Keep your site from getting taken hostage

30 December 2011

All too frequently we hear from customers who have handed over the login details for their domain registrar (GoDaddy, NameCheap etc) only to have their web designer transfer the domain to another registrar that is outside the customer's control. The end result is of course that the customer then becomes dependent on that web designer and must beg and plead (and sometimes even pay fees reaching into the hundreds of dollars) just to get control of their own domain again. In a similar vein, many web design companies that also offer (or insist) on hosting your site for you will not provide hosting control panel access. This is a red flag, because it makes it impossible to save a backup of your site, again making you dependent on that web designer / webmaster. Please, at all times make sure you maintain control of your domain name(s)!

If you must provide someone with access to your domain name management area, make sure you have a clear idea of what it is they intend to do with that access. If you're using GoDaddy, you can assign someone as an AccountExec, so that they cannot change the account password on you. However, even with AccountExec access they'd be able to transfer the domain to another registrar if you're not careful.

It's your site: make sure you retain full control over it, even if you don't want to manage it on a daily basis!