Guides for agencies that look after client sites
Practical guides for agencies and freelancers who keep client websites healthy: what breaks, how to notice it, what to tell the client. Each guide cites the standard or vendor document it relies on.
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Certificates, domains and DNS
- SSL certificate expiry on client sites: how to stop surprise outagesWhy certificates still expire, what shorter lifetimes change and a routine that catches expiry early.
- Domain expiry and RDAP: how to stop a client domain lapsingHow domains lapse, what registrars must warn about, how RDAP exposes the expiry date and a routine for agencies.
- DNS changes that break client websites, and how to catch themThe DNS mistakes that take sites and email offline, how TTL hides them for hours and a safe change checklist.
- Email stops after a DNS change: what to check (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC)Why a website DNS change can break a client’s email and the MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks to run around every edit.
SEO risks after deploys
- Noindex after a deploy: how a client site disappears from GoogleHow a leftover staging noindex removes a site from search, how Google reads it and a deploy checklist.
- robots.txt mistakes that take a client site out of searchThe robots.txt mistakes made on launch day and what Google and RFC 9309 say about errors, wildcards and caching.
- Redirect chains after a site migration: find them and fix themHow chains and loops appear after a migration, how Google treats each status code and how to repair them.
- Canonical tag mistakes on client sites, and how to spot themThe canonical link errors that point search at the wrong URL and a checklist for catching them after every release.
- XML sitemap checklist for a site that has just been migratedWhat belongs in a sitemap, the size and lastmod rules and the migration mistakes to check in ten minutes.
Monitoring method
- Two-region confirmation: how to stop false down alertsWhy single-location checks raise false alarms, how re-checks and multi-region confirmation differ and what each costs.
- Uptime SLA maths: what 99.9 percent really allowsFormulas for availability and allowed downtime, a table of common targets and the measurement pitfalls in client SLAs.
- Heartbeat and cron job monitoring: the basicsHow heartbeat monitoring catches scheduled jobs that silently stop and how to choose the period and grace time.
- “200 OK” is not “fine”: what a status code hidesWhy a 200 status can hide soft 404s, error pages, broken checkouts and stale caches, and how to check content too.
- How often should you check a website? Interval, delay and costHow the check interval sets the delay before you learn of an outage, with the formulas and what to choose per site type.
- Monitoring Shopify, Webflow and WordPress sites from the outsideWhat outside-in monitoring covers on Shopify, Webflow and WordPress and which risks sit in the agency’s hands.
- A client’s website is down: the first 15 minutesA step-by-step triage for a site-down alert: confirm it, find the broken layer and decide what to tell the client.
Client communication
- How to write a monthly website care report clients actually readA structure and template for a monthly care report: what to include, how to present uptime honestly and show the work.
- Public status pages for agencies: what to show and what to leave outWhen a client needs a status page, what it should show, how to word incidents and the mistakes that make one harmful.
- Incident communication to clients: what to say, when, with templatesHow to tell a client about an outage: timing, tone, what to include and templates for the first message, updates and wrap-up.
- Website maintenance retainer checklist: what to do each month and each yearA recurring task checklist for a website care retainer, by cadence, with what to record and how to show the work.
Choosing a tool
- How to choose website monitoring for an agency: 12 questions to askTwelve questions to put to any monitoring tool before an agency commits, what each tool counts when it prices a plan, and a 30-minute trial test.
- White-label website monitoring for agencies: what to check before you chooseThe six things white label can mean in monitoring for agencies, what vendor pages state about each and how to test a tool in a trial.
Monitoring by platform
- Website monitoring for WordPress sites: what breaks and what to checkWhat breaks on WordPress sites, which outside checks catch it (page text, REST API, a WP-Cron heartbeat, search visibility) and how to set them up.
- Website monitoring for WooCommerce stores: watch the path that makes moneyThe failures of a WooCommerce store that a home-page check misses (cached cart, broken checkout, stalled scheduled actions) and the outside checks that catch them.
- Website monitoring for Shopify stores: what you still controlShopify runs the storefront, so a monitor watches what the agency still controls: the store password, the domain and its records, theme and app changes, and platform incidents.
- Website monitoring for Webflow sites: publishing, domains and indexingWebflow hosts and publishes the site, so the failures are about settings, domains and publishing; here are the outside checks that catch them.
- Website monitoring for Wix and Squarespace sites: hidden sites, passwords and domainsHosted site builders have no server to touch, so the failures are settings, passwords and domains; here are the outside checks that catch them.
- Website monitoring for Laravel and PHP apps: schedulers, queues and maintenance modeThe failures of Laravel and custom PHP apps that a page check misses (a stopped scheduler or queue worker, maintenance mode left on) and the heartbeats and checks that catch them.
- Website monitoring for Next.js and static sites: a deploy that built is not a site that worksThe failures of Next.js and static sites (preview addresses indexed, stale cached pages, empty client-rendered HTML, soft 404s) and the outside checks that catch them.
Security and SEO integrity
- How SEO spam hacks hide on WordPress sites, and how to find themHow SEO spam hides on hacked WordPress sites, the checks that expose it (site: searches, URL Inspection, crawler-style requests) and what outside monitoring does not see.
- Cloaking for AI crawlers and why it hurts LLM visibilityWhat it means to show AI crawlers a different page from the one visitors see, why that damages trust and visibility, and how to test a site with crawler user agents.
- Hidden prompt injection in web pages: what it is and how to spot itWhat it means when a page carries text meant for an AI model and hidden from people, how to look for it, and how to treat page text in your own AI tools.
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