CentriWebWho owns my website depends on four separate things, and they often have four different owners: the domain name, the hosting and files, the design and content, and the accounts around the site. If a web designer set it up for you, check all four now, because the one that is usually in the designer’s name is the one that stops you moving on.
Who owns my website: the four things to check
A website is not one object. It is a bundle of parts that can each be held by a different person or company:
- The domain name, your address (yourbusiness.com). Held by a registrar for a registrant.
- Hosting and files, the server and the copy of the site that runs on it.
- Design, code and content, the copyright in the layout, the text, the photos and any custom software.
- The accounts around it: Google Business Profile, Google Search Console, analytics, email, social media and the website login itself.
Owning the first and holding the keys to the second matter most day to day. The third is a legal question that your contract answers. The fourth is the one people forget.
1. The domain name
When a domain is registered, one person or organisation is listed as the registrant, meaning the holder. A registrar is the company that sells and manages the registration. You want your business, or you personally, to be the registrant, with a login in your own name at the registrar.
A common problem is that the designer registered the domain under their own account to make setup easy and has been renewing it for you since. It works until they close, move on or fall out with you. Then you cannot change where the address points, and if it lapses, someone else can register it.
Check this week:
- Find out which registrar holds the domain. Your invoices, the renewal emails, or a domain lookup tool (search for “domain lookup”) will show it.
- Check who is listed as the registrant, and which email address receives the renewal notices.
- If it is not in your name, ask for it to be transferred to an account you control, or for you to be added as the account holder.
- Put the renewal date in your calendar, with renewal emails going to a mailbox more than one person reads.
Country domains such as .com.au, .co.nz, .ca or .co.uk each have their own eligibility and transfer rules, set by the body that runs that domain. If yours is not a .com, check that body’s rules or ask your registrar.
2. Hosting and the files
Hosting is the rented computer your site lives on. Many designers host all their clients on one account and bill hosting inside a monthly fee. That can be fine, and it is a service many owners want. The risk is not the arrangement, it is having no way out of it.
Ask two things:
- Whose account is the hosting on, and can you have a login to it, or a full copy of the site on request?
- If you leave, how long does it take them to hand over a copy, and is there a fee?
A site you cannot copy is a site you cannot move. Our guide on moving a website to new hosting without downtime shows what a move involves, and it all starts with having the files and the database.
On WordPress, the files and the database together are the site. If yours runs on a hosted website builder instead, read that builder’s own terms for what you can export and move.
3. Design, code and content: who holds the copyright
Copyright is the right to copy and reuse creative work. For a website, it covers the text, photos, logo, page layout and any custom code. The rules differ from country to country, so read what follows as the pattern, then check your own contract and, if the stakes are high, a local lawyer.
In the United States, the Copyright Office explains that the creator is the author and owner by default. It also says that work created by an employee within the scope of their employment is owned by the employer, that “work made for hire” can apply to some independent contractor relationships only for certain types of commissioned work, and that ownership can be transferred by a contract such as an assignment. Put together, paying a freelancer or agency does not by itself make you the copyright owner in the United States. The contract decides. Other countries have their own rules, and in some a commissioned work belongs to the creator unless the agreement says otherwise, so do not assume.
What this means for you in practice:
- Your own words and photos. If you wrote the text or supplied the photos, you still own them. Ask for them back in a usable form.
- Stock images and fonts. These are usually licensed rather than owned. A licence bought by the designer may not carry across to your new site.
- Themes and plugins. A WordPress theme or plugin is normally licensed from its maker. You can use it under its licence terms, but you do not own it.
- Custom code and design. Whether you own it, or only have permission to use it, comes down to a clause in your agreement.
The sentence to look for in a contract is a plain one: that on payment in full, the copyright in the work made for you is assigned to you, or that you have a perpetual licence to use and change it. If the contract is silent, ask for a short written confirmation.
4. The accounts around the site
These are quick to check and easy to lose. For each one, the business should be an owner, with a login that does not depend on one person’s personal email.
- Website admin login. You should have an administrator account. Hold on to it, and remove old logins for people who no longer work with you.
- Google Business Profile. Make sure you are an owner on the profile. Our guide to Google Business Profile for tradies covers setting it up, and it applies to any local business.
- Google Search Console. Google’s own help page says a verified owner has the highest level of permissions, that several people can verify ownership of the same site, and that if all verified owners lose access, all users lose access to the property. Add a second owner who is in your business.
- Analytics and advertising accounts. If a designer or marketer created them, ask to be made an administrator.
- Social media pages. Check that an owner or admin role sits with someone in your business.
A checklist you can finish this week
- Write down your domain, registrar and registrant, and who gets the renewal email.
- Ask whoever built the site for a login to the hosting, or a written statement of who controls it and how you can get a copy.
- Ask for a full copy of the site (files and database) and your original photos and text.
- Find your contract or quote and look for the clause on ownership of the finished work and any licensed parts.
- Open Business Profile, Search Console and analytics, and add yourself or a colleague as an owner or administrator.
- Save the lot in one shared place, such as a password manager your business controls, and give a second person access.
What to put in writing before you hire or sign
Whether you are starting a new site or reviewing an old arrangement, a few lines in the agreement remove most of the risk:
- The domain is registered in the business’s name, with the business as account holder.
- The business receives admin logins at launch instead of on request.
- Ownership or a perpetual licence for custom work passes to the business on payment.
- Third-party parts, such as themes, plugins and stock images, are listed, with who pays for their renewal.
- On ending the agreement, the provider hands over a complete copy within a stated number of days.
CentriWeb builds websites on WordPress and looks after hosting for clients, and these are the same questions to put to any provider, us included. For how this fits with turning visitors into enquiries, see why a website gets visitors but no enquiries.
If you cannot get access
If the person who built the site is not answering, start with what you can prove. Gather invoices, emails and any agreement showing you paid for the domain, the hosting or the build. Then contact the registrar and hosting company directly, explain the situation and ask what proof they need to move the account to you. Every registrar and host has its own process, and many will help if you can show who the business is.
If the dispute is about copyright or an unpaid account, that is a legal matter, and a short consult with a lawyer in your country is cheaper than losing the site. Nothing here is legal advice, and the rules vary by country.