Proactive Site Health Alerts: What They Are and Why You’re Receiving Them

To help reduce unexpected downtime and speed up issue resolution, BionicWP provides proactive site health alerts. These alerts notify you when we detect common configuration or propagation issues that can temporarily affect your website’s availability or security.

Unlike traditional “site is down” alerts, these notifications are designed to catch problems early, explain what’s happening in plain language, and guide you toward a quick resolution.

DNS and SSL issues are among the most common causes of sudden website problems, especially after changes like:

• Updating DNS records

• Moving a site to a new host

• Renewing a domain

• Changing nameservers

• Issuing or reinstalling SSL certificates

• Configuration changes on the website

• A plugin/theme conflict

The challenge is that these issues aren’t caused by the server itself and may sit outside normal uptime monitoring. That means a site can appear “online” in some locations while broken in others.

These new alerts help by:

• Detecting configuration mismatches early

• Explaining why the issue is happening

• Reducing back-and-forth troubleshooting

• Helping you take action faster (or know when to wait)

These alerts are triggered when we detect known site issues. Each alert links to a detailed knowledge base article and includes guidance on what the alert means and what steps to take:

• Status Codes 404, 408, 500, or 503 ↗
  Explanation: These codes indicate different site issues: 404 (page not found), 408 (site disabled), 500 (critical server error), and 503 (site temporarily unavailable). Alerts help you identify the cause and take appropriate action.

• Cause: Timeout (no headers received) ↗
  Explanation: Occurs when the monitoring system doesn’t receive a response from the site. Often a false alarm, it usually means the site is running but took too long to respond.

• Cause: Couldn’t connect to server ↗
  Explanation: Triggered when the monitoring system cannot reach your server. This often happens when a site is moved to a new server and DNS is still propagating.

• Cause: Number of Redirects Hit Maximum Amount ↗
  Explanation: Occurs when a page is caught in a redirect loop. This can be caused by incorrect redirect rules or conflicting redirects between your site and a CDN.

• Cause: DNS Lookup Failure ↗
  Explanation: Happens when the domain cannot be resolved due to missing or misconfigured DNS records, DNS propagation, or expired domains. This can make your site or email temporarily inaccessible.

• Cause: SSL Peer Certificate or SSH Remote Key was not OK ↗
  Explanation: Triggered when a domain doesn’t point to the correct server for SSL validation. Common after migrations or DNS misconfigurations.

• Cause: SSL Connect Error ↗
  Explanation: Happens when a domain’s DNS A-records do not match the IP assigned in the platform. The SSL connection cannot be established until DNS is corrected.

Each alert includes:

• A brief explanation of the issue

• Common causes

• Clear next steps

• Guidance on when to wait vs. when to contact support

In many cases, no immediate action is required, and the alert simply keeps you informed. If action is needed, you’ll know exactly what to check or share with our team.

These alerts exist to give you:

• Fewer surprises

• Faster resolutions

• Better visibility into DNS and SSL-related issues

If you ever have questions about an alert, or want help resolving it, our support team is always happy to assist.