Is your web developer holding your website hostage? (Part-3)

Part 3: Website Ownership

You have probably heard this before: business owners (and sometimes even non-profit organizations) have lost control of their websites because they trusted too much on their developers and did not ask the right questions.

Hiring a web developer (or an agency) is a big decision and you better be sure that before you allow someone to manage or develop your website, they are open, honest and care about your business and it’s image.

This series of articles is intended to show you some steps you can take in order do prevent this type of misfortune from happening to your business.

Important Considerations

We will start with a list of a few things you must consider in order to prevent being held hostage when your website is online.

3. Website Ownership

What does it mean to own a website? It means that you HAVE all the means necessary to make anything you want with that website. In practical terms, whenever you hire a developer or an agency, the work they conduct SHOULD belong to you, not them. Sometimes developers will claim that the work they have done for building your project belongs to them, so ensure your contract states that the ownership belongs to you.

This is the third article of the “Is your web developer holding your website hostage?” series. On June 26, we will continue to part 4, where we will be talking about domain ownership concerns that you might have.

Check our website on June 26 for the next article.