Establishing your online presence is a noble undertaking, and partnering with a marketing agency or web developer to do that is often the first step. However, many business owners have found themselves falling prey to the trap of the website ownership clause.

Understanding who truly owns your website is more important than many business owners realize. Depending on the terms of your agreement, you could be surprised to learn that the site you’ve invested your hard-earned capital in is actually the legal property of the marketing agency or web developer who built it, not you.

Ready to learn more about who might really be the owner of your website and what you can do about it? Let’s break down the website ownership together.

The Website Ownership Clause

First, let’s get down to basics. How can the website ownership clause trap businesses? It usually happens when a business owner who wants to grow their online presence signs on with a less-than-reputable marketing agency, paying for a plan that comes with a “free website” on a “fancy proprietary platform.” Additionally, sometimes the price of this free website is built into monthly marketing payments.

On the surface, this sounds like a bargain. The business owner gets a professionally designed website and has a plan to grow their online presence. Piece of cake, right? Not always. If that business owner tries to exit that agreement or part ways due to financial reasons or anything else, they may be faced with the reality that they don’t own their website — the marketing agency does.

It’s true. The website ownership clause trap springs the moment you try to leave. At that moment, several things might happen: your website is taken offline, you lose access to your code and files, you’re hit with a giant fee, or the marketing agency refuses your request and holds your site hostage. That means if you stop paying monthly fees, you could lose your website with no hope of recovery, and may even include all the data and analytics you’ve been collecting.

Website Ownership Clause

How can you, the business owner, avoid this trap while still moving forward with your goal of growing your online presence? Be wary of the website ownership clause and educate yourself on what to know, ask, and do before signing on with a marketing agency.

At RYNO Strategic Solutions, we pride ourselves on delivering pristine website design that grows your business. And you always own your website when you work with us. That means if you decide to part ways, we’ll ensure you have access to everything you need. Looking to hire a professional website designer? We can help!

Read on to learn more about website ownership and what you need to know.

Website Ownership 101: The Basics

Let’s get back to the basics. What does it mean to own a website? Business owners can and should own the components of their websites (content, design, code, etc.), but there are some aspects of your website that you cannot own or control.

Website Ownership Contracts: What You Should Own and What You Never Will

Understand that your website is made up of parts, and within your website ownership contract, there are certain parts that RYNO Strategic Solutions believes you, the business owner, should claim and own as your own, no matter what marketing agency you go to. There are also parts of your website that you won’t own.

Parts of a Website You Don’t Own

There are several components that make up a website that you will not own. What are they?

  • Hosting platform
  • CMS platform (like WordPress, Shopify, or Wix)
  • Hosting provider (like WP Engine or GoDaddy)
  • Website server
  • Third-party widgets

There are several considerations that come with “owning” a website. First, a website will be dependent on its hosting provider. That means, if GoDaddy is hosting your site and GoDaddy goes down, then your website will go down as well. Although we’d like to ensure that never happens to our clients, it’s out of our control. Additionally, your site’s content management system, like WordPress, for example, is another aspect that you don’t own and could go down unexpectedly.

There might be aspects of your website that are owned by third-party integrations. These can include website chatbots, scheduling widgets, and other widgets or bots. Double-check who owns these third-party integrations to avoid any surprise bills or service interruptions. If not owned by your previous marketing company, they may or may not be owned by you.

How To Find Out Who Owns Your Domain

You can find out who owns your domain by following these simple steps. If you aren’t sure who claims the ownership rights of your domain, go to Whois Domain Lookup. Type in your website and look at the registrant and contact information. You should see one of three entries:

  • You, your business, or someone at your business is listed as the registrant contact. This means you own your domain name.
  • The registrant contact is listed as private. This means it could be you or someone else, but the contact information is private. It’s worth doing some research to determine who the actual owner is.
  • The registrant contact is listed as your website designer, marketing agency, or someone else. This means you need to call whoever is listed as soon as possible and see what’s going on.

Parts of a Website You Can Own

As mentioned above, there are aspects of your website that you should retain ownership of, but you need to make sure that your contract with your marketing agency explicitly states that.

It’s imperative that your website contract clearly states that you own the components of your website. That means the code, the content — everything that makes your website what it is. Why should you care about this? It’s simple. Copyright law states that the creator of the website’s design and content automatically becomes the legal owner of said assets.

What parts of your website can you own?

Parts of the website you own

You should own the design and visuals of your website, within reason. You won’t own the color blue, for example, but you could own the design aspects of your website that use the color blue, including logos, call-to-action button styles, and other aspects. Your website creator should provide a clause in your contract that transfers ownership upon payment and project completion. The content of your website should also transfer to you after completion of the project.

Website source code can be composed of open building blocks that are available for most websites, so guaranteeing ownership of the source code is not always 100%. However, you should have exclusive rights to your site’s custom programming and any files associated with your code. Similarly, the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript may be made up of open-source code used in many websites, but, at minimum, you should retain control over these files.

