden keywords"Error", "Exception", "Maintenance", "suspended", spam words
MatchingNot case-sensitive; any language, including Hindi and other non-Latin scripts
SearchedThe first 1 MB of the page's HTML

What it does not do

Stated plainly, so nothing surprises you later.

  • It reads the HTML the server sends. Text that JavaScript adds after the page loads — common in single-page apps — is not seen. Pick text that is in the server-rendered HTML, such as the page title.
  • One keyword per monitor. To watch for several, add a monitor per keyword.
  • It does not click or sign in. Checking a multi-step journey like login → checkout needs a browser, which StatusLoom does not run.
  • A keyword check needs the GET method — HEAD downloads no page to search.

Common questions

Is the keyword case-sensitive?
No. "add to cart" matches "Add to Cart" and "ADD TO CART".
What if the page also returns the wrong status code?
The status code is checked first. A 503 is reported as an HTTP 503, not as a missing keyword, because that is the more useful thing to know.
Does it work on React or Next.js sites?
It works on whatever the server sends in the initial HTML. Server-rendered text, including the page title, is found; text a browser adds later with JavaScript is not.
Will a missing keyword alert me immediately?
No. Like every StatusLoom check it takes two consecutive failures before an alert, so one odd page load does not wake you.
Is keyword monitoring free?
Yes. It is part of every website monitor, on the free plan of five monitors.

Other ways to monitor

Set up keyword monitoring in a minute.

Five monitors free, of any type. No card, no trial period.