Be wary of sneaky web companies
Every so often we get a new client who wants a new site because their current one isn’t doing them much justice.
It turns out that they’re paying a monthly or yearly fee but don’t actually know what there paying for. It’s not their fault because they don’t know the ins and outs of setting up a website but after some investigations by myself we find that the client doesn’t actually own there domain name, their web company does.
The sneaky web company they previously used offered them a package which included the domain name (named after the customers business), hosting and web design but in actual fact they did not register the domain name under the client, they registered it under themselves instead.
What’s wrong with that? (you may say).
In some cases the actual business owner may not want ownership of the domain because they don’t actually want it for long, maybe its just apart of a marketing plan but in most cases, small businesses buy a domain name pretty much for security.
Domain names are never actually owned by anyone, they’re only registered for a period of time (like a lease) but its the registrar who has the power to use, sell or renew that domain which essentially makes it theirs.
If the web company registers your domain in their name then they own your domain name, not you.
In doing so you don’t have any control over your domain name, so:
- If you want to part ways with the web company
- sell your domain name
- move host
- sell your online business
You can’t!
It may not actually be a problem for you until one of these scenarios pop up. In order to gain control of your domain you can ask the registrar(the web company) to release it in which case they may not be willing to sell or they can dictate any price they want.
What to be wary of :
Friends & Family!
From my own professional experience these cases usually happen when a friend of a friend exclusively sorts out your website for you (possibly as a favour). To put it simply its usually someone you know (but not very well) and don’t see very often (a friend of a friend). Big web based companies are not ruled out though (they’ll contact you by phone instead smile) .
The type of company.
It could be a web design company, hosting company, a SEO or marketing company and even an I.T. Company.
In most cases but not exclusively they won’t have a lot of info on their site about domain names and hosting (particularly pricing).
Their prey!
Again not exclusively but they find much more success from businesses who are not particularly web based or web savy such as a shop owner or tradesmen.
How clever are they?
They are extremely clever in that they market their offerings as a simple package and that’s why it works better for non web based businesses. It seems like an easy all inclusive way to get online but be wary, they can use some intricate shenanigans to get the most out of your online presence whilst also damaging it in the process. (gets a little techy below)
A scenario I found last year.
The web company set-up a site for their client. (they were friends of friends)
The web company used a flash, home splash page for the site and flash for the rest of the site.
The web company then set-up meta tags, descriptions, titles and hidden text to advertise their own web design company using unique keywords.
In doing so they increase their web design businesses SEO and the clients own business gets no SEO on his very own site (which also has nothing to do with web services.)
Normally this can get you blacklisted but Designers/developers and many in general know that…
flash is not spidered by search engines.
Every so often we get a new client who wants a new site because their current one isn’t doing them much justice.
It turns out that they’re paying a monthly or yearly fee but don’t actually know what there paying for. It’s not their fault because they don’t know the ins and outs of setting up a website but after some investigations by myself we find that the client doesn’t actually own there domain name, their web company does.
The sneaky web company they previously used offered them a package which included the domain name (named after the customers business), hosting and web design but in actual fact they did not register the domain name under the client, they registered it under themselves instead.
What’s wrong with that? (you may say).
In some cases the actual business owner may not want ownership of the domain because they don’t actually want it for long, maybe its just apart of a marketing plan but in most cases, small businesses buy a domain name pretty much for security.
Domain names are never actually owned by anyone, they’re only registered for a period of time (like a lease) but its the registrar who has the power to use, sell or renew that domain which essentially makes it theirs.
If the web company registers your domain in their name then they own your domain name, not you.
In doing so you don’t have any control over your domain name, so:
- If you want to part ways with the web company
- sell your domain name
- move host
- sell your online business
You can’t!
It may not actually be a problem for you until one of these scenarios pop up. In order to gain control of your domain you can ask the registrar(the web company) to release it in which case they may not be willing to sell or they can dictate any price they want.
What to be wary of :
Friends & Family!
From my own professional experience these cases usually happen when a friend of a friend exclusively sorts out your website for you (possibly as a favour). To put it simply its usually someone you know (but not very well) and don’t see very often (a friend of a friend). Big web based companies are not ruled out though (they’ll contact you by phone instead 
) .
The type of company.
It could be a web design company, hosting company, a SEO or marketing company and even an I.T. Company.
In most cases but not exclusively they won’t have a lot of info on their site about domain names and hosting (particularly pricing).
Their prey!
Again not exclusively but they find much more success from businesses who are not particularly web based or web savy such as a shop owner or tradesmen.
How clever are they?
They are extremely clever in that they market their offerings as a simple package and that’s why it works better for non web based businesses. It seems like an easy all inclusive way to get online but be wary, they can use some intricate shenanigans to get the most out of your online presence whilst also damaging it in the process. (gets a little techy below)
A scenario I found last year.
The web company set-up a site for their client. (they were friends of friends)
The web company used a flash, home splash page for the site and flash for the rest of the site.
The web company then set-up meta tags, descriptions, titles and hidden text to advertise their own web design company using unique keywords.
In doing so they increase their web design businesses SEO and the clients own business gets no SEO on his very own site (which also has nothing to do with web services.)
Normally this can get you blacklisted but Designers/developers and many in general know that…
flash is not spidered by search engines.
The search engine totally ignores all the clients content, the info which should have been spidered and reads only the web company info instead pretty much rendering the clients website useless and invisible. The chances of getting blacklisted were reduced because all the search engine could see was a web company’s website not the clients business website. In the eyes of a search engine, nothing was actually wrong.
It was simple, very clever and also sneaky.
Do you own your domain name?
If you’ve bought a package like this in the past, or going to buy a domain name, be careful. Buy the domain name and package yourself or with someone you know to ensure that your the registered name on the purchases.
To find out the owner of your domain checkout whois.
A few months back Martin Astley from the Openblue Team wanted to pursue a new personal venture to coincide with the current Openblue offerings. Having successfully traded on the stock market for many years, they worked out a way to use their own experiences to educate others with Traders-edge.co.uk.
