Agency relationships
Do you own your website if an agency builds it?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no; and it depends entirely on the agreement you signed. Some agencies transfer everything: the domain, the code, and the analytics and ad accounts, all in your name. Others license the site to you for as long as you keep paying, on a platform they control, and it stops working when you leave. Both are legal and both are common. The only way to know which one you have is to read the contract or ask directly; and the time to do that is before you sign, not eighteen months in.
Why this question keeps coming up
There is a reason “how do I leave my marketing agency” and “who owns my website” are searched as often as they are.
In local service marketing; contractors, home services, medical, legal; a business model became common where the agency builds the site on a platform it controls and licenses it to the client monthly. Reported terms in this category run from around $1,500 to $10,000+ per month before ad spend, on contracts commonly lasting twelve to twenty-four months.
The model is not a scam. It is a business decision that makes revenue predictable and lets the agency invest in tooling. Some clients get real value from it.
The problem is that the cost of leaving is often only discovered at the moment someone tries to leave; and at that point the choice is not “switch agencies,” it is “start over from zero.”
The seven things ownership actually covers
“Do I own my website” is really seven separate questions, and it is common to own some and not others.
1. The domain
Who is listed as the registrant?
The most important one, and the most commonly mishandled. If the agency registered your domain, they may be the legal registrant; which means they control where it points. Everything else follows from this: your email, your site, your search history.
Check it: look up your domain in a public WHOIS lookup. Privacy protection can mask the registrant, in which case ask directly and ask in writing.
2. The website code
Do you have the files, and can another developer work with them?
There is a difference between “you own your website” and “you have a copy of it.” A site built on a proprietary platform can be yours in principle and useless in practice, because nobody else can host or edit it.
Ask: if I hired a different developer tomorrow, could they take this and keep working? If the answer needs qualification, you do not have portable ownership.
3. Hosting
Less critical; hosting is replaceable if you have the code. But if hosting is bundled and the account is theirs, leaving means a migration you will need someone to run.
4. Google Analytics
If the agency created a property under their account and gave you access, your historical data belongs to their account. Lose access and you lose the history; and you cannot get it back or recreate it.
Check it: in GA4, look at Admin → Account Access Management. If you are not an Administrator on the account, you do not control it.
5. Google Search Console
Similar. Less painful to lose than analytics history, because you can re-verify; but you lose accumulated data.
6. The Google Ads account
This one has a hidden cost most people miss.
If the account is under the agency’s manager account and their billing, then leaving means starting a new account. That means losing the conversion history; and conversion history is what Google’s bidding algorithm has learned from.
A new account starts that learning from zero. In practice that means a period of worse performance at the same spend, on top of everything else involved in switching. It is a real cost and it is rarely mentioned upfront.
Check it: in Google Ads, look at whose payment method is on file and whether the account sits under an agency manager account.
7. Content, photos and reviews
Content and photography produced for you should be yours; check whether the contract says so.
Reviews are different, and there is good news: your Google reviews live on your Google Business Profile, not on your website. A redesign or an agency change does not touch them, as long as you control the profile. If the agency created it and you were never made an owner, that is worth fixing today regardless of anything else here.
The seven questions to ask
Useful with any agency, including us. Ask before signing, and get the answers in writing.
- Whose name is the domain registered in?
- If I leave, do I keep the website; and can another developer work with it?
- Is the site built on a platform only you can operate?
- Whose Google Ads account is it, and who keeps the conversion history?
- Whose Google Analytics property is it?
- How long is the contract, and what is the notice period?
- Is there a fee to cancel or to take the site with me?
There are no wrong answers to these. Some agencies run a leased model openly, and for some businesses that trade genuinely makes sense; lower upfront cost, someone else carrying the technical burden. The problem is never the model. It is finding out about it late.
If you are already in this situation
Start with the domain. If you are not the registrant, that is the first thing to fix. Most registrars have a process for transferring control with proof of business ownership.
Claim your Google Business Profile. If you are not an owner, request it. This is the asset with your reviews on it.
Get administrator access to analytics and ads, or at least export what you can.
Read the contract before you give notice. Know the notice period and any cancellation terms before starting a conversation.
Do not panic about the website itself. A site can be rebuilt. Reviews, domain and conversion history are much harder to replace; prioritise accordingly.
Where we stand
We build everything in the client’s own accounts. Domain registered in your name, code in your repository, analytics and ads under your accounts with us added as users. Remove our access and it all keeps running.
We would rather be chosen by someone who asked all seven questions than by someone who did not think to.