Who Really Owns Your Website? A Domain and Account Ownership Checklist

Here's a phone call we get more often than you'd think: "Our website went down, the person who built it isn't answering, and we don't know how to log into anything."

Your website isn't one thing. It's a stack of separate accounts, and each one has an owner. If any of them is registered to a former employee, a freelancer, or an agency's account instead of your business, you don't fully control your own online presence.

This checklist walks through every piece and what "owning it" should look like.

Why ownership matters

• Renewals. If a domain renewal notice goes to someone who no longer works with you, the domain can expire. Your website and email go dark with it.
• Leaving a vendor. When the accounts are in someone else's name, switching providers turns into a negotiation instead of a handoff.
• Emergencies. When something breaks, you need to be able to log in today, not after tracking someone down.

The ownership checklist

Go through each item and write down where it lives, whose name it's in, and who can log in.

Domain name

The domain (yourbusiness.com) is the most important asset on this list. It should be registered to your business, with a business email address you control as the account contact.

• Which registrar is it with (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google/Squarespace, Cloudflare, or another)?
• Is the registrant your business?
• Is auto-renew on, and is the card on file current?
• Is the registrar lock enabled?

DNS

DNS is the address book that points your domain to your website and email. It may be managed at your registrar or somewhere else, like Cloudflare. Whoever controls DNS can redirect your website and your email, so know where it lives.

Hosting

• Where is the site hosted, and whose account is it?
• Can you get a full backup of the site and its database on request?

Website admin

You should have your own administrator login, not a shared one. Every person who touches the site should have their own account, so access can be removed cleanly.

Business email

If your email is through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, the account should belong to your business. Note which records in DNS make email work (MX records). Changing DNS without keeping them intact is the most common way email gets broken during a website switch.

Google Business Profile, analytics, and Search Console

These are often set up by whoever built the site, under their Google account. Make sure your business is an owner on each, not just a guest.

Social media accounts

Every profile should be tied to a business email and have more than one admin.

What good looks like

A healthy setup has three things:

1. Every account is in your business's name, using a business email address that isn't tied to one person.
2. Two people can get in, with two-factor sign-in turned on for the accounts that matter.
3. It's written down in one place: what each account is, where it lives, when it renews, and who has access.

How we handle it

When we take on a client, the first thing we do is build that written record, which we call an asset register, and make sure everything is in the client's name. We document every domain, DNS record, hosting account, and login. If a client ever leaves, they take all of it with them, including our documentation, with no exit fee.

If you're not sure who owns your website, we'll help you find out. And if you're thinking about changing providers, read our guide to switching web developers without losing your domain, email, or rankings.