Articles

June 2008 - E-marketing Minute - Web site Access Information

Do you have your Web site access information? We have many times dealt with companies that don't have their access information - who their server is, their designer, their domain name registration company, passwords, etc. The secretary who had the info left the company a year ago, the web designer left town or went out of business, or you decided to switch hosting or site maintenance companies. It takes a considerable amount of research to find the information so you can turn it over to another designer or another employee.

Important things to keep on hand about your Web site:

Domain name information: This includes where you registered your domain, when the registration expires and the cost of your renewals (generally in yearly increments), the Web site address, login and password to your domain's control panel (very, very important, all domains have this, and it is required to make changes).

Hosting Information: Where your site is hosted, the Web address, login and password to the hosting control panel (if there is one), the ftp address and ftp login and password information (given to you by your webhost), as well as your hosting plan (how much space you have, etc. - sometimes you have to contact your host to have them provide the details of your hosting plan, but they should all do it).

Company Contacts: Your company should have administrative and technical contact people in charge of your domain name and hosting plans. If your company changes who is in charge or somebody leaves, make sure to update this information immediately. You may need this information in case you want to change hosts or domain names down the road.

An up-to-date backup of everything on your site: Keep an up-to-date backup of your site files locally on your computer or burned to disk. This gives you an extra level of security should a disaster in hosting occur.

Now is the time to gather the information, not when you have a crisis.