Creating and maintaining a successful online presence requires a lot of attention in every company. There are plenty of tools available...

  • for communication with customers (e-mail addresses, websites, social media pages, landing pages, etc.),
  • for online marketing (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, MailChimp, etc.)
  • and to analyze user behavior (Google Analytics, heat map analysis tools, etc.).

However, these tools are worthless if you don't have access to them, or if you don't know exactly who besides you has access and at what level.

In the majority of cases, everything works perfectly until the new company website is ready and the web development company requests access to the domain names, storage spaces and analytical tools for activation.

Tartalomjegyzék

Questions that arise

The following questions usually arise in this case:

  • What domain names has the company previously registered, who owns them and who manages them?
  • Who has access to company social media accounts?
  • which domain name does the website belong to, where is it hosted and what is its access?
  • what kind of landing pages belong to the websites?
  • What e-mail mailboxes belong to the domain names and who reads them?
  • What platforms do inquiries (leads) from websites go to and who reads them?
  • what online marketing platforms, software, media are in use and who has access to them, with what authority?
  • where and on which platform are the newsletter subscriptions collected in the previous period stored?
  • … etc.

Unpleasant examples

Through a couple of unpleasant examples from previous years, I would like to show what it is better not to face in this case:

  • the company has registered dozens of domain names in previous years, but no one knows who maintains them
  • the domain names believed to be their own are no longer owned by the company, because they forgot to extend their maintenance
  • the former developer/employee/marketer registered the domain name in his own name and refuses to transfer it
  • it is not known to which domain name correspondence belongs, who reads the mailboxes
  • it is not known who has access to the website's administration system, and the old developer has disappeared
  • there is no database of newsletter subscribers, no one remembers who managed it and on what platform
  • the corporate Facebook, Instagram, Analytics, Ads... etc. it is not known who has access to the accounts
  • no one responded to inquiries from the website, because the colleague to whom the leads were sent no longer works for the company

To prevent these problems, I have prepared a comprehensive domain, hosting and web registry guide. All you have to do is go through it and answer the questions it asks.

It is important that this list should not be filled out only once, but should be constantly updated as soon as there is a change in any area.

Registration of domain names

  • what domain names does the company own or use?
  • Who is the registrar, maintainer and technical contact for which domain name?
  • which subdomains belong to which domain name?
  • What DNS settings do domain names and subdomains have?
  • there is an online interface for domain data, e.g. To change DNS settings? If so, who has access with which e-mail address?

Possible problems we want to avoid:

  • it is not known who maintains the domain name, the company does not receive the invoice for the extension, the domain name expires and is owned by someone else.
  • there is a domain name and associated website or subpage in the system that we do not know about.
  • there is a service belonging to a domain, e.g. correspondence of which we are not aware.
  • unknown domain names point to a website, which causes duplication of content and loss of ranking in Google.
  • the domain names in use are owned by a foreign company or individual who refuses to transfer them.

Registration of websites

  • which domain name does the website belong to?
  • what is the website admin's contact information?
  • who has access to the admin interface?
  • which company is responsible for the operation and development of the website?
  • what landing pages are you using?
  • where do inquiries from online marketing campaigns end up?
  • What external systems is the website connected to? Who is their contact person?
    - CRM systems
    - ERP systems
    - Automatic inclusion of legal texts from external sources
    - Google Maps API key for the operation of the map inserted into the website
    - software connection with external webshops and websites
    - bank card payment services
    - connections with external courier companies
    - connection with invoicing systems
    - ... etc.

Possible problems we want to avoid:

  • Websites that are neglected and left without maintenance contain outdated information and will be infected with viruses, thus negatively affecting the reputation of the company
  • the former development company disappears and thus the accesses cease
  • the content of the website should be changed urgently, but there is no information on who or how to access it
  • too many improperly managed admin access increases the risk of virus infection
  • the web developer did not know about the external webshop connection of the old website, and the operation of those systems stopped with the new website
  • the web developer edits, deletes, changes URLs on landing pages to which campaigns were linked, as a result of which the campaigns run with an error message

Registration of web hosting

  • what storage spaces belong to each website?
  • Who is the provider of which hosting? Who is the contact for hosting?
  • what is the FTP availability of the hosts?
  • is there any website-independent data on the storage that needs to be saved in the event of a change?

Possible problems we want to avoid:

  • the website needs to be accessed urgently via the hosting, but we don't know who the service provider is, who to look for
  • there is outdated / confidential data on the storage, but we don't know about it
  • the hosting provider is performing a technology upgrade, which will cause the old websites to go down and we will not be notified in advance
  • developers would make changes to the website but not access the storage
  • the new website starts on a new storage location, but it turns out afterwards that there were other important data on the old storage location that were not saved, so they were lost

Registration of e-mail addresses

  • which domain does mail belong to?
  • who is the mail service provider?
  • what mailboxes are in use?
  • who reads which e-mail inbox?
  • What correspondence rules are set for which e-mail address?
  • Possible problems we want to avoid:
    - there are active e-mail addresses that no one reads
    - the incoming leads belong to an email address that no one reads
    - many years of e-mail forwarding rules are mixed up, which makes it mysterious where the letters land according to the logic
    - due to personal changes, a correspondence should be saved, the password should be changed, but they do not know who and where this can be done

Registration of online marketing campaigns

  • what online marketing campaigns are running?
  • what media are the campaigns running on? Who manages them?
  • what software is used during the campaigns?
    HotJar
    Google Search Console
    Google Tag Manager
    Google Ads
    Google Analytics
    ... etc.
  • who has access to this software?

Possible problems we want to avoid:

  • information, leads, and data stored in campaigns may be lost when changing campaign management companies

Registration of social media accounts

  • what social media sites are there?
    Twitter
    Facebook
    LinkedIN
    Instagram
    Pinterest
    …
  • who can access it, with what authority?

Possible problems we want to avoid:

  • the employee managing the social media page leaves the company and the account registered in his name disappears with him
  • due to improperly regulated access, sensitive information is posted on social media sites