operations·5 min read·

What 'Owning Your Website' Actually Means

Many business owners think they own their website. Many of them are wrong. Here's the checklist.

The 5 things you should own

1. The domain, registered in your name, your billing.

2. The hosting account, in your name, or transferable on demand.

3. The source code, in a repository you control.

4. The design files, handed over at launch.

5. All third-party accounts (analytics, CRM, scheduler, email), in your name.

How to check

Whois your domain. If it's not your name, that's a problem.

Log in to your hosting directly. If you can't, ask why.

Ask for the GitHub/GitLab repo URL. If the answer is vague, that's a flag.

What to do if you don't own it

Most agencies (us included) will transfer everything on request without drama. If yours refuses, it's time to leave.

FAQ

Domain control is usually recoverable through the registrar. Code is sometimes lost, at that point a rebuild is often cleaner than a recovery.

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