The Website Handover Pack

Every year we take over a site from a business that discovered, at the worst possible moment, that they did not own their own domain, could not reach their own hosting, or had no copy of the logo except a picture in a chat message.

None of that is malice. It is a handover that never happened, usually because nobody wrote down what one should include.

This is that list. Use it on us, and use it on anyone else.

1. The domain

The single most important item, because everything else can be rebuilt and this cannot easily be taken back.

• Registered in your business name, not an individual’s and not an agency’s
• The account email is one your business controls, not an ex-employee’s
• You can log into the registrar yourself, right now, without asking anyone
• Two-factor authentication is on
• Automatic renewal is on
• You know the renewal date and roughly what it costs

Test it rather than trusting it. Log in while you read this. Being listed as the owner does not help if someone else holds the password.

2. Hosting

• An account in your business name, or a written note of exactly whose plan the site sits on
• Login details, or a named person on the account who is not leaving
• The renewal price, not the first-year price
• What is included: updates, backups, certificate renewal, support hours
• Whether the site can be moved, and what that would involve

If your site sits inside an agency’s reseller plan, that is a normal arrangement. It just needs to be a decision you made rather than one you discover.

3. The content system

• An administrator account in your name
• A written list of exactly what you can edit and what you cannot
• Who applies updates, and how often
• What happens if you want to change something outside the editable list, and what that costs

That second item is the one that prevents a year of small frustrations. “You can edit the staff list, hours, prices and news; the page layouts and navigation come back to us” is a clear arrangement. “You have full access” usually is not true and is not helpful.

4. Files and licenses

• The logo as a vector file, plus regular versions in a few sizes, one-color, and reversed for dark backgrounds
• A square version for social profiles and a small square for the browser tab
• The name of the typeface and where its license came from
• Original photography files, at full size, not just the versions on the site
• A note of which images are licensed stock rather than owned, and under what terms
• Any paid extensions on the site, what they cost annually, and whose account they are licensed to

A logo that only exists as a picture someone sent you is not really yours in any useful way. Ask for the vector file while whoever made it still answers.

5. Ownership in writing

One sentence, agreed before the project starts and confirmed at the end:

Copy, images and templates produced for this project transfer to us on final payment, other than licensed stock and third-party extensions.

• You have that in writing
• You know which items are the exceptions
• If custom code was written, you know whether it comes with you

6. The accounts around the site

• Google Business Profile, with you as an owner rather than a manager
• Analytics, owned by an account your business controls
• Search Console, same
• Any advertising accounts, in your name, with billing you can see
• Whatever handles your contact form, and where submissions are delivered
• Mail, and who administers it

Ownership on the Google profile is worth checking specifically. Manager access is not the same as ownership, and getting ownership back from an unresponsive agency takes weeks.

7. Backups

• How often they run, and what they include: files and database
• How far back they go
• Where they are stored, which should not be only on the same server
• How you get a copy yourself, without asking

Then test it once. A backup you have never restored is a belief.

8. The written note

The part that is almost always missing. One page, plain language:

• What lives where: domain here, hosting there, mail somewhere else
• Who to contact for each part, and how
• What you can change yourself
• What the next twelve months cost, in total, including everything above
• What to do if the site goes down on a Sunday

If you receive nothing else on this list, receive this. It is the difference between a problem and an emergency.

How to use this

Send it before the project starts, not at the end. A good firm will answer it in a short email with a couple of honest exceptions. That answer tells you more about how the next two years will go than any portfolio.

If a firm will not put ownership in writing before a project, they will not be more relaxed about it afterward.

And if you are reading this about a site you already have, work down the list anyway. Most of it can be fixed in an afternoon of polite emails, and all of it is easier to fix while everyone is still on good terms.