Can’t update your website yourself? How to take back control

Why can’t you update your website yourself?

Because one of four things is in the way:

• The login is with the agency or freelancer who made the website, and you never got one yourself.
• The website is made in WordPress with a page builder such as Elementor or Divi, where one wrong click can shift the layout, so you don’t dare touch it.
• The access is gone: the login belonged to a former employee, an old email address or a nephew who has moved on.
• The website is coded by hand, so every change needs a developer.

What does it cost when you pay for every change?

It costs the hourly rate times the time the change takes. Ask whether they bill per hour or half hour started, because that’s often where small changes get expensive.

All amounts exclude VAT and use the hourly and per-page rates our website cost calculator is built on. If you have a service agreement, some changes may be included, so check what it covers before you pay extra.

How do you get access to your website back?

You get it back by asking for the right logins in the right order, and the domain comes first:

1. Find out who owns the domain. For a .dk domain, look it up at Punktum dk, which runs .dk. If someone other than the business is the registrant, ask to have it transferred.
2. Ask for an administrator login to the website itself, such as WordPress, in your own name and with your own email address.
3. Ask for the login to the hosting where the website lives, and note when it’s due for payment.
4. Ask for access to your Google Business Profile and Google Search Console, if someone set them up for you.
5. Back up the website as soon as you’re in.
6. Keep every login in one safe place, such as a password manager, so it doesn’t happen again.

If the old supplier doesn’t answer, you can still move on: Striive can rebuild the website from its public address, without logins or files. You do need control of the domain before you can point it to a new website.

What does it take for you to edit your website yourself?

A system where you see the page while you edit it, and where typing a text can’t break the design. In practice that means:

• A visual editor, where you click a text to change it and see phone and computer side by side.
• An AI assistant you can ask for the change in plain words: “say we’re closed in week 29”.
• Prices, services and opening hours kept in one place, so a new price is right on every page at once.
• Hosting, HTTPS and updates included in the price, so there are no plugins to keep up to date.

Can both you and your web designer have access?

Yes. In Striive, each website has two roles, admin and client, and everyone gets their own login. Your web designer can be the admin while you edit texts and photos as a client, or the other way round. See team collaboration.

The last admin on a website can’t be removed, so there’s always someone in charge.

How do you move to a website you can edit yourself?

Here’s how, without the website going down along the way:

1. Make sure the domain is in the business’s name and that you can log in at the domain provider.
2. Give Striive the address of your current website with move your website. You don’t need a login to the old one.
3. Check what Striive found: phone number, address, services, prices and opening hours.
4. Change what you like in the editor, and invite your colleague or web designer.
5. Connect your domain with two DNS records at your domain provider. HTTPS is set up automatically.
6. Cancel the old service agreement and hosting once the new website is running.

If you’re facing a completely new website, read new website as well.