Keyword Monitoring

Check that web pages and API responses contain the text you expect, and do not contain text you forbid

A keyword monitor makes the same HTTP request as an HTTP monitor and then checks the response body for text. Use it to confirm a page shows the right content, to catch error messages that are served with a 200 status, or to detect defacement.

When to use it

• Confirm “Welcome” or “Sign in” appears on your homepage
• Check that an API response contains "status":"ok"
• Alert when an error message such as Database connection failed appears
• Detect unwanted text such as hacked by or Out of stock

Create a keyword monitor

1. Set the basics

   Enter the Website URL, Check Interval and Timeout exactly as for an HTTP monitor. See HTTP settings.

2. Add keywords

   In Keyword Configuration, type the text, choose Contains or Excludes, and click Add. Click the contains / excludes tag on a keyword to switch it.

3. Choose matching rules

   With more than one keyword, pick Match all or Match any. Use the Case sensitive switch if letter case matters.

Settings

Setting	What it does	Default / options
Keywords	Text to look for in the response. Up to 20 keywords, each up to 500 characters	At least one is required
Contains / Excludes	Contains: the text must be in the response. Excludes: the check fails if the text is in the response	Contains
Match all / Match any	How several Contains keywords combine. Shown when you have more than one keyword	Match all
Case sensitive	Match letter case exactly. Applies to all keywords	Off

The request itself (method, expected status, headers, request body, redirects, timeout) is configured under HTTP Configuration and works as on HTTP monitors, including the default that only status 200 passes unless you change Expected Status. Use a method that returns a body: HEAD has nothing to search.

Example

• Website URL: https://www.yourcompany.com
• Keywords: Contains Welcome to YourCompany, Excludes Database connection failed
• Match all, Case sensitive off

How matching works

1. The HTTP request is checked first (status code, timeout, TLS).
2. The keywords are checked against the response body.

Keyword type	Check fails when
Contains	Match all: any such keyword is missing. Match any: none of them is present.
Excludes	Any such keyword is present. Match all / any does not apply.

Matching is plain text matching. Regular expressions are not supported: add a separate keyword for each phrase.

Only the response body is searched, not the response headers.

Case sensitivity

Case sensitive	Example
Off (default)	error matches Error and ERROR
On	Error matches only Error

Examples

Keywords	Result
Excludes Out of stock	Alerts when a product page says it is out of stock.
Contains "status":"ok", with Case sensitive on	Alerts when the API stops returning the success indicator.
Contains Sign in and Contains Log in, with Match any	Passes when either phrase is on the page.

SSL, domain expiry and slow responses

Keyword monitors support the same options under SSL, domain & performance alerts as HTTP monitors:

• SSL certificate monitoring: warnings at 30, 15, 7 and 1 days; an expired or invalid certificate opens an incident.
• Domain expiry monitoring
• Slow response alerts

Best practices

• Choose text that is stable and specific. Database connection timeout beats Error.
• Monitor a lightweight endpoint. The whole response body is downloaded and searched.
• Test your keywords against the real page source before relying on them.
• Remember that UptimeIO sees the HTML your server returns, not content rendered later by JavaScript.

Troubleshooting

Keyword reported missing but it is on the page

Check spelling and the Case sensitive switch. View the page source (not the rendered page): content added by JavaScript is not in the response. If the content depends on cookies or the user agent, the monitor may receive a different page.

False alarms from a must-not-contain keyword

The phrase may also appear in navigation, scripts or comments. Use a more specific phrase.

Cannot save the monitor

Add at least one keyword (up to 20, each up to 500 characters), and use a method other than HEAD.

Check fails on status code

Only 200 passes unless you add other codes to Expected Status under HTTP Configuration.

Next steps

HTTP Monitoring

All request options

Notifications

Configure alerts for keyword monitors