Your new website goes live, everyone is pleased, and the project is marked as done. Then, a year later, you want to change designers, or the site goes down, or a former staff member still has the admin password. Suddenly you find out who really controls your website.

Most of these problems are easy to prevent. They only need a clear handover at launch. This checklist covers what a small business in Singapore should own, hold access to, and have written down once the site is live.

Why the handover matters

A website is not a single object you buy and keep. It is several parts that work together: a domain name, hosting, the website software, your content, and a set of connected accounts. Each part can be registered in a different name and held in a different account.

If those parts sit in the name of whoever built the site, you depend on that person for everything. That is fine while the relationship is good. It becomes a problem if they are busy, change careers or stop replying.

A good web designer will not hold your site hostage, and should be happy to hand things over openly. Still, it is far better to agree this at the start than to sort it out under pressure later. The rule is simple: the business owns and controls the assets, and the designer is given access to do the work.

Your domain name

Your domain name is your address online. If you lose control of it, you lose your website, your email addresses and much of your search visibility along with it.

Check the following:

The registrant is your business, not the designer or an individual employee. Look it up in the registrar’s account or the public registration record.
The domain sits in an account you control, with a login that belongs to your company. A shared inbox such as admin@ or accounts@ is better than one person’s personal email.
The contact email is one you actually read. Renewal reminders go there. If it points to an old address, you may miss them.
Auto-renew is switched on, and the payment card on file is not about to expire.
You know when it renews and who pays for it.

If your designer registered the domain for you, ask them to transfer it to an account in your name, or at least to add you as the registrant. Ask how the transfer works with your registrar before launch, not after a dispute.

Hosting and server access

Hosting is where your website files and database live. As with the domain, the best arrangement is for the hosting account to be in your business’s name, with your payment details, and with your designer added as a user.

Some designers bundle hosting into a monthly fee and manage it on their own server. That can be a reasonable and convenient arrangement, particularly for small businesses without technical staff. If so, make sure you know:

Where the site is hosted and with which provider.
What the monthly or yearly fee covers.
How you would get a full copy of your site if you left.
How much notice is needed to move it.

If you are still deciding on a provider, our notes on choosing a hosting provider explain what to compare, including support, location and reliability.

Admin logins for the site itself

Separate from hosting is the login to the website’s admin area, where you edit pages, publish posts and manage users. Whatever platform your site runs on, check these points:

You have your own administrator account. It should not be a shared login you borrowed from someone else.
Every person has a named account. Do not share one password between several people.
Passwords are strong and unique, and kept in a password manager rather than in a chat thread or spreadsheet.
Two-factor authentication is on wherever the platform offers it.
Old accounts are removed. That includes former staff, previous freelancers and the designer’s temporary test logins.

Give people only the access they need. A staff member who updates the blog does not need the power to install software or delete users.

Backups you can actually restore

Most owners assume the site is being backed up. Fewer can say where the backups are or whether they work. A backup nobody has ever restored is a hope, not a safeguard.

Ask your designer or host to confirm:

How often backups run. A site with daily orders needs them more often than a brochure site that changes twice a year.
Where they are stored. Backups kept only on the same server as the website will not help if that server fails.
How long they are kept. You may need to go back further than yesterday if a problem goes unnoticed.
Whether a restore has been tested, and how long it would take.
Who to call, and how fast, if something breaks.

You should also hold a full copy of the site yourself at handover, with the files and the database. Put it in company cloud storage, not on someone’s laptop.

Third-party accounts

Modern websites connect to many outside services. These accounts should belong to you, and your designer should be invited as a user. Do not set them up the other way round.

Common examples include:

Google Analytics, which shows how people use the site.
Google Search Console, which shows how your pages appear in search and flags technical problems.
Google Business Profile, which matters a great deal for local searches.
Business email, including the admin account for whichever service hosts it.
Payment gateways, if you sell online, which are tied to your business registration and bank account.
Email marketing tools, booking systems and live chat tools.
Social media accounts linked to the site.
Tracking tags and advertising accounts.

The advantage of owning them is practical. When you change designers, your search history, your reviews and your customer data stay with you. If these were set up in a designer’s own account, you may have to start again from zero.

Design files, content and licences

Ask who owns the finished work, and put the answer in writing. Many projects include more than the site itself, so check each of these:

Logo files in editable formats, not only a flattened image.
Fonts. Some are free to use, and others need a paid licence. Find out which your site uses, and who holds the licence.
Stock photos and icons. Licences vary, and some are tied to one project or one account.
Your own photos and copy, in their original form.
Premium plugins, themes or extensions. These often have licence keys that renew each year. Check that the licence is in your business’s name, or that you know how it will be transferred.
Design files, such as mockups or layout files, if they are part of the deal.

None of this has to be complicated. It simply needs to be clear. Our web design proposal guide is a good place to see how to agree ownership in your proposal before work begins.

Documentation and ongoing support

A short handover document is one of the most useful things you can receive. It does not need to be long. One or two pages, kept somewhere safe, should list:

The domain registrar and the renewal date.
The hosting provider and the plan you are on.
Where backups are held.
Which platform and version the site runs on, and which plugins or extras it uses.
Which accounts exist and who the owner is. Do not write passwords into the document.
Who to contact for changes, faults or urgent help.

Then decide what happens after launch. Software needs updates, security settings need reviewing, and forms and links need to be tested from time to time. Neglected sites become slow, vulnerable and out of date. Our guide to website maintenance in Singapore explains what ongoing care usually involves.

Security is part of this too. If you want a closer look at the basics of keeping the site secure, start there, then ask your designer what is already in place on your site.

Whether you choose a monthly plan or pay for help as and when you need it, agree it before launch. Make sure you know what is included, how quickly requests are answered, and how to ask for changes.

A quick handover checklist

Print this out and tick each item before you sign off the project:

If you cannot tick an item, do not worry. Ask for it now, while the project is fresh in everyone’s mind.

Get help with your handover

If you are about to launch a new site, or you suspect you do not fully control your current one, I am happy to help you work out where things stand. I can review your domain, hosting and accounts, tell you what is missing and put it right.

You are also welcome to get in touch to discuss a new website with a clear handover and ongoing support built in.

Website Handover Checklist: What You Should Own at Launch