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# Domain and Hosting Ownership: A Small-Business Checklist

A website can be technically healthy and still be difficult to move, renew or recover if nobody knows who controls the domain and hosting accounts. Before a business treats a website launch as complete, document these ownership boundaries.

## Keep the domain in a business-controlled account

The registrant should be the business or the person the business has explicitly chosen. Record which registrar holds the domain, the renewal date and who can approve account recovery. Do not make a future website migration depend on a former contractor's personal login.

## Record the active DNS authority

Write down the current nameservers and the important records for the website, email and verification services. Hosting and DNS are related, but they do not have to be provided by the same company.

## Separate hosting access from website administration

A WordPress administrator login is not the same thing as control-panel or hosting-account access. Document who owns each layer and how access should be transferred when an agency or employee leaves.

## Know the first-term and renewal terms

If hosting is prepaid, compare the full amount charged today with the renewal rule. Domain registration can also have a different renewal date from the hosting term, especially when the first domain year is included in a launch offer.

## Keep a migration path

Maintain usable backups and know how to export the website's files and database. A long hosting term can lower cost, but it should not make ownership or future migration unclear.

Disclosure: this post is published by DotMoose. DotMoose currently offers Shared Starter at an effective C$2.94/month for the first 36-month term with code MOOSE294. C$105.84 is prepaid before tax. Renewal uses the then-current ordinary three-year Starter rate. Eligible launch orders may also include one standard, non-premium .com or .ca registration at C$0 for year one while the domain bonus is active; normal domain renewal pricing applies afterward, and checkout confirms current eligibility.

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