Who owns your website and Google profile if you fire your agency?
Here's a story that happens more than it should. An owner fires an agency, and then finds out the website, the domain and sometimes even the Google profile were set up under the agency's name. Getting them back takes weeks, a lawyer or a fee.
The fix is simple, and it's best done before you hire anyone.
Your Google Business Profile
Google's own help pages lay it out. A profile can have several owners, but only one primary owner. Owners have full control. Managers have mostly the same access, but they can't add or remove people or delete the profile. And only owners can remove other owners and managers.
So the setup you want is this: you are the primary owner, and your agency is a manager. They can do the work. They can't lock you out.
Check it today. In your profile's settings, look at who has access and who's listed as the primary owner. If it isn't you, ask for it to be transferred now, while everyone's still friendly.
Your domain name
Your domain is the address of your website, like yourcompany.com. Whoever is listed as the registrant controls it. ICANN, the organization that oversees domain names, puts it plainly: the registrant assumes "sole responsibility for the registration and use" of the name.
If your agency registered it under their name, that's their name on your address. Log into your registrar account and make sure the registrant is you or your company.
Your ad accounts and your website
Terms.Law, a free legal tools site, flags two things to check in any agency contract. First, whether your ad and analytics accounts are opened in your name, so you keep your data if you leave. Second, who owns the creative work. Some agencies hold logos and designs until the final payment, and may keep rights to show your work in their portfolio.
Ask both questions before you sign, and get the answers in writing.
A quick checklist
- Google Business Profile: you're the primary owner, they're a manager.
- Domain: you're the registrant.
- Website: you own the site and its files, and you have a login.
- Ad accounts: opened in your name, paid with your card or billed to you.
- Logo and photos: yours once they're paid for.
How we handle it
At Momentum, every account stays in your name from day one. We get manager access, never ownership. If you ever leave, you walk away with all of it, because it was always yours.
If you're comparing kinds of help, marketing agency or growth agency? What to ask before you hire anyone covers the rest of the questions to ask.
Want to see what's leaking in your business today? Our free Growth Ladder assessment takes about four minutes.
