What to Do if Your Webmaster Resigns

Your domain is an important business asset. E.g. bluetree.co.uk identifies our domain. It is registered in a global directory called the Domain Name System, or DNS. The two main risks associated with domain names are:

1. Your domain is registered for a fixed period. If it's not renewed on time you can lose it, and all the time and effort you've put in to developing your on-line image and website;
2. It can be stolen, or hacked, by anyone who has the login and password, and used to display porn, terrorist or other reputation-damaging information.

This is sufficiently important for you to make sure the password is changed, and a current email address is registered. You need to be sure the reminders go to someone who'll do something about it.

TIP: Check to make sure your company is the registered as owner of the domain. Some website designers put their own details in here, but this is where legal title to the domain is recorded. It's OK for someone else to be the registered as the technical contact, though you may want to take that over, too.

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Your website host owns the computer that physically holds your website.

They will provide access to a "dashboard" that controls access to your disc space, your bandwidth, back-up regime, and so on. You need the administrator login name and password, and possibly an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) login, which might be different.

TIP: Is your website site backed up regularly? When did you last check the back-up works?

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The CMS is the software you use to update your website's content.

There may be content editor log-ins but you'll need the administrator's password, too, so you can add or change editor logins.

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You may run a blog to promote your company.

Several people may be able to post on the blog, but there will also be an administrator password. This is the one you need to manage the blog.

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Google and Bing supply and ever-increasing wealth of information about your website. What they tell you is very useful in developing a site. It includes,

• Visitor numbers;
• Errors that stop search engines indexing a page;
• Optimisation hints and ideas;
• Your site's subject matter, in the search engines' eyes.

Webmaster tools identify users by adding code, or a file, to your website. You'll need the FTP password to do this. Once done, you can view the information using your usual Google or Microsoft log-ins.

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"Analytics" is the term used to describe website usage statistics. Bing and Google provide analytics. There are also some independent tools, such as StatCounter. The kind of data they provide includes,

• Visitor arrival and leaving pages, and paths through the site,
• Where visitors come from, and the search terms they used,
• Browsers used, whether mobile or static.

They all require code on the web pages you want to monitor. You can then log in to your Bing and Google accounts as usual, though you'll need separate login details for the independent tools.

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It's important to maintain control of your company web pages on Google "My Business", Bing's "Places for Business" portal, LinkedIn, Twitter, FaceBook, YouTube, Pinterest, and the like.

Each will have a login name and password.

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Don't forget your Google AdWords, Bing and Facebook advertising accounts.

By upping the budget, a vindictive leaver can cost you a lot of money. You may well not notice until it's been taken from your bank account!

But then, you might some unexpected extra business, too :o)

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The Internet is awash directories that list businesses. Some are pretty general, like Yell, and some local. Many specialise in industry verticals.

Unless your business is new, you can be sure it will be listed in many directories. Some are more useful than others. Somewhere, your Webmaster will have a list of the directories pages claimed, the login, password and contact email address for each one.

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