Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know

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Monitoring Basics

What types of websites can I monitor?

You can monitor any publicly accessible webpage — pricing pages, feature pages, blog posts, landing pages, documentation, and more. WatchtowerData handles both static HTML and JavaScript-rendered (SPA) pages.

How does noise reduction work?

WatchtowerData automatically strips cookie banners, chat widgets, timestamps, session tokens, random counters, and other dynamic elements. You can also add custom CSS selectors to ignore specific page elements. This means you only get alerted about meaningful content changes.

Can I pause monitoring for a specific page?

Yes. Every monitored page has a pause toggle. Pausing stops new checks and alerts for that page without deleting it or its history. Resume it any time with a single click.

Alerts & Notifications

What's the difference between instant alerts and digests?

Instant alerts notify you the moment a change is detected (subject to cooldown settings). Daily and weekly digests group all changes into a single summary email sent at your preferred time. You can mix and match — instant alerts for pricing pages, weekly digests for blog posts.

Can I control how often I receive alerts?

Absolutely. You can set per-page cooldown periods (e.g., no more than one alert per hour), quiet hours, max emails per day, and a grouping window. WatchtowerData is designed to be not annoying.

Features

What does the diff view look like?

You get a clean before/after text comparison with added content highlighted in green and removed content in red. There's also a summary of what type of change occurred (pricing, heading, links, etc.) along with an AI-generated importance score.

Can I monitor competitor pricing specifically?

Yes! WatchtowerData has built-in pricing change detection. When prices on a page change, the change is automatically categorized as a 'pricing' change with high severity, and you can set up instant alerts for those.

What are Saved Insights?

When you see a change that matters to your business, click the bookmark icon to save it. Saved changes appear in the Saved Insights section, grouped by competitor. You can also attach private notes to any saved change — great for keeping context on why something was important.

How do I dismiss changes I don't care about?

Each change in your alerts feed has a dismiss button. Dismissed changes are hidden from the feed immediately, keeping your alerts clean. You can optionally add a reason for dismissal so your team knows why it was ignored.

Can I set priority levels for competitors?

Yes. Each competitor can be assigned a priority level — Critical, High, Medium, or Low. This lets you visually triage your monitoring list and quickly identify which competitors need the most attention.

What is the Tracked Elements feature?

Instead of monitoring an entire page, you can pin specific elements — a price tag, a headline, a button label, a product spec — using CSS selectors or XPath. When exactly that element changes, you get a pinpoint alert. This is most easily set up via the browser extension.

What is Product Intelligence?

The Products section lets you track your own products and competitor products side by side. You can compare prices, monitor for spec changes, and see price history over time — so you always know when a competitor undercuts you or launches something new.

Browser Extension

What does the browser extension do?

The free Chrome extension brings your WatchtowerData alerts directly into your browser. While visiting a competitor's page you can see exactly what changed, navigate through each difference, and add new pages to monitor — all without opening the dashboard.

Is the extension free?

Yes, the browser extension is completely free for all WatchtowerData subscribers. Install it from the Chrome Web Store and sign in with your account to get started.

Billing & Plans

Is there a free trial?

Yes, every plan includes a 7-day free trial. A credit card is required to start, but you won't be charged until the trial ends. Cancel anytime before day 8 and you'll never pay a thing.

How do I handle team members?

WatchtowerData has built-in team support. Go to Settings → Team to invite colleagues by email. Team members share your competitor data, alerts, and saved insights. You can assign Viewer or Editor roles, and team members use your plan's limits — no extra subscription needed.

Troubleshooting

What happens if a monitored page goes down?

WatchtowerData tracks errors and uses exponential backoff for retries. You'll see the error state in your dashboard but won't receive false-positive change alerts. After several consecutive failures, the page enters a degraded state visible in the UI.

Can I export my data?

Yes! WatchtowerData offers full data export in Excel, CSV, and JSON formats. Export your alerts, competitors, products, or everything at once from the Export Data section on your dashboard. Each export includes all historical data within your plan's retention window.

Still have questions?

Email us at watchtowerdata@gmail.com