Do you actually own your website? A 10-minute check

Many business owners find out who really controls their website on the worst possible day: the domain is about to expire, the site is down, and the person who set it all up has stopped answering. The site was paid for, but the accounts behind it were never in the owner's name.

This check takes about ten minutes. You don't need to be technical.

The five things that make up "your website"

1. The domain (yourbusiness.com), rented yearly from a registrar.
2. DNS, the settings that point the domain at your site and your email. Often at the registrar, sometimes at Cloudflare or the host.
3. Hosting, the server or platform the site runs on.
4. Email, usually Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, plus any tools that send email as you.
5. The code and content, in a repository (GitHub, GitLab), a website builder, or only on the server.

Then there are the accounts the site depends on: payments, analytics, maps, booking tools, app stores.

The 10-minute check

1. Look up the domain (2 minutes). Go to lookup.icann.org and enter your domain. Write down the registrar and the expiry date. The owner's details are often hidden for privacy; that's normal.

2. Log in to the registrar (2 minutes). Can you log in yourself? Is the account in your or your business's name, with an email address you read? If you can't log in, that's your first risk.

3. Find the host (2 minutes). Ask whoever set up the site, check your card statements for hosting charges, or use a "what is my website hosted on" lookup tool. Can you log in to that account yourself?

4. Find the code (2 minutes). Is there a repository, and are you an owner or admin of it? For a website builder (Wix, Squarespace, Webflow), is the account yours?

5. List the paid tools (2 minutes). Go through last year's card statements and email receipts. For each tool the site uses, note whose card pays for it and whose email it's under.

Write it in a simple table: account, whose name, can I log in, renewal date.

What "good" looks like

• Every account is in your or your business's name, with an email address you control (not the developer's, not a former employee's).
• You can log in to each one, ideally with two-factor authentication.
• Your developer has their own user added to your accounts, which you can remove, rather than your password or accounts in their name.
• The domain renews automatically on a card that won't expire soon.
• A recent backup of the site and database is somewhere you own.

If a developer has disappeared

Work in this order, because the domain protects everything else:

1. The domain. If you're the registrant, recover the registrar login through their support, with proof of identity and business ownership. If the developer is the registrant, ask them in writing to transfer it. Keep invoices that show you paid for the site.
2. The hosting. Hosts also have ownership recovery. If that fails, the site can often be copied from a backup or rebuilt, and the domain pointed at a new host.
3. The code. Ask for the repository and a database export. If the site still runs, a developer with server access can take a copy.
4. Everything else. Payments, analytics and email-sending tools, one by one.

Stay factual and polite in every message. A calm, written request with a clear list is more likely to get a response, and it's better evidence if you need it later. For anything contested, involve a lawyer.

One thing to avoid: don't try to guess passwords or get around logins. Use the official recovery routes, which exist for exactly this.

For your next developer

Put two lines in the contract: all accounts are created in your name, and all code, credentials and documentation are handed over when the work ends. At the end of any project, ask for a handover document that lists every account and how to reach it.

Want someone to do the check for you?

My Ownership & Access Check maps every account behind your site, ranks the risks and writes the transfer plan, including a handover request for the previous developer. From $195. If the site then needs work, a Rescue & Finish or a hosting move can follow.