Take Ownership of Your Website Assets

Pat Monette, Web Developer at Foundery Digital Marketing Group

We love to get clients who are switching their SEO services to us, but often, before we can start our work, we have to spend a lot of time helping clients to get access to their website assets so we can get started. We cannot stress how important it is for you to have full control over your website, after all, it is yours! If you own a website, you need to make sure you have all your user logins, as well as access to your cPanel, FTP account and your Domain Management. You don’t need to provide your SEO company with this information if you don’t feel comfortable giving it out. However, it is essential you have access to this information yourself. Without this information, we will not be able to help you out in case of an emergency like a site crash, or a website hack.

cPanel

cPanel is a control panel that lets you manage many aspects of your web hosting account. Every site owner should have access to their cPanel; the logins are provided to you by your hosting company once you have set up an account with them. If you don’t have access to your cPanel, we highly recommend you find out who does have access, as this is crucial to managing your web hosting account. If you don’t have access and/or are unsure who has access, you can contact your hosting company and they should be able to help you. Below are a few screenshots to help you recognize the cPanel (please note that the layout/design of the cPanel might vary depending on your hosting provider).

There is a chance that your hosting package does not include a cPanel. In this case, you will want to make sure you have FTP access.

FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol – it is used to easily transfer files from a computer to a web server. FTP Users can be managed via the cPanel. In some cases, your hosting provider will provide you with an FTP account. If not, the person who has set up your website should have this information.

Domain Management

Aside from having access to your cPanel, you should also know where your domain name is registered. Usually, your domain name(s) are registered with the same company as your web hosting provider, but this isn’t always the case – your domain name can be registered with a different company. If so, make sure you have access to your domain management account. You should have this information in your records from when you registered your domain name. If someone else has set this up for you, please check with them and ask them to provide you with these details.

Have more questions about website assets?