What to sort out before you leave your current web company

Changing web company should be straightforward. Sometimes it is.

The times it isn't are nearly always the same story: something important was in somebody else's name, and nobody found out until they tried to leave.

Here's what to check first. Do this before you tell anyone you're going — not because anyone's likely to be difficult, but because you want to know where you stand while the relationship is still friendly.

1. Whose name is the domain in?

This is the big one. Everything else on this list is an inconvenience. This one can cost you your web address.

Your domain — yourbusiness.co.uk — is registered to somebody. It should be you or your company. Sometimes it's registered to the web company, because they bought it for you when you started and nobody thought about it.

If it's in their name, they own your address. Not the website — the address itself, the thing on your van and your invoices and every Google result you've built up.

How to check: look up your domain on a WHOIS service, or ask your registrar directly. For .uk domains, Nominet publishes the registrant. If you can't tell, ask outright: "Whose name is the domain registered in, and can I have access to the account?"

A good answer is "yours, here's the login". Anything vague is worth pushing on.

2. Can you get into the registrar account?

Even if the domain is in your name, you need to actually be able to log in. Ask for the account details, and check they work.

To move a domain you'll usually need an auth code (sometimes called an EPP code or transfer key) from the current registrar. Ask for it. It's yours.

One thing to know: if you change the registrant details, some domains get locked for 60 days before they can be transferred. Not a disaster, but worth knowing before you're mid-move with a deadline.

3. Where does the DNS point?

DNS is the settings that say "this web address goes to this server, and email goes to that one".

It matters for a reason people don't expect: your email often runs through the same settings. Move a website carelessly and you can knock out email for a day. For a business that takes enquiries by email, that's the worst possible day.

Get a copy of the current DNS records before anything moves. Any competent person taking over will ask for this. If they don't, that tells you something.

4. Get your content out

Your text, your photos, your customer reviews. It's yours, and you'll want it whether or not the new site looks the same.

The photos matter most — they're often the only thing that can't be recreated. Ask for the originals, not the resized versions off the website, which will be too small to reuse properly.

5. Find out what you're actually paying for

Go through the last year of invoices and work out what each line is. Commonly you'll find:

• Hosting — needed, and cheap
• Domain renewal — needed, about £15/year
• An SSL certificate — usually free these days, sometimes still billed
• "Maintenance" or "support" — worth asking what was actually done for it
• Licences for plugins or a theme you may not need on a new site

People are often paying for something they stopped using years ago. Even if you don't move, this exercise is worth an hour.

6. Check the contract for notice

Have a look for a minimum term or a notice period. Some agreements roll over annually if you don't give notice in a window.

You don't need to be adversarial about it. You just want to know, so you can time the move rather than pay for months you don't use.

What a decent handover looks like

If you're leaving, you should end up with:

• The domain in your name, in an account you can access
• The auth code, if you're moving registrar
• A copy of your DNS records
• Your content and original photos
• No ongoing charges for things you're not using

Most web companies will hand all of that over without fuss. The ones that won't are the ones you were right to leave.

And if you're not going anywhere

Still check number one.

It costs you five minutes, and a surprising number of business owners discover their domain is in somebody else's name. Better to find that out on a quiet Tuesday than the week you need it.

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For what it's worth: on anything we build, the domain goes in your name, not ours, and if you ever leave we'll help you move it at no charge. It's in our terms rather than just a promise. Our prices are published too — no meeting required.