Client Website Health Report Template for Web Agencies

For the broader reporting model that turns technical checks into proof reports, use the agency client reporting guide.

Why website health reporting belongs in every agency retainer

Most agency retainers include deliverables around active work: new pages built, support tickets resolved, design iterations completed. What they rarely include is a monthly statement of the underlying infrastructure health — whether SSL certificates are current, whether domain registrations are secured, whether DNS records are stable.

This gap creates a problem in two directions.

For the agency: when a client's site goes down due to an expired SSL certificate or a lapsed domain, the agency is blamed — even if the client controlled the registrar and missed their own renewal email. A monthly report that includes infrastructure status creates written documentation of what you flagged and what you monitored, which protects you when something outside your control fails.

For the client: most clients have no visibility into the technical health of their website beyond whether it loads. A monthly report covering SSL expiry, domain registration, and DNS status makes the agency's ongoing oversight tangible. It answers the client's implicit question — "what am I paying for when there is no active project?" — with concrete, auditable data.

A well-structured website health report takes about five minutes to generate once you have monitoring data in place. It can be delivered as a PDF, embedded in a monthly email, or added to a client Notion workspace. The format matters less than the habit.

What to include in a client website health report

1. SSL certificate status

For each domain and subdomain the client operates:

• Current expiry date: the date the certificate expires
• Days remaining: how much runway is left
• Certificate issuer: Let's Encrypt, DigiCert, Sectigo, etc.
• Status: Green (30+ days remaining), Yellow (14–30 days), Red (under 14 days)
• Auto-renewal: whether auto-renewal is configured and the last successful renewal date

With the 47-day SSL certificate changes coming in phases from March 2026 onwards, SSL status reporting becomes more important as certificate lifetimes shorten and the window between a renewal failure and visible expiry narrows.

2. Domain registration status

For each domain:

• Registrar: who holds the registration
• Expiry date: when the registration needs to be renewed
• Days remaining: runway to expiry
• Auto-renewal: whether it is configured
• Status: Green (90+ days), Yellow (60–90 days), Red (under 60 days)

For the risks of domain expiry and why the alert window should be longer than for SSL, see domain expiry monitoring for agencies.

3. DNS health

• Record stability: whether any DNS records changed during the reporting period
• Changes detected: if records did change, list the record type, old value, and new value with date
• Configuration issues: any detected misconfigurations (missing DMARC, SPF failures, MX pointing to unreachable server)

For more on why DNS changes matter even when they appear minor, see DNS drift and how it breaks client sites.

4. Monitoring coverage summary

At the top of the report, a brief summary tells the client what you checked and how often:

• Number of domains monitored
• Monitoring frequency (daily, hourly)
• Reporting period
• Number of alerts generated and resolved

A template structure you can use directly

The following structure works as a PDF report, a shared document, or a formatted email. Adapt the language to match your agency's tone.

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[Client name] Website Health Report — [Month Year]

Prepared by [Agency name] | Reporting period: [Date] – [Date]

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Summary

All [N] domains monitored. [N] issues flagged. [N] resolved during the period. No action required from you this month. / The following items require your attention: [...]

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SSL Certificates

| Domain | Issuer | Expires | Days Remaining | Status | |---|---|---|---|---| | example.com | Let's Encrypt | 15 Jun 2026 | 49 | Green | | shop.example.com | Let's Encrypt | 15 Jun 2026 | 49 | Green | | staging.example.com | Let's Encrypt | 08 May 2026 | 11 | Red |

Certificates are checked daily from external infrastructure. Auto-renewal is configured on all domains above unless otherwise noted.

---

Domain Registration

| Domain | Registrar | Expires | Days Remaining | Status | |---|---|---|---|---| | example.com | Namecheap | 14 Mar 2027 | 321 | Green | | example-ecommerce.com | GoDaddy | 02 Jun 2026 | 36 | Yellow |

Auto-renewal is enabled on all registrations above. The example-ecommerce.com registration is approaching the 30-day threshold — please confirm your payment method is current with GoDaddy.

---

DNS Health

No DNS record changes detected during this period. All nameservers, A records, MX records, and CNAME records match the baseline established [date].

— or —

1 DNS change detected on [date]: The A record for www.example.com changed from [old IP] to [new IP]. This appears to correspond to the server migration completed on [date]. The new value has been accepted as the new baseline.

---

Notes and Recommendations

• [Any action items for the client]
• [Any items you resolved without client involvement]
• Next report: [date]

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Adapting the template by retainer type

Minimal retainer (hosting only)

Focus the report on SSL and domain expiry. DNS changes that you did not initiate are flagged for client awareness. Frame the report as "here is what we are watching on your behalf."

Full-service retainer (hosting, maintenance, development)

Include DNS health and uptime alongside SSL and domain status. Add a section noting open support tickets resolved. The health report is a component of a broader monthly digest.

Domain-only clients

Some clients pay only for domain registration management. For these clients, a quarterly report covering domain expiry, WHOIS accuracy, and nameserver configuration is sufficient.

How often to send the report

Monthly is the standard for retained clients. It creates a reliable cadence, matches most billing cycles, and gives you enough time to detect and resolve issues before the next report.

Quarterly works for dormant or low-activity clients — established sites that are not actively maintained and where change frequency is low.

Weekly is occasionally appropriate for clients in active migrations, recent launches, or after an infrastructure incident. Weekly reporting during a high-risk period shows proactive oversight and helps restore client confidence.

Delivering the report

PDF is the most versatile format for client reporting — it is archivable, branded, and does not require the client to have access to any system. Most clients prefer a PDF attached to a brief email summary rather than a link to a shared document.

CertPilot generates branded PDF reports per client, pulling data from daily SSL, domain, and DNS checks. You can download the report for any client and send it directly, or include it as part of a broader retainer deliverable package.

What CertPilot provides for client reporting

• Daily monitoring of SSL certificates, domain registration, and DNS records across your full portfolio
• Per-client grouping so you can generate a report for each client's domains
• Downloadable PDF reports with SSL status, domain expiry, DNS health, and check timestamps
• Alert history for the reporting period — what was flagged and when

Start a 14-day free trial — no credit card required — or run a free audit for up to 10 domains now.

External references

• Google Search Console Help: monitor your site's health — how Google surfaces technical issues (useful as a complementary reference for clients)
• DMARC.org — reference for email authentication reporting, relevant if including email health in client reports
• Cloudflare Radar — public DNS and network health data for context in client-facing reports

Related resources

• Monthly client domain health report guide
• White-label domain health reports
• Monthly proof report for agencies
• How CertPilot checks domains

Frequently Asked Questions

What should a client website health report include?

A client website health report should include SSL certificate status, domain registration status, DNS health, monitoring coverage, issues needing attention, and recommended actions.

For agencies, the most useful report is not the longest one. It is the one account managers and clients can understand quickly.

Should domain health reports be white-labeled?

White-labeling can help when the report is part of a website care plan or monthly retainer deliverable. It keeps the client experience aligned with the agency relationship.

The report still needs clear methodology so the client understands what was checked and what remains outside the scope.

Will clients understand SSL, DNS, and domain expiry findings?

Yes, if the report avoids raw technical dumps and explains impact. "Domain expires in 32 days" is easier to act on than a registrar data block.

Use concise notes that explain whether the finding affects the website, email, SSL renewal, or client ownership.

How can reports support website care plans?

Reports make agency operations visible. They show that the team is checking client domains, SSL renewal workload, DNS changes, and domain expiry risk even when there is no active design or development task.

They also help document client-owned actions, such as registrar renewal or DNS approval.