What owning your website and data actually means
Many businesses discover they don't control their own website only when they try to leave. What to check today, and what to ask for in writing from anyone who builds for you.
Many owners find out they don't really control their website at the worst possible moment: when the developer stops answering, the agency changes its terms, or they simply want to move. The domain is registered in someone else's account. The site cannot be exported. The form submissions live in a tool they have never logged into.
Ownership is not a feeling. It is a short list of things you can check today.
The domain
Your domain name is the one part of your website that cannot be rebuilt. If someone else controls it, they control your email and every link to your business.
Check: log in to the registrar yourself. The domain should be registered to your business, in an account you own, with your email on it and auto-renew turned on. If you don't know which registrar it is with, that is the first thing to find out.
The data
Every enquiry, booking and client record your site has collected belongs to you. In practice it often sits inside a plugin or a third-party tool on someone else's account.
Check: can you export your contacts, form submissions and bookings yourself, today, into a spreadsheet? If the answer involves asking someone, you don't fully have it.
The accounts
Hosting, email, analytics, payment and booking tools should each be in an account your business owns, with you as an administrator. Developers can be added as users and removed when the work is done.
Check: list every account your website depends on, and who the owner of each one is.
The content
The words and images on your site are yours, but a site built on a proprietary theme or builder may not let you take them anywhere else in a useful form.
Check: ask how you would get every page and image out if you left. "We'd send you a backup" is not the same as a format you can use.
What to ask for in writing
From anyone who builds or looks after your website, us included:
- The domain stays registered to you, in your account
- Your data can be exported by you, in ordinary formats, at any time
- Every account is owned by your business, with you as administrator
- A handover is part of the agreement if you ever leave
None of these should be controversial. If a provider hesitates on any of them, that tells you something useful before you sign.
These are written into every Saddle Enterprise engagement. If you are not sure what you own today, book an intro call and we will help you find out, whether or not you end up working with us.
Service: Migrations.