October 14, 2026
Most business owners have never had a reason to ask who owns their website. Someone set it up years ago, maybe a nephew, a former employee, or a designer who has since moved on, and it has worked ever since. The question only comes up when something breaks, and by then it can be hard to answer.
You can answer it now, in about ten minutes, with a cup of coffee and your own logins. Here’s what to look at.
1. The domain: whose name is on it?
Your domain name (the yourbusiness.com part) is registered through a company called a registrar. The person or company listed as the registrant is the legal holder of that domain. It should be your business, not whoever happened to buy it for you.
- Look up your domain with a public lookup tool (search “ICANN lookup”) to see which registrar it’s with.
- Log in to that registrar and check the registrant name, email and phone number.
- If you can’t log in, or the name isn’t yours, that’s the first thing to fix.
This matters more than it looks. ICANN, the organization that sets the rules for domain names, says the registrant has sole responsibility for the domain and must keep its contact information accurate. According to ICANN, giving inaccurate information, not updating it, or not answering your registrar’s questions within 15 days can get the domain suspended or canceled. When something changes, like a new email address or a move, the update is due within 7 days.
In plain terms: if the contact email on your domain goes to an inbox nobody reads, an important notice can go unanswered, and the domain your customers type in could stop working.
2. Renewal: will it quietly lapse?
Domains are rented by the year, not bought outright. While you’re logged in to the registrar, check three things:
- Auto-renew. Is it turned on?
- The card on file. Is it current, or did it expire with an old bank account?
- The renewal emails. Whose inbox do they go to? If it’s someone who no longer works with you, change it.
Registrars are required to send you at least one reminder a year asking you to review your contact information. That reminder only helps if it lands somewhere you read. Treat it as your yearly prompt to run this whole check again.
3. Hosting and site logins
The domain is the address; the hosting is where the site actually lives. Find out which company hosts your site and who has the account. The same goes for anything you log in to in order to edit the site.
- Your business should have its own administrator login, in its own name, with an email you control.
- Anyone helping you, whether a designer, developer or employee, can have their own separate login. They shouldn’t be the only one holding the keys.
- If you only ever log in with someone else’s username and password, ask for your own account.
This isn’t about distrust. People change jobs, retire and lose track of old accounts. Having your own login means a change in people never turns into a locked door.
4. Email and your Google Business Profile
Two more things are tied closely to your website and are easy to overlook.
- Business email. If your email uses your domain (you@yourbusiness.com), check who controls the email account settings. It’s often a separate login from the domain and the website.
- Google Business Profile. This is the listing that shows your hours, reviews and map pin. Check that you’re listed as an owner, not just a manager, and that the owner email is one you use.
If a former helper is the only owner on either one, add yourself as owner first, then decide whether to remove them.
5. Write it down on one page
Once you’ve checked everything, put it on a single sheet you can find later. Keep it simple:
- Registrar name and the email on the account
- Domain renewal date, and whether auto-renew is on
- Hosting company and the email on the account
- Who has logins to the website, hosting, email and Google Business Profile
- Any other renewal dates (email service, hosting plan)
Never write passwords on this sheet. It’s a map of where things are and who has access, not a set of keys. Keep passwords in a password manager or another secure place, separate from this page.
Store the sheet where a trusted person could find it if you weren’t available, and look it over once a year when that registrar reminder arrives.
The short version
Your business should be the registrant on the domain, the renewal should be set up to happen on its own, you should have your own logins everywhere that matters, and all of it should be written on one page without a single password. Ten minutes now can save a very bad week later.