Here's a question most business owners can't answer on the spot: if your web designer disappeared tomorrow, could you log into everything that keeps your website and email running? Not "could you call someone." Could you log in yourself? If the answer is "I think so," this article is for you. Checking takes about an hour and it's one of the cheapest insurance policies you'll ever buy.
You should own your domain, hosting, website files, email, analytics and Google Business Profile, in accounts registered to your business with logins you control. Your designer can have access as a user, but the owner on every account should be you. You can check all of it in about an hour with the list below.
Why ownership matters more than you'd think
I see this a lot: an owner wants to switch designers or fix something urgent and finds out the domain is registered to a former contractor, or the analytics account lives in someone's personal Gmail. Sometimes it gets sorted out with a friendly email. Sometimes it takes weeks, and sometimes the history is simply gone.
None of this usually comes from bad intent. Designers set things up in their own accounts because it's faster. The problem shows up years later, when that person has moved on and nobody remembers the password.
Ownership is simple to get right at the start and painful to untangle later. So let's walk through each piece in plain English.
The pieces of a website, and who should hold each one
Domain registrar
Your domain is your address, like yourbusiness.com. The registrar is the company you rent it from each year. The account should be in your business name, with an email you control, and auto renew turned on. If the domain expires, your website and your email can go dark at the same time.
DNS
DNS is the phone book that tells the internet where your website and email live. It's often managed at your registrar, sometimes somewhere else. Whoever controls DNS can point your domain anywhere, so you want to know where it's managed and have your own login.
Hosting
Hosting is the server where your website's files live. Ideally the hosting account is in your name, or your contract says the site gets handed over in full whenever you ask. Some managed setups keep hosting in the designer's account, which can be fine if the handoff terms are written down.
If your business email runs on Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, the admin account should belong to you. Losing control of the admin account means losing control of every mailbox under it. Email setup also includes records that keep your messages out of spam, which live in DNS.
Analytics and tracking
Your Google Analytics property and any ad or tracking accounts hold your history. Make sure you're listed as an administrator, not just a viewer. If a designer leaves and takes the account, you lose years of data about where your customers came from.
Google Business Profile
This is your listing on Google Maps and in local search. You should be the primary owner. Google explains how owners and managers work in its Business Profile help pages. Managers can come and go. The owner should stay you.
Website files and content
Your words, photos and the site itself. You should be able to get a full copy, including a backup of the database if it's WordPress. If the site is built on a platform you can't export from, know that before you sign.
What your contract should say
A handshake isn't a handoff plan. Look for these points in writing:
- You own the domain, the content you supply and the finished website.
- Any licensed items, like stock photos, fonts or premium plugins, are listed, and it's clear whether the license transfers to you.
- On request, the designer hands over all logins, files and a current backup within a set number of days.
- Monthly fees are listed with what they cover, and cancelling doesn't mean losing your site.
If a proposal is silent on these, ask. Good designers don't mind the question. At HEX Web Design, your domain, content and data are yours, and you get the exact price in writing before any build.
The login checklist
Open a password manager or a sealed document and confirm you can log into each of these yourself, as an owner or admin:
- Domain registrar account, with auto renew on and a current card.
- DNS provider, if it's separate from the registrar.
- Hosting account or control panel.
- Website admin login, with administrator rights.
- Business email admin console.
- Google Analytics, as an administrator.
- Google Search Console, which shows how Google sees your site.
- Google Business Profile, as primary owner.
- Any ad accounts, like Google Ads or Meta.
- Form, CRM or call tracking tools that receive your leads.
- Any paid themes, plugins or services, with receipts showing who holds the license.
For each one, check two things. Is the account under a business email you control, and not someone's personal address? And is there at least one backup person at your company who can get in?
How to fix it if something's in the wrong name
Don't panic, and don't make it a fight. Most of the time it's a quick favor.
- Make a list of what's in someone else's name, using the checklist above.
- Ask your current or former designer to add you as owner or admin, or to start a transfer. Be specific about which accounts.
- For domains, ask for the transfer to your own registrar account. The current holder unlocks it and gives you an authorization code.
- For Google accounts, have them add you as owner first, then remove themselves if they're no longer working with you.
- Once you're in, change passwords, turn on two step login and store everything somewhere safe.
If someone won't hand things over, the registrar and Google each have recovery processes for verified owners. They're slower, but they exist. Moving hosting or the site itself is where things get technical, and a careful hosting move or migration keeps your site and search traffic intact during the switch.
Check it now, while nothing is broken
The best time to confirm you own your website is on a calm Tuesday, not the day your site goes down. Block an hour this week and run the checklist.
If you'd like a second set of eyes on the rest of your site, our free Lead Leak Check looks at the parts that cost you customers. We test your forms, your phone speed, your tracking, your Google basics and what AI answers say about your business. Get your free Lead Leak Check.
