Domain Name Registration & MIA Web Developers

I think there’s a big disconnect between those of us who develop Web sites, and the general business population, particularly in regard to registering domain names. Why do I make this suggestion? I’ve encountered three businesses within the last three months who are having major issues dealing with MIA Web developers.

After a decade of business Web development, I suppose it’s no big surprise we’d deal with this sooner or later. Consider the scenario: Joe Business Owner meets Tammy Web Designer, who sells Joe on a great Web site. Tammy takes care of all the details and before Joe knows it he has his own Web site! Some time passes and eventually Tammy moves on to the next big thing, and Joe is left wondering how to update his Web site. Much time passes and eventually Joe meets Wendy Web Designer, and asks Wendy to help him update his Web site. Wendy checks the DNS and sure enough – Tammy’s name is on the domain name registration – not Joe’s. Contacting the host company does little, because as far as they’re concerned Tammy is the owner, not Joe. YIKES!

This type of scenario leaves business owners with huge headaches and sometimes expensive legal fees to regain control of these seemingly lost Web sites. To help avoid these types of situations, I’d like to suggest two things…

First, Web developers - STOP PUTTING YOUR CLIENTS’ DOMAINS IN YOUR NAMES! Let’s have some ethics here people! Technical contact is fine, but we should never be listed as administrative or billing contacts for our clients’ Web sites. Period.

Second, business owners – ask lots of questions of your Web developers and insist that all of your Web site registrations be placed in YOUR name. To check the registration of your existing Web site domains, check WHOIS. The same goes for hosting. Confirm that all hosting accounts are in the BUSINESS name and not the name of your Web developer. You may have the best relationship now with that Web developer, but if everything is in his name and he decides to bolt (for whatever reason), you’ll be left without access to your Web site and will little recourse to fight the issue.