Who should own a business's domain name?
The business, registered in its own name with its own contact details. If a developer registered it in their account, you depend on them for something fundamental.
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“Our web developer disappeared”
Make sure it can never strand you. 11 of the 55 businesses I audited had lost their developer or agency and could not update their own website. This week, check that the domain is registered in your name, that the site runs on a CMS your team can update, and that the logins for the registrar, hosting, CMS, analytics, social accounts and email are written down somewhere secure that does not depend on one person.
How do businesses end up stranded by a developer?
Gradually, then all at once. One business's relationship with its web agency had drifted until technical support simply stopped: emails unanswered, calls not returned, and changes needed with nobody to make them. Another had a developer who stepped back for health reasons, which was understandable, but left the business without the hosting logins, unsure who held the domain, and on a custom system only he understood. A third was paying an agency hundreds a month for a handful of minor content changes and felt locked in because it did not know how to move the site.
Why is depending on one developer a risk?
Because it creates a single point of failure. Most developers and agencies are good at what they do; the problem is dependency. If one person is the only one who can update your site, fix a bug or make a change, the business is exposed. 21 of the 55 businesses I audited had domain ownership come up in the review, and in several cases the business was not sure it owned its own domain name.
What should you check this week?
Three things. First, confirm you own your domain: log in to the registrar (GoDaddy, 123-reg, Namecheap or whoever it is) and check it is in your name with your contact details; if you do not know the registrar, run a WHOIS lookup. Second, make sure the site is on a CMS you or your team can update, such as WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify or Wix; if nobody has shown you how, that is a training issue rather than a technology one. Third, write down the domain, hosting, CMS, analytics, social media and email logins and store them securely, so someone else could pick up where the developer left off.
What should you ask a new developer?
Based on what I saw go wrong across 55 audits: whether they will build on a standard CMS, since a custom build only one person understands creates dependency, while WordPress powers over 40% of the internet and any developer can pick it up; who owns what, because you should own the domain, the hosting account, the CMS login and the analytics access; and whether you will get documentation explaining how the site works, what plugins it uses and who to call if it breaks. A good developer wants you independent, and wants you to come back because the work is good rather than because you are trapped.
Related evidence: 55 digital audits. Here’s what I found.. Earlier in this journey: Google Analytics was installed but nobody looked at it.
Questions people ask
Should a small business website be custom-built?
Usually not. A custom build only its developer understands creates dependency, while a standard CMS such as WordPress can be picked up by any competent developer.
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