Setting Up Alerts
Create alert rules for any metric, set the thresholds that matter, and get notified by email and in-app, with worked examples and best practices.
Alerts notify you when something needs attention. Set up rules for any metric and receive notifications through email and in-app alerts.
Creating an Alert
Step 1: Navigate to Alerts
- Go to your domain's dashboard
- Click Alerts in the sidebar
- Click Create Alert Rule
Step 2: Configure the Rule
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Rule Name | Optional. If you leave it empty, VitalSentinel makes a name for the rule |
| Module | Which monitoring type (RUM, Uptime, etc.) |
| Metric | Specific metric to monitor |
| Condition | Comparison operator |
| Threshold | Value that triggers the alert |
| Window | Time period to evaluate |
| Severity | Info, Warning, or Critical |
Step 3: Set Notification Channel
Choose how to receive alerts:
- In-app notifications (always enabled)
- Email notifications (optional, toggle per alert)
Step 4: Save and Activate
Click Create Rule to activate your rule.
Alert Configuration
Modules
Choose which monitoring type to create alerts for:
| Module | Configuration |
|---|---|
| RUM | Custom metrics: LCP, CLS, INP, TTFB, FCP (p75 values), Error Rate |
| CrUX | Custom metrics: LCP, CLS, INP, TTFB with URL/Origin and device filter |
| Synthetic | Custom metrics: LCP, CLS, TBT, TTI, FCP, SI, TTFB, Network Requests with URL and evaluation window |
| Uptime | Predefined alerts: Site down/up, SSL expiry, domain expiry |
| Robots.txt | Predefined alerts: Syntax errors, sitemap blocking, file changes |
| Server Log Monitoring | Predefined alerts: blocked crawlers, crawler errors, crawl drops, crawl waste, spoofed bots, AI crawlers, and more |
| Site Health Monitoring | Predefined alerts: sitewide issue groups, crawler blocked, site reachable again, with a lowest issue severity |
| Page Monitoring | Pick a kind of change, the pages it covers, and a condition for page elements |
| Sitemap Monitoring | Pick a kind of sitemap event, with a percentage for shrinks and grows |
| Google Search Console | Percentage-change metrics: Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Discover, News |
| Indexing | Percentage-change metrics: page counts per coverage state |
| Web Analytics | Percentage-change metrics: Visitors, Sessions, Pageviews, Bounce Rate, and more |
Predefined Alerts (Uptime, Robots.txt, Server Log & Site Health Monitoring)
For Uptime, Robots.txt, Server Log Monitoring and Site Health Monitoring modules, select from predefined alert types:
Uptime Alerts:
- Site is down
- Site is up (recovery)
- SSL will expire in 14/7 days
- Domain will expire in 14/7 days
Robots.txt Alerts:
- Robots.txt file changed
- Robots.txt has syntax errors
- Robots.txt blocks sitemap URLs
Server Log Monitoring Alerts: 15 crawl alerts, from blocked crawlers and server errors to stale money pages. See Server Log Monitoring Alerts.
Site Health Monitoring Alerts: 11 alert types for groups of sitewide issues. Site Health Monitoring also uses the Alert Type picker. See Site Health Monitoring Alerts.
For Site Health Monitoring alerts, Alert on issues of severity sets the lowest issue severity that triggers the alert:
- Critical only
- High and above (default)
- Medium and above
The form shows this note: "Medium alerts are emailed only when your notification threshold is set to Info." Site reachable again does not have this field.
Page Monitoring Rules
For Page Monitoring, set these fields:
- In What to watch, pick the kind of change.
- In Pages, select All watched pages or Only these pages.
- If you select Only these pages, pick the pages in the list.
- If you pick Page element changed, select a Page element and a Condition.
See Page Monitoring Alerts for the kinds of change and the conditions.
Sitemap Monitoring Rules
For Sitemap Monitoring, pick the event in What to watch. For Sitemap shrinks and Sitemap grows, enter a percentage in Shrinks by at least (%) or Grows by at least (%). The default is 10. See Sitemap Monitoring Alerts for all events.
Page Monitoring and Sitemap Monitoring rules have no Condition, Threshold or window fields. Each rule has a Severity that you can change.
