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Check Who Owns Your Website and Domain
The do-it-yourself version — every step, no gatekeeping.
“Who owns my website domain?” — if you can’t answer that in one sentence, this guide is worth twenty minutes, because your business may be built on ground someone else holds..
Rather Have This Handled?
No spam. No pressure. The guide below is yours either way — this form is for when you’d rather have it handled.
Prefer to talk? Call 250-287-3549.
Why it matters
Why it matters to a trade
Your domain is the address customers type and the part after the @ in company email. The website is the content and system displayed at that address. They may be billed and controlled by different companies.
Check Who Owns Website and Domain — Cahill Web Studio DIY guide
Check Who Owns Website and Domain — Cahill Web Studio DIY guide
The short version
The 2-minute version
- Look up your domain using an ICANN lookup and note the registrar.
- Confirm the business controls the registrar login and recovery email.
- List who owns the website, hosting, analytics and business-profile accounts.
- Save access details in a company-controlled password manager.
The cost of getting it wrong
What it costs when it’s wrong
For example, a plumbing company ready to replace an old directory website may discover the directory controls the site and the plumber controls only the domain. The new site can still move forward if the domain login is available. Without it, the job becomes slower and riskier.
Local SEO and the bigger picture
The traps
The mistakes that make it worse, not better:
- Letting the domain be registered in a vendor’s name. That is your business’s name on someone else’s deed.
- Cancelling the old provider before the domain, email and website have been safely moved.
- Assuming “we built it” means “you own it.” Read the agreement and ask what can actually be transferred.
Search engine optimization built around how local customers search
When DIY stops making sense
DIY works when the login, recovery email and billing trail are clear. Get help before changing anything when ownership is disputed, email depends on the domain, the site is locked to a provider or no complete backup exists.
Once control is clear, repair Broken Social Links and confirm Tracking Access.
Check Who Owns Website and Domain — Cahill Web Studio DIY guide
The step-by-step — work through it at your own pace
Cahill Web Studio Local SEO Team
Check Who Owns Website and Domain — Cahill Web Studio DIY guide
Step-by-step
Shortcut: everything above, done for you — $595 flat, two weeks, no logins. Reply “do it.”
Get Started
Ready to speak with a local expert?
Give us a ring — we answer the phone.
- 29+ years serving Vancouver Island trades, retailers & service businesses
- 200+ projects completed across the Island since 1996
- 5.0 stars across Google, Facebook, Yelp & Yellow Pages
- Clear, simple advice — no sales pressure, no fine print
Rather have this handled?
Map Pack Ignition — $595 flat. Your Google listing rebuilt, review engine installed, listings synced, broken links repaired — done inside two weeks, no meeting, no website logins needed. Every item documented.
And the $595 isn’t spent: it converts into a deposit — full credit toward your first month of any ongoing plan within 90 days.
Reply “do it” — I’ll handle the rest
Prefer the full picture first? Your personalized plan — priced, guaranteed, no meeting — is one reply away: reply “PLAN”.
Prefer to talk? Call 250-287-3549.