Status Pages for Client Sites: What They Can and Can't Do: Baromio Blog

TL;DR

When a client site goes down, the client's first question is "is it down, or is it me?". A status page answers that without a phone call, as long as it updates itself from real checks and the client knows where to find it. It does not replace telling the client what is going on: send a short first message, update when you said you would, and summarise afterwards. Baromio's status pages take their status, uptime bars and incident history straight from the monitors; a Client Status Page on Pro and Business puts several of a client's sites on one page. Baromio does not post incident updates or notify anyone but you.

When a client site goes down, the client's first question is some version of "is it down, or is it me?". Often the second one is "since when?". A status page answers both without a phone call, but only if the client knows where it is and believes what it says.

What a status page is for

For a freelancer, a status page does three jobs:

Right now: is the site up or down at this moment.
History: when it was down and for how long. That helps in the monthly call, or when a client says "the site is always down".
A link to pass on: the client can send it to their own team instead of forwarding you every complaint.

Why status pages lose trust

They are updated by hand. A page that says "All systems operational" while the site is down does more harm than no page.
The words are vague. "We are aware of an issue" tells nobody whether to wait five minutes or call their customers.
There is no history. Without past incidents there is nothing to check the page against.

A page fed directly by monitoring fixes the first and the third: it shows what the checks saw, including the bad days. The words are still your job.

What a status page cannot do

It shows what your monitors check, nothing more. If only the home page is monitored, a broken booking page still shows as up.
It cannot explain the cause beyond what a check records, such as a timeout or an error code.
It only helps people who open it. The client still expects to hear from you.

Writing to the client during an outage

Send a first message soon after the alert, even before you know the cause. Say what is affected, what you know and when you will write next:

The website has not been loading since about 14:05. The hosting provider has confirmed a server problem and is working on it. Email is not affected. I will update you by 15:00, or sooner if it is back. Live status: https://baromio.io/en/status/acme-website

(An example of the format, not a real incident.)

Then:

Write again at the time you promised, even if nothing has changed.
When it is over, send a short summary: what happened, how long it lasted, the cause, and what you changed so it does not happen the same way again.

What a Baromio status page shows

One monitor, one page: switch on the public status page in the monitor's Status Page panel and choose a slug. The page is public at baromio.io/<language>/status/<slug>, with no login. It shows the monitor's name, an optional message of up to 280 characters, the current status from the latest check, the average response time over 24 hours, an uptime bar for the last 24 hours and the last 30 days, and the ten most recent incidents with their recorded cause, start time and duration. Free includes 1 status page, Pro (9 EUR a month) 3, Business (29 EUR a month) 10.
Several sites, one page: a Client Status Page groups monitors under one name, for example one page per client. It shows the page name, an optional message, and for each monitor its name, current status and 30-day uptime percentage, without bars or an incident list. Create it under Profile → Client Status Pages; a monitor can be on more than one, and it does not use up the per-monitor status page allowance. Pro includes 1, Business 3; Free has none. Deleting the page is the only way to unpublish it.
How far back: incident history reaches as far as your plan keeps incidents: 30 days on Free, 90 on Pro, one year on Business.
What it does not do: it does not post incident updates, has no subscribers to notify and does not route alerts to other people. Alerts reach you, by email and in your connected Slack, Discord or webhook channels, and you decide what to tell the client. The page shows the latest check each time someone opens or reloads it. It lives on baromio.io with a "Powered by Baromio" footer; there is no custom domain or logo.

The message is the one part you write yourself. During a long outage, a line such as "The hosting provider is working on it, next update 15:00" answers the question the status alone cannot. Remove it when the incident is over.

Setting it up for a client

Name the monitors the way the client would: "Website", "Shop", "Booking form". The names are public.
For one site, switch on the monitor's status page and use the client's name as the slug.
For several sites of one client, create a Client Status Page and add their monitors.
Look at the incident list before you share the link: the recorded causes are short technical labels such as "Connection Timeout" or "HTTP Error", so tell the client what they mean.
Put the link in your handover document and in your first reply to any "is the site down?" message.