Device Filter (RUM, CrUX & Synthetic)
For RUM, CrUX, and Synthetic alerts, you can filter by device type:
| Device | Description |
|---|---|
| Any | Combined data from all devices |
| Phone | Mobile devices only |
| Desktop | Desktop computers only |
Evaluation Window (Synthetic Only)
For Synthetic alerts, choose how many recent tests to evaluate:
| Window | Description |
|---|---|
| Last test only | Alert on single test result |
| Average of last 3 | Smoother, reduces noise |
| Average of last 5 | More stable baseline |
| Average of last 10 | Most stable, slower to react |
Conditions (Custom Alerts)
For RUM, CrUX, and Synthetic modules, configure threshold conditions:
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
> | Greater than |
< | Less than |
>= | Greater than or equal |
<= | Less than or equal |
= | Equals |
!= | Not equals |
changed | Value changed (Uptime and Robots.txt boolean metrics only) |
For Google Search Console, Indexing, and Web Analytics, alerts compare the current period against the previous one using percentage-change operators:
| Operator | Description |
|---|---|
| Decreased by more than (%) | Metric dropped by more than X% vs. the previous period |
| Increased by more than (%) | Metric rose by more than X% vs. the previous period |
| Anomaly (std. deviations) | Metric deviates from its rolling average by more than N standard deviations |
These operators require a comparison window (1, 3, 7, 14, or 28 days).
Severity Levels
| Level | When to Use |
|---|---|
| Info | Non-urgent, good to know |
| Warning | Needs attention soon |
| Critical | Immediate action required |
Example Alerts
Site Down Alert (Predefined)
Select from Uptime module:
- Alert Type: Site is down
- Severity: Critical (preset)
- Email: Enabled
Poor LCP Alert (Custom)
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Module | RUM |
| Metric | LCP p75 |
| Condition | > |
| Threshold | 2500 (ms) |
| Severity | Warning |
SSL Expiring Soon (Predefined)
Select from Uptime module:
- Alert Type: SSL will expire in 14 days
- Severity: Warning (preset)
- Email: Enabled
CrUX Performance Alert (Custom)
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Module | CrUX |
| Metric | LCP p75 |
| URL/Origin | Origin (all URLs) |
| Device | Any |
| Condition | > |
| Threshold | 2500 (ms) |
| Severity | Warning |
Synthetic Monitoring Alert (Custom)
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Module | Synthetic |
| Metric | LCP |
| URL | Homepage |
| Device | Any |
| Evaluation Window | Average of last 5 |
| Condition | > |
| Threshold | 2500 (ms) |
| Severity | Warning |
Title Change on Key Pages (Page Monitoring)
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Module | Page Monitoring |
| What to watch | Title changed |
| Pages | Only these pages |
| Severity | Warning |
| Enabled |
Managing Alerts
View All Alerts
See all configured alerts at Domain → Alerts:
- Alert name
- Module badge
- Enabled/disabled toggle
Edit an Alert
- Click the alert row
- Modify settings in the modal
- Click Update Rule
Disable an Alert
Toggle the switch next to any alert to enable or disable it without deleting.
Delete an Alert
- Click the trash icon next to the alert
- Confirm deletion
Quick Setup
For new domains, use Create essential alerts with one click to set up recommended alerts across every module. This creates alerts for:
- RUM: LCP, CLS, INP (p75 thresholds)
- CrUX: LCP, CLS, INP (Origin, any device)
- Synthetic: LCP, CLS (Home URL, average of last 5)
- Uptime: Site down/up, SSL expiry (14/7 days), Domain expiry (14/7 days)
- Robots.txt: Syntax errors, sitemap blocking, file changed
- Site Health Monitoring: 9 alerts (see What Gets Created), with email
- Google Search Console: Clicks and Impressions dropped > 30% (7-day)
- Indexing: Indexed pages dropped > 15% (7-day)
- Web Analytics: Visitors dropped > 30% (7-day)
Best Practices
Start with Critical Alerts
Begin with the most important alerts:
- Site down
- SSL expiring
- Critical performance thresholds
Avoid Alert Fatigue
Too many alerts lead you to ignore them:
- Use appropriate thresholds
- Set reasonable evaluation windows
- Group related alerts
Test Your Alerts
Verify alerts work:
- Create a test alert with a low threshold
- Confirm notification is received
- Delete the test alert
Use Severity Appropriately
Reserve Critical for truly urgent issues:
- Site completely down
- Security issues
- Revenue-impacting problems
Review and Refine
Periodically review your alerts:
- Are you getting too many?
- Did you miss important issues?
- Are thresholds still appropriate?
Related
Server Log Settings
Manage your log source, track the monthly server log hit allowance, see what traffic is excluded and why, exclude your own agents, and group URLs into sections.
Alert Types
Every alert type VitalSentinel offers across Uptime, RUM, CrUX, Synthetic, Robots.txt, Server Logs, Site Health, Page Monitoring, Sitemap Monitoring, and Search, with guidance on when to use each one.
