So many clients and business contacts of ours have this problem – and most don’t even realise it.
Do you know where your website is hosted and your domains are kept? Is everything registered in your name?
It’s really important to know where your website lives and who is managing it. Most of you probably never have a major issue related to your website hosting, but those that do tend to be those that are unaware of where everything is.
Recently, I’ve worked with two clients facing fairly serious issues that we managed to resolve. Both were unsure where their domains and websites were held. One had a previous web developer who wasn’t particularly helpful when it came to giving us access to what we needed. The other had several different companies involved, none of which would admit to hosting the website, despite clear evidence to the contrary!
Below are some quick checks you can do yourselves to make sure you know where everything is. I’ve also included a few tips to make managing your website a little bit easier.
The details of owning a website can get quite complex, so I’ve tried my best to keep things simple!
If your unsure what any of the terms below mean, I’ve included a very brief descriptions at the end of this post.
Quick Checks
Is my domain registered in my name?
Who.is is a directory that holds information about all domain names (website addresses). It’s really simple to check who owns a domain, just go to who.is and enter your website address.
This will also tell you who the Registrar is (the company the domain name was registered through).
If someone else registered your domain name for you and it is not registered in your name, ask them to update the registration details. If any ownership issues arise, having the domain in your name usually makes them much easier to resolve, even if you don’t have direct access.
Where’s my website?
The Whois directory also gives you information about the name servers, which can help identify where the website itself is being kept.
For example, our website’s name servers are “…1and1.co.uk” which tells you our website is on a 1and1 website hosting account.
I don’t have a login for my website or domain names…
If you don’t have a login for your website or domain names with either of the companies identified above (using the registrar and name server information) the chances are you’ve asked your web developer to host everything for you. If that’s not the case, you may just have misplaced the details – contact the company(s) in question and they will usually help you get access.
My website is with my web developer on their private hosting
This is absolutely fine, providing you trust and get along with them. Some companies will require you to host with them if you are using their own software within your website and this is usually to help prevent copyright infringement.
We have clients that host with us, and others that prefer to have their own accounts, for us it’s whatever the client is most comfortable with.
Tips
Own your domains
At the very least, make sure your domain names are registered in your name.
If a company insists that you host with them against your wishes, you can still keep your domain names on an account owned by you and “point” the domain name to their hosting account where your website is.
Keep everything in one place
Some clients seem to like to register domain names with multiple different companies, have email accounts elsewhere and their website somewhere else… usually though a lack of awareness or communication between colleagues.
Keeping everything on one hosting account (or a least clearly organised) makes life much easier when updating or rebuilding your website.
Document it
If you have multiple team members, keep a central document containing all relevant details: that explains where everything is.
- Where your domain is registered
- Where your website is hosted
- Login details
- Key contacts or account managers
This is something we do for larger clients. Once everything is organised, we create a clear record so nothing gets lost or forgotten.
Over the next month or so, I’ll also be covering what to do if your website is stolen or duplicated, and the new laws around cookies (not the biscuit kind)!!
Term Reference
Domain name
Your website address, for example ours is www.epixmedia.co.uk
Website
The pages and files people see when they visit your domain name.
Hosting
The place your website files are kept. You can also usually keep your domain names and email accounts on your “Hosting” account.
Name servers
Your hosting account is kept on a server somewhere, the “name servers” section on the Whois directory shows you the address of that server. This can help you identify where your website files are being kept.
Whois
A directory containing information about domain registrations.