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Existing sites

Taking over an existing website

The site is fine. The person who built it is not answering. We take it on as it stands.
Website shown: Mount Olivet

What it is

This is not a rebuild. We take the site as it stands, establish proper access to it, and become the people you contact when something needs doing.

It starts with an access audit — domain, hosting, DNS, admin, email, analytics. Missing credentials are the usual reason a takeover stalls, so they are dealt with first.

After that you get the same arrangement as anybody we built for: you email the change, we make it.

Who it is for

  • The developer has gone quiet, changed careers, or answers in a fortnight.
  • An employee built it and has since left.
  • You are paying somebody monthly and cannot establish what for.
  • The site works, but nobody currently alive can log into it.

What is included

  • Access audit across domain, DNS, hosting, admin, email and analytics
  • Ownership moved into your name wherever it is not already
  • A written list of what we found, including anything broken or out of date
  • The option to move onto our hosting, or to stay where you are
  • Updates, backups and changes from that point onwards

What is not

  • Rescuing a site that is beyond rescuing. Sometimes a rebuild is the honest answer and we say so before you pay anything.
  • Recovering a domain you cannot demonstrate you own. That is a registrar dispute, not a design job.
  • Platforms we do not run. We will tell you on the call rather than find out later.

How it runs

4 steps, in this order.

  1. 01

    What you have

    You give us the domain. We can see the hosting, the platform, the mail provider and the certificate from the outside before you send us a single password.

  2. 02

    Access

    We list every account the site depends on and help you claim the ones you do not hold. This is the slow part and it is the part worth doing properly.

  3. 03

    Report

    A plain list: what is out of date, what is broken, what is a genuine risk, what is fine. No score out of a hundred and no colour-coded dashboard.

  4. 04

    Handover

    You decide whether to move the hosting. Either way, from that point you email us and it gets done.

Price

The audit and the report are quoted after a short call, because the price depends entirely on what state things are in. Ongoing changes are priced as a monthly plan.

Questions people actually ask

What if I do not have any of the logins?

Common, and usually solvable. Domain control can be re-established through the registrar and hosting through whoever holds the account. If a previous developer registered the domain in their own name it is harder, and we will be straight with you about the odds.

Will you criticise whoever built it?

No. We will tell you what is out of date because you need to know that. Most inherited sites are perfectly reasonable and were simply left alone too long.

Do I have to move hosting to you?

No. It is simpler and usually cheaper if you do, but we can work on a site hosted elsewhere provided we get real access to it.

What if the site is built on something unusual?

Give us the domain on the call and we will say yes or no before you commit to anything. WordPress, static sites and most PHP are fine.

Can you take over only the email?

Yes. Mailboxes can move independently of the site, and for a lot of businesses the email is the urgent part.

How long does a takeover take?

The technical work is a day. Collecting access from a third party is the variable, and it has taken anywhere from an afternoon to a month depending on who is answering.