Inherited a website you don't understand
New to the business and the website is a mystery. Here is the audit checklist to find out exactly what you own.
01 / What probably happened
You are looking at someone else's setup
Inheriting a website usually means inheriting accounts you do not have logins for, recurring charges you cannot match to invoices, and a setup that made sense to someone else and nobody else. None of this is permanent. It just needs a careful audit before you decide what to keep, what to move and what to throw away.
The thing to avoid is making changes before you understand what is connected to what. Disabling a plugin can take down the whole site. Cancelling a 'random' £6/month charge can kill the contact form. Move slowly until you have the map.
If you give us the URL and rough background, we can do most of the audit from outside in a few hours and tell you what you actually have without touching anything.
02 / The audit checklist
What to find out about your inherited site
Six things every new owner needs to know before they touch anything.
Find out who owns the domain
A whois lookup tells you the registrar and (if not redacted) the registered owner. If the domain is not in your business name, that is the first thing to fix once you have access.
Identify the host
DNS records and HTTP headers point to the hosting provider in most cases. Once you know the host, you can find out what plan it is on, when it renews and whose card pays for it.
Find the editor or CMS
Is it WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, custom code? Each has a different login flow and a different recovery path. Knowing the platform changes everything else about the audit.
Check what is actually billing
Comb the business bank statements for any monthly or annual charges related to the website. Look for hosting, domain, email, plugins, themes, analytics. Anything you find belongs in a register.
Test that key things still work
Can people still submit the contact form? Does the email it sends actually arrive? Do payment links still go to the right place? Half of inherited sites have one of these silently broken.
Document everything in one place
By the end of the audit, you should have a single page listing every account, every renewal date, every recurring charge and every credential. This is the document the previous owner should have left you.
03 / How we handle it
Our takeover sequence
Triage
We do a full external audit of the site without any logins. You get a written summary of what we found, what is missing and what looks like it might already be broken.
Inventory
We help you trace every account, every recurring charge, every credential. You end up with a complete picture of what you actually own and what is renting from you.
Take ownership
Anything not in your name gets moved into your name. Anything billed to a card that is not yours gets switched. Any access the previous owner still has gets revoked.
Look after
From here we look after the site on a flat monthly plan. Changes on request, hosting included, no surprise renewals, no mystery accounts. You finally know exactly what you own.
FAQ
Common questions
I have just bought a business and the website is a black box. Where do I start?
Start with the domain. A whois lookup tells you the registrar and the registration date. Then look at DNS records to find the host. Then ask the previous owner for every login they have, even if they think you do not need it. We can do this whole audit for you in a couple of days.
The previous owner is not being helpful. Can I still take it over?
Yes, in most cases. As long as you can prove ownership of the business (the asset purchase agreement, Companies House records), the registrar and host will work with you to transfer accounts to you. It takes longer than friendly cooperation but it works.
How do I tell if there are recurring charges I do not know about?
Look for any monthly or annual charges on the business bank statements that mention 'hosting', 'domain', 'plugin', 'theme', the website builder name, or anything you do not recognise. Email plugins, marketing tools and old SaaS subscriptions are the usual hidden ones.
Should I rebuild the site or keep what I have?
Depends on what you find. If the site is reasonable and just needs a new owner, keep it and we look after it. If it is a tangled mess of broken plugins and outdated content, often a clean rebuild is faster than trying to untangle what is there.
What if I am not technical at all?
That is fine. The audit is for you, not from you. We do the looking. You read the summary in plain English at the end and decide what to do next.
Is my data safe in the meantime?
Usually, but we do not assume so. One of the first things we do is take a clean snapshot of the public site, export any data we can reach, and store it somewhere we control. If anything goes wrong later, you have the safety net.
Want the whole thing in plain English?
We audit your inherited site, document what you own, and then look after it for one flat monthly fee. No more black boxes.