One of the most visited blog posts on this website is about what to do with your website when you are done with it, and it invariably gets me messages from people who no longer need their website, and need help shutting it down. I am always happy to help people with this, if I can.
Why do I say if I can? Because often times when people come to me with this request, they don’t even know how to access their website. They don’t know where it’s hosted. They don’t know where the domain is registered. And they don’t have access to either of them. If you can’t access these products, then it’s unlikely I can gain access for you.
Why does this happen?
There are a lot of reasons. First and foremost, people create accounts and forget where they set it up, forget their login, or forget their password. In this case, it’s often easy enough to determine where the site or domain is registered, and a password reset is usually enough to get you access.
More problematic is when you’ve changed your email address, so a password reset isn’t going to work since you can’t get those emails. This is why I generally recommend using an email address that you know you are going to have for a long time for any online accounts. In this situation, you will likely have to call the company and provide identification to prove you are the owner of the account to regain access. Usually a driver’s license will be good enough.
The more complicated situation is when someone registers your domain for you, or sets up hosting for you, but does it in their name. This is usually done with good intentions. It’s easy for the person building your website to get these for you and charge you for it. It’s convenient for you, and convenient for them. But I’ve heard several tragic stories where the person who set it up passed away unexpectedly, leaving those accounts in limbo, with no way to access or update them. Or developers who closed up shop and left town, with no way to reach them. Sad, but it happens. And in those situations, you may not be able to recover your own domain, even if it’s something like yourname.com. If you didn’t register it in your own account, you may not be able to get it back.
My advice to you to day is to make sure you know where your accounts are, and how to access them. You likely have at least one online account, but it could be several depending on what kind of online products you use.
Domains:
You probably have an account somewhere where your domain is registered, something like GoDaddy.com, or Register.com. Not sure where your domain is registered, go to the ICANN Lookup and enter your domain. Then scroll down and you’ll find a box that is called Registrar Information that tells you where the account is.
Hosting:
Some people buy their hosting and domains together, a lot of companies sell all the online products you need. It’s a good idea if convenience is important to you. Lots of companies offer you the ability to buy domains, hosting, email, etc all together. Now sure where you website is hosted? Try going to Hosting Checker and entering your domain to find out who is hosting the website.
If you are using regular web hosting, this will often lead you in the right direction. But not always. If your website using a firewall, something like Cloudflare, then that may mask where your site is actually hosted. But at the very least, you know there’s a Cloudflare account you need access to. 🙂
Email:
Email could be purchased any place – from your host, domain registrar, from Google or Microsoft. If someone else sets this up for you, how will you add or remove email addresses for your business? Or try to sort out spam issues.
What to do now?
If you aren’t sure where your online products are registered or whose name they are in, it’s time to find that out. Find out what online products you have, where they are being purchased from, and how to access those accounts. Make sure you know how to get access to those at any time. If your website designer or developer set it up for you, ask for delegate access so you both can access those products, that way if something happens, you aren’t out of luck.
Amy Masson
Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.