This sounds strange, but you could end up paying for a website that you don’t own. I’ll ensure you own every aspect of your site and can easily go to any web developer in the world afterwards to update it (although I’d far rather you came back to me).
It sounds very easy at the beginning (“At XYZ we’ll build it and look after it all for you”), but what you don’t realise is you’re then locked into using their services for ever, or start all over again and paying for a new site to be built by somebody else.
How does this happen?
Sorry to get technical, but it’s important to understand these points. There are a number of components to your website and you need to have complete access to them all and to own them all.
- The hosting: Where your website is stored. If your designer puts the site on their hosting, you can’t later move it without their permission and involvement. I will set up your hosting account for you, in your name and give you all the access details. That means you can get anybody to do anything to the site, at anytime, without even speaking to me. Although I think we’ll stay friends forever and I’d love to help you amend your site in the future
- The domain name: What your site is called (this one is called nobull.site). If your designer gets your domain name on your behalf and that name stays on their domain name account, you don’t own it. Fancy not owning the name of your own business! I will set up your domain name account, with your domain name and you’ll have all the access details (in fact I won’t keep any details, unless you ask me to). That means you own the name to your site.
- The intellectual property: The way your site is laid out, the design of of it, is called the intellectual property. Check who owns that once you’ve paid for your site, or you could end up not owning your own site. I will sign over all the IP to your site, once the final bill is paid.
See, geeky, but important. Many web developers put your site on their server, own the IP to your site, and own the domain name. That’s all very well, until you want to change the site without involving your previous developer, your previous developer goes out of business or you just want to know that you own your prime marketing asset.
I’ve known people fall out with their web developer, needing to pay for a totally new site by somebody else. I’ve known web developer cease trading, so the client couldn’t go back to them; in one very sad case the web developer died so the client couldn’t access their site.
Moral of the story, make sure you own you assets.
I set up your site on a hosting account which belongs to you, set up your domain name so you own it and transfer IP of the site to you; once you’ve paid the bill. You’ll be forever in control, so we can have a relationship based on friendship and good service rather than you feeling like a hostage in your own site.