Most marketing vendors are honest and do good work. The point of this check is simple: you should hold the keys, and the people helping you should have access you can change.
I have sat across from a lot of owners who learned who controlled their website on the worst possible day: the vendor closed, retired, stopped answering, or handed everything back with a list of logins and a short goodbye. In November 2026 I talked with a business owner whose marketing company handed her WordPress site back and stopped sending the leads she had paid for each month. The site was still up. The questions were all about ownership.
You can answer those questions in about ten minutes, today, while nothing is wrong. Here is the list.
The seven things to check
- Domain name. The registrar account holding yourbusiness.com.
- DNS. The settings that point the domain at your website and deliver your email.
- Hosting. Where the website files run.
- Website admin. The administrator login for WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace or whatever the site runs on.
- Google Business Profile. The listing with your map pin, reviews and phone number.
- Google Search Console and Analytics. Where you see what people search to find you and what they do on the site.
- Email and social accounts. Your business email and your Facebook page.
1. Your domain
Look up your domain at lookup.icann.org. The owner details are usually hidden for privacy, but you will see which company the domain is registered with and when it expires. Then ask yourself: can I log in to that registrar today, with my own email address, and see this domain in my account?
If the answer is no, ask your vendor to move the domain into an account in your name. A good vendor will do this without a fuss. Turn on auto-renew with a card you control. A domain that lapses takes your website and your email down at the same time.
2. DNS and email
DNS is a short list of settings that tells the internet where your website and your email live. You do not need to understand every line. You do need to know where it is managed and to be able to log in there. When anyone moves your website, the email settings must be copied exactly, or your email stops arriving.
3. Hosting and the website itself
You want two logins here: one for the hosting account and one administrator login for the website. If the vendor hosts many clients in one account, ask for a full backup copy of your site and a written note of where it lives. If you ever leave, that backup is what you take with you.
4. Google Business Profile
For most local businesses, the Google listing brings in more calls than the website. Sign in at business.google.com with your own Google account and look at the people listed on your profile. You want to be the owner. Vendors can be managers.
If you are not on the profile at all, Google lets you request ownership. As of November 2026, Google's help page says the current owner is emailed and has 3 days to respond, and that you may be able to claim the profile after that if they do not. Start this early, because verification can take more than one try.
5. Search Console and Analytics
These are free Google tools, and the history in them belongs with your website, not with the person who set them up. If you cannot get access from the old vendor, you can verify yourself as an owner in Search Console by adding a record to your DNS. Once verified, you see the past search data too.
6. Phone numbers and forms
This one is easy to miss. Some marketing companies publish a tracking phone number that forwards to you, and many build contact forms that send to their system first. Call every number on your website and Google listing, and fill out your own contact form. Make sure each one reaches you directly, or that you know exactly who it passes through.
7. Social accounts and the rest
Make sure your Facebook page has you as a full admin, and that your business email is not tied to a vendor's account. Keep a simple list of every login in one safe place, such as a password manager.
If a vendor holds the keys
Most of the time this is an accident, not a trick. Someone set things up quickly years ago and never moved them over. Ask plainly and in writing: "Please add me as the owner on these accounts. You can stay on as a manager while we keep working together." A vendor you want to keep will say yes.
If you have just been handed everything back, do not rush into a redesign. Get the logins, test the forms and phone numbers, make a backup, and keep the page addresses that already bring in calls. The rest can wait a few weeks.
If your business does excavation, demolition or land clearing, our Dirtwork Digital team wrote a contractor version of this checklist.
Want a second set of eyes? I can walk through your accounts with you on a short call and tell you what to fix first.