3 Things You Must Know So You’ll Never Be Locked Out of Your Website
What would you do if you needed to make updates to your website and you sent an email, or left a message for your web person, and they never returned your message? Come to find out they’ve left town and started a new position in another state, without giving you any direction on how to update your site.
Or what if your website had a “site down for maintenance” message on it that never resolved itself after weeks? And then your website person didn’t return your calls?
Would you have enough information to be able to take your website to another web company and allow them to help you?
These are two situations that I’ve seen, where website developers seem to “hold a site hostage” either intentionally or not, causing the business owner much frustration and lost customers.
I want to give you three things you MUST KNOW to never be locked out of your website, even if you don’t use them, you must know them and keep them in a safe place.
Number 1: The Login ID and Password for the Domain Registrar
Every website has a domain, i.e. the website address or URL. To create a website, you must register your domain to claim the unique website address. There are many website domain registration companies out there, and to purchase the domain, you need to set up an account with the domain registrar. When you do, be sure to keep track of the ID and password for this account. If someone else registered it for you, ask for this information.
If your developer registered (purchased) the domain but it’s not in an account in your name, ask them to transfer it to you, as you should have access to it as owner of the website and it must be in your name for the registration company to help you if any problems arise.
Number 2: Website Hosting Account Login ID and Password
The files that make up your website reside on a computer somewhere, that’s your website hosting. Your hosting account can be with the same company as your domain registration, but it does not have to be.
Make sure you know your web hosting Login ID and Password. If it is the same company as your registrar, that’s great, you’ll see separate sections for domains and hosting when logged in. If it is not at the same place, be sure you know your Hosting ID and password. This gives you access to your website files and database in case you need it. And again, it should be an account set up in your name.
Number 3: WordPress Administrator ID and Password
This is the login ID and password that allow you to edit your website. Make sure it is the Administrator’s ID, not an Editor or Subscriber ID. Even if you don’t know what to do when you are logged into the WordPress ‘backend’, you must know this ID and password if you ever want someone to help edit your site.
These are the three biggies. There are other things that are good to know, including FTP access and cPanel login ID, but you can usually find these out if you have the three things above.
If you have a website and don’t know these three things, tell your website person you want to make sure you have them in case something would unexpectedly happen to them. If you’re working on a new website project, make sure to get this information now, or when the site is completed to make sure you can access your content. And if you have an employee handle this all for your company, make sure you also know this information, in case that employee should ever leave.
Bottom line: make sure you have this information to prevent yourself from being locked out of your website. If the need arises that you’d have to go to another website developer for assistance on your site, having these three things will make it easier to get in to your site and make changes.
As always, if you have any questions about this or would like some assistance with your website, feel free to contact Kim at Resolve Web Studio. Schedule a free call to talk about any issues you may have. Here’s a link to my online calendar: https://my.timetrade.com/book/ZW8BN Let’s set up a time and talk about these or any other issues!