Despite what you might think, you might not fully control your credit union website. There may come a time when you’re ready to move your website to a new web hosting provider. You don’t want to be caught off guard if your current service refuses to turn over your website components. To ensure a smooth transition from your current hosting provider to your new one, be sure that you retain ownership over are your domain name and the designed website.

 

Your Domain Name

In reality, you’ll never fully own your domain name. Instead, whoever registers the domain is permitted to use it.

You can purchase a domain from a registrar accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or from the registrar’s reseller. More than likely, this will be your credit union web hosting provider.

If you’re unsure if you’re the registered domain account owner, you can find out registrar and registrant information through a WhoIs search. Should you ever decide to switch web hosting services, you will want to know the following:

  • the registrar who registered the domain,
  • the logon credentials for the domain account’s administration portal,
  • the primary, administrative, and technical contacts for the domain, and
  • the payment, billing, and renewal information for the domain.

To ensure that you have exclusive rights to your credit union domain name, include “ownership” rights in your web hosting contract. You can also purchase your domain through a third-party registrar before finding a hosting service to have complete control over your website name.

 

Your Designed Website

You also don’t want to be surprised to discover that you don’t own your designed website. Unless the contract with your web designer or digital marketing company explicitly states that you own the completed site, you may only have permission or a license to use it. In this case, the designer or company would retain the intellectual property rights of your website, and they may be reluctant or unwilling to turn over the site code and content if you decide to break ties with them.

Keep in mind that the content you provide directly to your web designer is solely yours. This includes any text, photos, videos, and other files the designer uses to build your credit union website. To gain full control of your designed credit union website, the agreement should state that you own the copyright upon your final payment for the project. This should include the graphics, written copy, and any HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code the designer or developer used to build your website.

 

Final Words

Your web hosting provider owns the web server that hosts your credit union website, the software running on the server, and the databases. The content management system (CMS) used to build your credit union site will either be owned or licensed to your hosting service. You will never or need to possess any of these systems. However, you’ll probably want access to them so you can control your site.

For example, our CUWebsite™ designers will build your site in our BankSITE® Builder CMS. This simple-to-use, intuitive application will allow you to update your site quickly whenever you need to. With our exclusive BankSITE® Security Monitor, you’re in complete control of your website security monitoring settings and monthly logs.

If you’re ready to maintain ownership and control of your credit union website, we’re eager to partner with you.