Parsing Legal Jargon: Don’t Fall Into These Marketing Traps

Once you’ve determined who owns your website according to Whois, it’s time to go through your website contract and make sure you know exactly what you own within your site.

For most business owners, the website marketing contract you receive will be fairly straightforward. However, it’s never a bad idea to have your legal counsel or a hired lawyer parse through the contract, ensuring you understand what you’re signing up for.

RYNO Strategic Solutions doesn’t provide legal counsel, but we can give you a heads-up on what to look out for. There are several traps you want to avoid when it comes to a website contract.

Flashy Marketing Trap

One of the most obvious traps is marketing pitches that prey on customers’ money-saving desires. These pitches include language like:

  • Start for free!
  • Lease-to-own!
  • Low monthly payments!

As a rule of thumb, no website is free. And if a marketing pitch seems too good to be true, it usually is. Website design is an investment, and while it might be necessary for web design and marketing agencies to charge a monthly fee or a quarterly fee to keep your website fresh and optimized, monthly ownership payments likely tell a different story. If you decide to leave your marketing agency, you’ll probably have to pay a fee or face losing access to your site.

Proprietary Platform Trap

If you don’t know what you’re getting into, then hearing that your website will be on a proprietary platform seems important and fancy. However, a proprietary platform is a website platform that was created by a marketing or software company, and if your website was created by that company, you’ll have to host it there. Unfortunately, websites built on proprietary platforms aren’t compatible with other hosting platforms (like WordPress), so if you ever decide to leave for another marketing agency, you won’t be able to take your full working site with you.

Ownership Condition Date Clause

The trap of the ownership condition date clause is pretty self-explanatory. Within a website design contract, this trap stipulates that you won’t be the owner of the website until a certain date has passed and certain conditions have been met. If you do decide to part ways before that date has passed, you’ll likely have to pay a hefty fee.

Don’t Own Your Website? Here’s What To Do About It — And How To Avoid an Ownership Headache in the Future

If you’ve fallen into any of the traps above, you might be feeling unsure of your next move. You have some options when it comes to gaining ownership of a website. It’s important to understand what it means to lose ownership and access to your website and what you should do going forward.

The Dangers of Losing Website Access

Losing access to your website or ownership because a marketing agency is holding it hostage can spell two serious consequences for your business:

  • A loss in SEO rankings and authority: When you have to build a new website, all those rankings and authority you built up are gone, as well as your domain age. While domain age is a topic of debate in the SEO world, it does have an impact on your rankings. The older a website is, theoretically, the more authority it has.
  • A loss of all historical analytical data: This can happen even if you do own the rights to your website. We’ve had cases where the former digital marketing agency refused to release historical data, and others where the data was simply wiped when the old website was taken down.

Do This Before Signing Your Next Website Development Contract

Ready to get started with another marketing agency or a website developer? There are several conversation points and questions you should raise before you sign another website contract.

  • Ask about website ownership: Bring this question up with the sales representative from the very beginning. You want to have a clear picture of what website ownership looks like with this particular marketing agency. Drill down with them on whether or not you’ll own your website’s source code if you choose to leave. If not, you’ll lose a beautifully designed website and have to rebuild it from scratch.
  • Ask about hosting: Inquire where the website will be hosted. If hosting is included, but you’re not consulted on it, it’s likely you’re leasing a spot on the agency’s proprietary hosting platform, and you won’t be able to take your fully functioning site with you if you leave.
  • Ask how much your website will cost: Be upfront about getting the total cost of the website and any payment structures. This will help you get a better understanding of any hidden fees or conditions of possessing your website before a certain future date.
  • Ask for clarity on any confusing clauses or lines in the contract: Read the website contract and, if necessary, hire a lawyer to read it for you. As a business owner, you need to take the time to fully understand the contract and own responsibility for your website instead of delegating it to your IT or marketing team.

What RYNO Strategic Solutions Does Differently

At RYNO Strategic Solutions, we believe your website is one of your most important business assets.  It’s the source of data you use to profile your clients and the well of analytics you need to track your business’s success. You rely on your website as an online sales representative and as a funnel for new and existing customers to find your business.

At face value, your website is a monument to your brand and legacy, so it’s important that you know who owns your website and that you’re taking good care of it.

Don’t let worries like “What happens if I need to switch marketing companies?” or “Who owns my website?” keep you up at night. Getting started with a marketing agency or website development contract shouldn’t be a game of chance. At RYNO Strategic Solutions, if a client ever cancels services with us, they 100% own their website and can take everything with them as is. That’s the way it should be.

If you’re ready for a search-friendly, conversation-focused website that you own, contact us today. We’re the home services digital marketing agency that believes we exist to connect customers to your business.