Do You Own Your Website And Why This Matters
If you’re asking yourself the question, “do I own my website?”, then that’s great! You’re not alone. If you’re not asking it, you need to be!
If you have, or are planning on having, your website designed and built on your behalf, this seemingly minor fact actually matters a lot. You need to know where you stand legally, when it comes to your website and everything it includes.
5 Ways To Take Ownership of Your Website
Here’s the overview…
- Confirm Your Legal Ownership Rights
- Check Your Website Platform
- Invest in Frequent Edits & Updates
- Regularly Test Your Website Functionality
- Keep Your Admin Details Safe
It’s not uncommon for business owners to feel confused or completely out of their depth when it comes to web design and understanding all its technical jargon. Many people just trust their web designer to “take care of this for them”, never questioning whether everything has been set-up to protect you.
Before we break down what steps we recommend, we wanted to express the seriousness of the consequences of not taking ownership of your website, and how detrimental it can be.
- Complete dependency on your web designer to make minor tweaks and changes,
- being locked in with a web designer if they’ve legally registered your domain name under their ABN,
- being held to ransom, if they legally own your domain and want to charge you big bucks to move it away, or
- if you have purchased a business with a website, the previous owners coming back and laying claim to YOUR domain.
Regaining Your Website Ownership
Here are 5 ways in which you can take ownership of your website to ensure it does what you need it to do. That is, effectively represent your business online, convert prospects into loyal customers and help you scale + grow your business.
1 | Confirm Your Legal Ownership Rights
Right at the start, when you hire your web designer, you want to be clear that you will legally own your website. Determining legal ownership includes ensuring you own copyright over aspects like your website content, imagery and brand style guide, even when your web designer has created it for you. You want to be sure you will have access to all of this once your website build is complete.
You can also check your domain name ownership with whois.com.
2 | Do I Own My Website? Why the Platform Matters.
Taking ownership of your website involves understanding more about the platform used to build it.
Web-Sta uses WordPress to build all of our Clients’ websites. WordPress is known worldwide as one of the most reliable platforms available, offering:
- Flexibility in design
- Multiple functions from blogging to shopping carts, membership portals, booking systems, and more
- Foundation for powerful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies
- Integrations with social media channels and email databases
- User-friendly dashboard
- Transferability between different hosting companies
- Extensive support
In addition to the many tutorials available online that support WordPress, we have created our own Web-Sta TechHub that empowers our clients to make changes to their website if and when they want to.
3 | Invest in Frequent Website Updates
Just like the nature of your business, your online information is likely to change. Not only is it important to have accurate online information so potential customers know how to reach you, it is also your legal obligation to do so.
Prospective customers will expect your website to be up to date and it needs to look like it’s being managed and maintained.
If you’re selling products or services online, ensuring things like your privacy policy, procedures, contact information and refund policy are completely up to date mitigates risk and annoyed customers. If your content, images or promotions are out of date, this doesn’t exactly give the impression to potential customers that you have any ownership of your website, or take pride in what you are offering.
There is nothing worse for a potential customer than finding an exciting promotion on your website, only to discover it’s no longer available!
It’s a representation of your business and, when done correctly, can serve as a powerful tool to convert leads into repeat customers.
4 | Make a Habit of Testing
Due to continuous software updates, your buttons, forms and links need to be tested regularly to ensure they are functioning as they should and that you’re familiar with where and who your online enquiries are being directed.
5 | Keep Your Login Details Safe + Regular Security Updates
Probably the most important question to ask yourself after “Do I own my website?” is “How safe and secure is my website?”
With the total cost of cybercrime projected to reach $6 trillion by 2021, it pays to be careful.
Websites are subject to spam and viruses if not carefully managed and maintained. To help combat this, you will want to do two things:
- Ensure your website administration login details are safely stored and accessible by you
- Perform regular safety and security updates to combat spam and computer viruses
If you’re asking yourself the question, “do I own my website?”, then that’s great! You’re not alone. If you’re not asking it, you need to be!
If you have, or are planning on having, your website designed and built on your behalf, this seemingly minor fact actually matters a lot. You need to know where you stand legally, when it comes to your website and everything it includes.
Key Takeaways
There you have it. Five steps towards taking ownership of your website.
If you would like more information about website ownership and what it means for your business, let us know. As always, for more website and marketing resources, become a Web-Sta Insider.
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Target Audience + Consumer Behaviour
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