I met with a prospective client last week who complained that her webmaster was holding her website hostage. “I want to have the site redesigned but she won’t give me the files or access to the domain.”

This happens more than you might think. Businesses can be the victim of nefarious web developers who lay claim to the sites they design even though the development and hosting has been paid in full by the client.   And when they register your domain, your company name and information is never entered as  owner.

Scary, huh?

If you build your site on a platform such as GoDaddy’s  Website Tonight, Yahoo SiteBuilder, Wix or Weebly, you are using their proprietary software.  You can never download the site and host it on your own hosting account or have an independent website designer make changes outside the company’s structure.  And forget about custom SEO.

I have many of my clients’ domains in my account BUT they all list the clients as the domain owner; I am just the technical and billing administrator.  And, as was the case recently, when a client asked to host his site himself I sent him all the files.  I may host my clients’ websites, but they paid for them and they own all the rights to it.

Be sure you know that the good money you’ve paid for a well-design site is truly yours.