Moving house goes better when you know where the keys are. So does replacing your web designer.
Most people find out what they own the way you find out which of your neighbours has your spare key: at the worst possible moment. The site goes down, the designer has gone quiet, and someone asks for the domain login and there is a long silence.
Short answer. Before you switch, confirm that you own your domain, hosting, analytics and website files, and get a copy of everything. Then ask the next designer how they will hand it all back to you if you ever leave. Do those two things and the rest is details.
What you should already own
Four things decide whether a switch is a calm afternoon or a long month. Check each one before you say anything to anyone.
Checklist
Check you own these four
- Your domain name (yourbusiness.com). It should be registered in your name or your business’s name, with an email address you can still read. If the designer registered it under their own account, you are renting your own address.
- Your hosting. Where the website files live. Ask who pays for it, who holds the login and where the backups go.
- Your analytics and search accounts. Google Analytics and Google Search Console should list your own Google account as an owner or administrator, not just a designer’s.
- Your website files and content. The pages, images, logins and any paid plugins or themes. Some licences belong to the designer and are transferable; some are not. Find out which.
Long Square Studio. General practice, not legal advice.
If you can log in to all four yourself today, you are in an unusually good position. If you can’t, that is the first job, and it is a job for the current designer, politely.
What to ask the current designer for
Keep it friendly. You are asking for your own things, not starting a dispute, and designers are more helpful when asked well. Ask for:
- The domain registrar login, or a transfer code and the contact details on the record.
- Hosting access, or a full backup of the site and its database.
- Administrator access to the website itself.
- A list of every login, plugin, theme and service the site depends on, and who pays for each.
- Administrator access to Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
- Any brand files: logos, fonts, image libraries.
Give a date, and say thank you in advance. It works better than it should.
Questions for the next designer
These are the ones that separate a partner from a stranger with a portfolio.
- Who will own the domain, hosting and accounts? The right answer is you.
- What happens to our old pages? You want to hear “we map every old address to its new one” and “we set up redirects before launch”. Otherwise search engines and customers meet a lot of error pages.
- Can we edit the site ourselves? And will you show us how?
- What will you document? Logins, how the site is built, what to do when something breaks.
- What do you need from us, and when? Late feedback is the most common reason projects drift.
- How do changes and problems get handled after launch?
- What do you not do? A designer who can say what is outside their scope is one worth hearing.
- How much will it cost? Ask for the scope first and the number second. What the number depends on matters more than the number: pages, content, integrations and how much work the current site needs.
On that last one: people often ask what they should pay a web designer. We don’t publish prices, and neither can anyone who hasn’t seen your site. A good answer explains what drives the cost and confirms the scope in writing before work starts.
Red flags that are usually missing paperwork
Many things that look like red flags are just undocumented habits. “I’ll send the logins later” is normally forgetfulness. Still, treat a refusal to say who owns the domain, or a habit of keeping everything in their own accounts, as a real warning.
A safe order for the switch
Steps
Six steps, in this order
- Get access to everything above and take a full backup.
- List every page and address on the current site.
- Build the new site somewhere private, while the old one stays live.
- Map each old address to its new home and set up redirects before launch.
- Launch, then check Google Search Console for errors and fix anything missed.
- Keep the old designer’s access until you have confirmed everything works, then remove it.
Long Square Studio.
How we handle this ourselves
We set up and document accounts under the client’s ownership, use our own access only while we work together, and hand over a document that explains how the site is put together. It is not glamorous. It is exactly what you will want on the day you decide to move on, from us or anyone else.
A few common questions
What questions should I ask a designer?
Start with who owns the domain, hosting and accounts, what happens to your old pages, what they will document and what they need from you. Then ask what is outside their scope.
How much should I pay a web designer?
We can’t give a figure without seeing your site, and we don’t publish prices. What matters is that the scope and what drives the cost are written down before work starts. Be wary of any number offered before anyone has looked at what you have.
When it’s worth getting help
If you are not sure what you own, or the current designer isn’t answering, we can look at what is public (your domain records, your site and your accounts) and tell you where you stand. If that sounds useful, start an inquiry.
