I break from my normal Marketing Monday format for the following public service announcement. I feel this is necessary after helping several people get access to their websites recently. I don’t want you to ever be one of them. I thank Matt Baya for his contributions to this post.
Many people keep important documents in a safe or have the inventory of their house noted in case of a fire or other disaster. It seems as if this ‘let’s have this information in case’ attitude doesn’t necessarily extend to website information. As the owner of a website, you never know when you’ll need this information.
Your disgruntled web host, designer, former employee, or smart cat has all your passwords… Do you?
photo credit: dr.regor
What sort of disaster scenario could happen? Here’s a few:
- your web designer ‘disappears’
- a disgruntled employee with access to this information leaves the company
- your website gets hacked
- your hosting company dissolves
In short, these scenarios where you would need this information are not nearly as crazy as a catastrophic flood. They could happen very easily.
With this in mind, here is the information you should have about your website available. Once you have all of it, print it on a sheet of paper and put it in your safe or other secure location, just in case.
Domain level access
Source: Your web host or wherever you bought your domain
Access to this allows the administration of your domain and do things like transfer the DNS to their web server, create and forward domain branded emails (info@yourdomain.com for example) and do other tasks related to your domain. It could be a GoDaddy (or Network Solutions, Enom, etc.) username and password or, if your hosting company uses Cpanel, it could be a username and password to access www.yourdomain.com/cpanel.
Note: Make sure, once you have access to this, you actually own your own domain name. If you don’t, begin steps with where your domain was purchased to get it back. You may have to fax the changed contact information on your company letterhead or otherwise ‘prove’ your business owns the website. To see if you own your domain, search the WhoIs records. Remember if you privately registered your domain, the contact info will not be your own when you look it up. That’s what you paid for in terms of privacy.
FTP access
Source: Your web host or web designer
Access to this allows you to access files on your domain. It could be html files, images, the software that runs your website, and more. This should be your web host, your username, and password. To see if what you have works, install an FTP client (like Filezilla or Cyberduck), put in the information and see if you can connect to your website via FTP. If you can’t, you’ll get an error. Make sure you type in the password and username exactly; it is case sensitive.
Social Networking access
Source: Whoever set it up
If someone set up your Twitter account, they should give you the username and password. Most social networks work with a username and password. Your Facebook page is a bit different since it is tied in with individual users (ex. I, Nicole Ouellette, am an administrator on the Breaking Even Communications Facebook page). You as an individual should be an administrator on your own Facebook page.
- Make sure you have all this information and put it with all your other important papers for your home or business.
- Make sure all account passwords are different. That way, if someone hacks into one account, they can’t get into all of them.
- And make sure you back up your website regularly. You back up your business data and your family digital photos so make sure you are doing the same efforts with your website. Some web services automatically email you website backups. I get a backup of my website in my email inbox every week for example.
Worried about asking for access information from your web host/designer/friend? Personally, if a client asked me for any of this, I’d give it to them gladly. (Though I might also ask if they were about to fire me but, hey, it’s your information to have, not mine!) Any reputable person isn’t bothered by you wanting control of your own website and should instead go out of their way to help you.
Do you have a website? If so, do you have all this information?