Do you actually own your website?

The short answer

You own your website only if four things are in your business’s name or under your control: the domain name registration, the hosting account, the site files and database, and the legal rights to the design and content. Many businesses find out too late that their web designer registered the domain in the designer’s own name, hosts the site on the designer’s account, or built it on a platform the business cannot export from. You can check each piece in an afternoon, and fix most problems with a polite written request.

Below is how to check each of the four, the accounts people forget, how to recover access from a former vendor, and what to put in your next web design contract.

1. The domain name

The domain is the most important asset, because whoever controls it controls where your website and often your email point. The person or company listed as the registrant is the legal holder of the registration.

• Check it. Search your domain on ICANN Lookup. You will see the registrar (the company it is registered through) and, often, a privacy-protected registrant. If details are hidden, log in to the registrar account or ask the registrar who the registrant organization is.
• What good looks like. The registrant is your business, the account login belongs to a company email you control, the account has two-step login and auto-renew is on.
• Red flag. The registrant is your web designer or their agency, or nobody at your company knows the registrar login.

2. The hosting account

Hosting is where the files and database live. Agencies often host clients on their own servers, which is fine as long as you can get a full copy whenever you ask.

• Check it. Ask: whose name is the hosting account in, who pays the bill, and can we get a complete backup of files and database on request?
• What good looks like. Either the account is yours, or your agreement says the agency will hand over a full, working copy within a set time if you leave.
• Red flag. Vague answers, or a fee to release your own site.

3. The site files and platform

On WordPress, the site is a set of files plus a database. Anyone with both can move it to new hosting. On proprietary builders and some agency-owned platforms, the site cannot leave. You can export some content, but the design and functions stay behind.

• Check it. Find out what platform the site runs on. If it is a proprietary system, ask what you can take with you if you leave.
• Admin access. Someone at your company should have their own administrator login, not just an editor account, and not a shared login owned by the agency.
• Licenses. Premium themes, plugins, fonts and stock photos are licensed, not owned. Check whether licenses are in your name or the agency’s, because some end when the agency relationship ends.

4. The rights to the design and content

This is the part most people assume and few check. Under US copyright law, the person who creates a work usually owns the copyright unless it is a “work made for hire.” Work by an independent contractor, such as a web designer, counts as work made for hire only if it falls into specific categories listed in the Copyright Act definition and both sides agree in writing. A typical website does not neatly fit those categories, as the US Copyright Office’s circular on works made for hire explains. So the safest route is a written assignment of rights to your business in the contract, effective on payment.

This is general information, not legal advice. For a valuable site or a disputed one, have an attorney review your agreement.

The accounts people forget

Your website is only part of your online presence. Make sure your business is the owner, not just a user, of:

• Google Business Profile
• Google Analytics and Google Search Console
• Google Ads and Microsoft Ads accounts
• Google Tag Manager
• DNS hosting, if it is separate from the registrar
• Email marketing platform, such as Mailchimp, Klaviyo or HubSpot
• Social media business pages and ad accounts
• Business email: Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace

For Google tools, the rule of thumb is simple: your business should hold the top-level owner or administrator role, and agencies should be added as users you can remove.

How to recover access from a former vendor

1. Gather evidence. Invoices, contracts, emails and payment records that show the site and domain were for your business.
2. Ask in writing, and be specific. Request transfer of the domain to your registrar account, administrator access or a full backup of files and database, and owner access to the Google accounts. Give a reasonable deadline.
3. For the domain, ask for the authorization code (sometimes called an EPP or transfer code) and for the domain to be unlocked, or for a change of registrant to your business. ICANN’s domain transfer resources explain how transfers between registrars work. Note that a temporary transfer lock can apply after a recent registration, transfer or change of registrant.
4. If the vendor has disappeared, contact the registrar directly with your evidence. Registrars have processes for this, though results vary.
5. For Google Business Profile, you can request ownership through Google if the current owner does not respond.
6. If there is a dispute, talk to an attorney. Do not change DNS or passwords in a way that takes the site down before you have a working copy.

Not sure who controls your domain, hosting or Google accounts? Book a free 30-minute call. We look at what you have and tell you what we’d secure first. No obligation.

What to put in your next web design contract

• The domain is registered in your business’s name, with your company as the account holder.
• Copyright in the design, code written for you and content you paid for is assigned to your business on payment.
• Third-party licenses are listed, with who holds each one.
• You receive administrator access at launch.
• If either side ends the relationship, the vendor provides a full backup of files and database and transfers accounts within a set number of days, at no extra charge.
• Google, analytics and ad accounts are owned by your business.

How JLB USA handles ownership

When we build custom WordPress websites, you can edit your own site and you keep it if you leave. We set up redirects from old pages when we rebuild, so rankings carry over. Our hosting and support runs with constant automated monitoring and malware cleanup, and leaving does not mean losing your site. If you are moving away from a previous vendor, see our guide to redesigning without losing SEO.

Related services

• Custom web design
• Website hosting and support
• Website redesign without losing SEO
• Website before and after examples