Who Owns Your Website? Domain, Hosting, Logins
A lot of business owners don't find out who controls their website until something breaks or their web person stops answering. By then, getting back in can take time. Here's what you should have in your own hands.
The three pieces
- Your domain is your address, like yourbusiness.com. It's registered through a company such as GoDaddy, Namecheap or Squarespace, and whoever's account it sits in controls it.
- Your hosting is where the site's files live. If someone else pays for it, they can switch it off.
- Your website logins get you into the site to make changes.
A quick check
- Look up who your domain is registered to and which account it's in. If it's in someone else's account, ask for it to be moved into an account in your name.
- Find out who pays for your hosting and where that account is.
- Make sure you have an admin login for the site itself, not just a limited login.
- Write down where your email runs. It's often tied to the domain.
- Keep all of it somewhere safe, like a password manager.
If you're locked out
Start with whoever set the site up and ask in writing to have the domain moved to you or to get admin access. If that goes nowhere, contact the domain registrar. Many have a process for proving you're the rightful owner, though it varies and usually takes documents. Don't let the domain lapse while you sort it out.
How we handle it
You keep ownership of the content you give us. Once the project is paid in full, you own the custom design and content we created for your site. Third-party materials stay under their own licenses, and we keep our own pre-existing tools, frameworks, templates and methods. Hosting and handoff details are written into your project agreement. See our FAQ and Section 7 of our Terms of Service for the details.
Not sure where your logins stand? Send us your web address and we'll take a free look. gulfcdd.com/contact