Changing your web or marketing agency is simple when your business owns its accounts, and painful when it doesn't. Your domain, website, hosting, ad accounts and analytics should all be in your business's name, with your own login at the highest access level. Check that before you give notice, because it's much harder to sort out once the relationship has ended.
We've seen what happens when it goes wrong. When Crispy Green's relationship with their previous agency ended, the agency cut off access to the website and hosting and locked the company's own users out of their store. One admin account had been overlooked, and it was the way back in. We took a full copy of the site, kept the business trading and later moved the store to Shopify. Not every business has a forgotten login to fall back on, so here's what to check first.
Who owns my website?
Paying for a website doesn't automatically make it yours. In Ireland, the Intellectual Property Office says that unless the contract for the job states your business will own the copyright, it stays with the person or company that created it. It also says a transfer of copyright only has legal effect if it's in writing and signed. UK government guidance says the same about commissioned work: the creator is the first owner unless you agree otherwise in writing.
In practice, owning a website comes down to four things: the domain name, the design and code, the content, and the hosting account it runs on. Look for a clause in your original contract or terms that gives you the copyright, and ask for it in writing if there isn't one. This isn't legal advice, so talk to a solicitor if ownership is in dispute.
What to own before you change agency
Your domain name
The domain should be registered to your business, not to the agency or to someone who used to work there. The registered holder is the one with the right to move it. For .com and other generic domains, ICANN's transfer policy says registered name holders must be able to move their domain between registrars, and the registrar has to give them the authorisation code to do it. For a .ie domain, the .ie registry needs the current holder's authorisation, given through their registrar, to change who owns it, so sort that out while everyone is still talking.
Your hosting and website files
Ask whose account the website is hosted on and whether you can log in to it. If it's the agency's account, ask for a full backup of the site and its database, or for the site to be moved to an account in your name before you leave. You should also have your own administrator login to the website itself, whether it's WordPress, Shopify, Webflow or something custom.
Your Google Ads account
Being able to see your ads isn't the same as owning the account. In Google Ads, admin access is the level that can give other people access, change access levels, accept or reject requests from an agency's manager account and unlink manager accounts. Your own email should hold admin access, and the billing should be set up in your business's name, so you can see exactly what you spend.
Your Meta ad account and Facebook page
Your Facebook Page, Instagram account and ad account should belong to your own business portfolio in Meta Business Suite, with the agency added as a partner. Meta's help centre explains that a partner given full control can manage an asset but can't share it with another business, because only the business that owns the asset can do that.
Google Analytics and Tag Manager
Make sure someone in your business has the Administrator role in Google Analytics, because that's the role that manages users. Google won't let the last Administrator remove themselves, which protects an account from being left with nobody in charge. Do the same for Google Tag Manager if your website uses it.
Google Search Console
Search Console has verified owners, who proved ownership with a verification token, and delegated owners, who were added by a verified owner. Google says that if all verified owners are removed, everyone else loses access after a grace period. If the agency verified the property and you were only added as a delegated owner, verify it yourself.
Your Google Business Profile
You want to be an owner of your Google Business Profile, ideally the primary owner, because only owners can add or remove users. New owners also have to wait seven days before they can remove other owners or managers or transfer primary ownership, so start early.
Everything else
- Social media accounts, with your own admin login on each.
- Your email marketing platform and its subscriber list.
- Any call tracking numbers on your website or ads, since calls to those numbers can stop when the agency's account closes.
- Your CRM and its data, with an export you can open yourself.
- Logo files, brand guidelines, photos and videos, plus the licences for any stock images.
How to change agency without losing your website, ads or rankings
- List every account while you're still on good terms. Write down each account, whose name it's in and who has the top level of access.
- Get ownership moved to you before you give notice. Leave time for the Google Business Profile's seven-day wait and any domain paperwork.
- Save what you'd want to keep. Download reports, conversion settings and a copy of the website before anything changes.
- Give the new agency access to your accounts. Don't let them rebuild your ads or analytics from scratch in accounts of their own, because the history stays with the account.
- Keep the website's addresses, or redirect them. If the site is moving or being rebuilt, every old page needs a permanent redirect to its new address. Our website redesign checklist covers how to do that without losing rankings.
- Remove the old agency's access last. Once the handover is done, take them off Google Ads, Meta, Analytics, Search Console, your Business Profile, the hosting and the domain account.
Red flags in any agency agreement
- The agency registers your domain, ad accounts or analytics in its own name.
- Your only access is a report, or a login the agency created for you.
- The contract doesn't say who owns the copyright in your website.
- Your ad spend is paid through the agency with no way for you to see what Google or Meta actually charged.
- You don't know how long the contract runs or what you'd take with you if you left.
How we handle it at Everblue
Our clients own their Google Ads, Meta and analytics accounts. They pay their ad spend directly to Google and Meta, and our management is billed separately. There's no minimum contract term for monthly work, so if you decide to move on, the accounts and their history are already yours.
If you're thinking of moving your web design, SEO or PPC management to us, the first step is the same checklist above, and we'll go through it with you.
Key takeaways
- Paying for a website doesn't make it yours: in Ireland and the UK, copyright in commissioned work stays with the creator unless a written agreement says otherwise.
- Your domain, hosting, ad accounts, analytics and Google Business Profile should all be in your business's name, with your own login at the top access level.
- Move ownership to your business before you give notice, and allow seven days for Google Business Profile ownership changes.
- Give a new agency access to your existing accounts rather than letting it start again in its own.
- Redirect every old page if the website moves, and remove the old agency's access only once the handover is complete.
Thinking of switching agency?
Book a free website audit, delivered on a free 20-minute call. We'll look at your website with you, talk through which accounts you'd need to have in your own name, and tell you what we'd fix first.