Ending an engagement with any web design and development team is a high-risk event for any brand. With your credentials, an unhappy web team can delete your business website, disrupt your hosting services, wipe valuable CRM records, or even hijack your paid and social media accounts. Before you fire your web design team, take a look at the checklist below for a smoother transition.
Step 1: Carefully Review Your Contracts
First and foremost, review your Master Services Agreement (MSA) and Statement of Work (SOW). Many contracts contain an exit clause specifying a notice period before termination. There may be other legal requirements you’ll need to follow, such as the type of notice and the reasons for termination. If you have a good relationship with your former web team, you may be able to negotiate a clean exit. However, legal counsel is recommended to ensure compliance with the contract terms.
Step 2: Secure Access Credentials to all Your Web Services
Because your digital presence exists across multiple platforms and services, ensure you have or are working towards full ownership of the seven items below.
Note, you’ll notice the threat level for each item, which is briefly explained:
- Critical threat – replacing it is a huge lift and extremely costly. Abuse of it will hurt your digital brand.
- Medium threat – it can be replaced but requires a bit of effort. Abuse of it can hurt your digital brand.
- Minor threat – it can be easily replaced. Abuse of it will do little to no damage to your digital brand.
1. Website & Server Access - Your Digital Front
CMS Credentials (WordPress, Shopify, etc.)
- Your content management system (CMS) controls everything on your website. It houses all your text, video, and image content. Without CMS access, you have no way of managing what people see on your website.
- Critical threat
SSH Security Keys
- Allows access to your web server and is critical for web development teams to manage it. The issue with an SSH key is that it can be shared and used to access your server at any time.
- Critical threat
Cloud Credentials (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, etc.)
- The cloud houses all of your digital services: hosting, files, domain, and CDN configurations. You must maintain these credentials.
- Critical threat
2. Analytics & Tracking - Your Customer Insights
Google Analytics
- Retain ownership to access historical data and ensure tracking continuity. If you lose access, it’s not the end of the world. It just makes data-driven decisions challenging. Fortunately, you can partner with a web team, like Uplancer, to reimplement Google Analytics and to enrich your decision-making with industry data.
- Medium threat
Google Tag Manager
- Google Tag Manager (GTM) sends event data to third-party services. If access is lost, GTM can be reinstalled fairly easily.
- Minor threat
3. Advertising Accounts - Your Paid Channels
Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and More
- Losing access means losing valuable campaign data and benchmarking for future ads. Although losing this data is painful, a good digital marketing team can set your ads up again in a matter of days on a different account. You’ll need to be patient, though; your ads will need to relearn PPC algorithms, which can take days to months. Just make sure to block any billing charges from your lost account.
- Medium threat
4. Social Media Accounts - Your Social Channels
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok
- An angry web team can delete posts, engage with customers maliciously, change passwords, or disrupt customer engagement. If you lose access to your social media accounts, there are steps that you can follow to disable and reclaim them.
- Critical threat
5. Business Listings & Local SEO - Your Local Presence
Google Business Profile (Google My Business)
- A Google Business Profile is critical for all businesses since over 90% of searches happen on Google. If you don’t already have ownership of your profile, reach out to Google for help reclaiming it and preventing abuse of it.
- Critical threat
Yelp, Clutch, Yellow Pages, Chamber Listings
- Similar to social media and Google, you’ll want to prevent abuse of your brand. Reclaim these local listing accounts as soon as you can.
- Critical threat
6. CRM & Email Systems - Your Marketing Technologies
CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.)
- Losing access to your Customer Relationship Management software could mean losing potential leads, customer data, and crucial communications. You’ve spent time, energy, and resources setting up a sales process and acquiring leads. If your CRM is the only source of truth, you may not have a way to follow up with past, current, or future customers.
- Critical threat
Email Admin Access (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.)
- Email is the core communication channel for many businesses, so don’t ever give administrator access to it. Otherwise, it will be a tough fight to regain control of email service providers such as Microsoft and Google. Additionally, your previous web team can delete your email inboxes, disable emailing completely, and/or forward and respond to your emails.
- Critical threat
7. Plugins & Third-Party Services - Your Third Part Services
Paid Plugins & Software Licenses
- Ensure they are registered under your business, and not your web team. If not, you can purchase another license under a new account and share it with your new web design team for implementation.
- Minor threat
Form & Compliance Tools (JotForms, CookieYes)
- If tied to your old team, these services can be revoked unexpectedly. As a result, your business may be at risk of non-compliance with local laws (GDPR, PIPEDA, and equivalent). Therefore, replace and implement them immediately if lost.
- Medium threat
Payment Processing Accounts (Stripe, PayPal, Square)
- Unauthorized changes to your payment accounts could result in fraud and financial loss to your company. Although you can recover the account if it’s lost, it will likely be a drawn-out, messy process. Try to avoid this when possible.
- Critical threat
There are a number of critical threats to your digital brand, and you must fight tooth and nail to gain ownership of them all. If you need help reclaiming ownership of what’s yours and prevent future business disruptions from occurring, reach out to Uplancer for help!
Step 3: Conduct a Proper Walkthrough and Handover with Your New Web Design Team
Once you’ve gained access to your accounts, walk your new web team through your digital setup. Ensure that they understand where everything is and what each of your services does. Note, a well-documented transition reduces downtime and prevents surprises, and can be used for future transitions.
For cloud services like AWS, remember to delegate developer access with the appropriate permissions rather than sharing your root or primary account credentials with them. If you’re unsure of how, let us know and we can help!
Step 4 (If Needed): Final Resolutions if Your Web Design Team Still Doesn’t Cooperate
If you’ve reached this stage, we’re sorry that you’re going through this. We’ve seen similar situations unwind badly, but the good thing is it’s not over. What you’ll need to do first is weigh your options:
1. Calculate the True Cost of Contract Termination
Ending an engagement isn’t just about cutting ties; it comes with hidden costs. Therefore, be rational and take the path with the least resource resistance while considering the following:
- Legal Fees: If these disputes can’t be resolved mutually, you may need legal intervention. This route may end up being more costly than parting ways and rebuilding your site.
- Termination Fees: Some contracts require payment for the remaining balance or a termination fee.
- Business Downtime: A poorly managed transition can lead to lost revenue and halt your business operations.
- Rebuilding Costs: If your website is taken hostage, a complete website rebuild and migration may be necessary, which can be very expensive. However, there might be a cheaper middle ground that a web design agency can help with.
2. Pick Your Poison – It’s Not Free
If the incumbent web design team still refuses to hand over access, you have two viable options:
- Take Legal Action: You may have legal grounds to reclaim your digital accounts. A formal notice from your lawyer can sometimes be enough. Litigation can cost tens of thousands of dollars and can take years before you get your website back.
- Go With Lift-and-Shift / Rebuild: Rebuilding may be the quickest and only solution, and probably something you’d want to start immediately. We’ve assisted businesses in this situation, helping them migrate their websites and digital assets to a more secure environment of their own within weeks.
Final Takeaway: Ownership Is Key
The web design golden rule: Never give up complete control of your digital services and assets.
Know what’s yours with the checklist above and protect your business from sabotage, financial loss, and unnecessary headaches. If things go sour with your web designer, proceed cautiously through contract termination and consult with a new web design team for help. And when you’re ready to fire your agency, read about how to do so here.
Need Advice on What to do?
Uplancer specializes in doing web design and web development the right way. We can help strategize, plan, and execute a smooth transition away from your web team, or serve as their replacement! Contact us for a free consultation and start safeguarding your online presence today.
