article · WHO OWNS MY WEBSITE AND MARKETING ACCOUNTS
Own What YouPaid For.
Most owners find out who holds the keys at the worst possible moment. Here are the nine things to check, and how to check each one without asking anybody.
trusted by: UFC, Caesars Entertainment, Churchill Downs, Neighborly, Supercuts, City of Las Vegas, SDMI, Switch, Silverton, Panda Express, TAO, Ellie Mental Health, Dollar Loan Center, Dot Vegas Domains, HFC, Lithion Battery
Trusted by UFC, Caesars Entertainment, City of Las Vegas, Supercuts
“Justin's expertise, responsiveness, and genuine investment in our success have been evident throughout this process. We are truly grateful.”
01 · what should i own in my marketing
The nine marketing assets you should own.
Every one of these should sit in an account registered to you, with your vendor added as a user. Not the reverse. Take them in this order, because the first two decide the rest.
The domain name
The registrar account should be in your business name with your email as the contact. Whoever holds the domain controls where the website points.
The website files and the hosting
You want the login, and you want to know whether the site can be exported. A site built inside a platform nobody else can open is rented, whatever the invoice called it.
The analytics property
Your own Google account should be the owner. Years of history are the only way to know whether anything worked, and it does not transfer if it was never yours.
Google Search Console
Same rule, separate account, frequently forgotten. Without it you cannot see which searches found you, which makes every search claim unverifiable.
The Google Business Profile
You should be listed as a primary owner, not a manager. Managers can be removed by owners. This is the single most common one to get wrong.
The ad accounts
Google Ads and Meta accounts registered to your business, with your billing on them. Spend history and learning stay with the account, so an account you do not own is history you cannot take.
The email and marketing list
An exportable list of contacts, plus the sending platform login. A list that only exists inside a vendor's account is not your list.
The social accounts
You need admin on the business page and on the ad account behind it, which are two different permissions people often confuse.
The creative files
The logo in a vector file, the photography, the video project files, the source of anything printed. Finished exports are not the files you can edit later.
02 · how to check who owns my domain
How to check who owns what.
Anything you could not open on your own is a gap worth closing this month. Access is cheap to fix while everybody is friendly.
03 · changing marketing agencies
Fix access before changing agencies.
Access is easy to hand over during a good relationship and slow during a bad one. Get ownership straight first, then decide what to do about the relationship. The other way round is how a website goes dark for a month.
You are allowed to ask for all of this without explaining why. Requesting owner access to your own Google Business Profile is not a threat, and a vendor who treats it as one has told you something.
If a vendor cannot hand something over, ask what would need to be true for them to. Sometimes the honest answer is that the asset was never separable.
04 · what does it mean to own your website
Whether your website is rented or owned.
| what you have | How to tell | What it costs you later |
|---|---|---|
| You own it | You hold the registrar, hosting and platform logins, and the site can be exported | Nothing. You can move, rebuild or change vendors on your own schedule |
| You own the domain, not the site | The site sits inside a builder or a proprietary system you cannot export | A rebuild whenever you leave, and every page of earned search history is at risk |
| You own the site, not the domain | You cannot log in to the registrar | Total exposure. Whoever holds the domain decides whether your address keeps working |
| You are a manager, not an owner | Google Business Profile or an ad account lists you with limited access | Your access can be removed by someone else, along with the reviews and the spend history |
05 · common questions about marketing ownership
Marketing ownership questions.