Plenty of businesses stay for years with a provider they are not happy with, for a reason that has nothing to do with price: fear that the move will go wrong. That the site goes down on a Tuesday, that the email stops, that they end up paying twice. Changing web agency is not complicated, but it has an order, and doing it backwards is what causes the scares.
Before changing agency, check three things
Five minutes, and they save you half the conversation: who is listed as the domain holder, where the site is hosted and who administers the mailboxes. How to check each one is in who owns your domain. If it all turns out to be in your company name, the switch is an afternoon. If not, keep reading, because that can be sorted too.
The order that avoids the scares when changing agency
The classic mistake is starting at the end: asking for the domain transfer on day one. Since the domain is what makes the site and the email work, moving it before everything else is ready leaves the business in the dark for a couple of days. The order that works is the other way round: backups first, then access, then the new site built in parallel, and the domain last.
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Step by step, with how long each piece takes
1. The backup of the site (one or two days)
Ask for the site files and the database, downloaded, not a link to look at them. If the site runs on a standard content manager, that is all you need to bring it up somewhere else. It comes first because, until you have it, you have nothing.
2. Ownership of the Google accounts (one day)
Here is the detail almost nobody asks for properly: you do not want access, you want to be the owner. On the business profile it is changed from the profile itself, as Google explains on its page about profile owners and managers, and in analytics it is done through user and permission management. Same with Search Console and, if there are campaigns, with the ads account and its payment method.
3. The new site, built in parallel (one or two weeks)
While the current one stays live. It is tested on a temporary address, links and forms get checked, and only when it is ready does anyone think about switching. The rankings side is in migrating without losing rankings.
4. The email and the domain (three to seven days)
The email is prepared beforehand: mailboxes created and the history copied across. Moving a domain between registrars has its own timetable, with an authorisation code involved, as set out in the ICANN transfer policy. It is left for last, when everything else is already waiting.
The email you send, without any drama
Three lines are enough, and they should be friendly, because the person on the other side has to cooperate: that you are changing provider, that you appreciate the work done, and that you need the copy of the site and the database, ownership of the Google accounts and the domain authorisation code. Ask for a specific date and offer to coordinate the day of the switch.
Keep that email. In ninety per cent of cases it is never needed, and in the other ten it is the only thing that moves the conversation along.
The list you ask for in writing
Copy this into the email and save yourself three rounds of back and forth:
- A copy of the site files and the database, downloadable.
- The administrator user for the content manager.
- Ownership of the Google profile, analytics, Search Console and the ads account, if there is one.
- The list of mailboxes on the domain and how to get into each one.
- The domain authorisation code and confirmation of the holder on record.
- Originals of the logo and any commissioned photos, plus the security certificate if it is a paid one.
Six points, and none of them is up for debate: you have already paid for all of it. Asking for the lot at once, rather than one item at a time, is what makes the move take days instead of months.
Your customer data is yours too
If the provider handles forms, a mailing list or a booking database, they are processing data on your behalf. That means two things: they have to hand it over and, once finished, delete it from their systems. If you never signed a data processing agreement, this is a good moment not to repeat the oversight with the next provider.
What gets lost when it is done backwards
- Email in transit. If the domain moves before the mailboxes are ready, the messages sent during those hours bounce and do not come back.
- Rankings. Replacing the site without redirecting the old addresses is the fastest way to lose traffic.
- Your data history. If analytics is created from scratch instead of transferred, you lose the previous years and any comparison with them.
- Photos and copy. Sometimes they only exist on the provider server. If you do not download them, they leave with them.
What not to do
Stopping payment to force the handover, changing passwords without warning, or cancelling the hosting before you have the backup. All three sound firm and end the same way: with the site down and with less negotiating room, not more.
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When changing agency is not worth it
If the site works, loads fast and the domain is in your name, the problem may be purely about communication. Before moving anything, try a meeting with numbers on the table; the five questions for that meeting are in how to tell if your agency is doing its job. Changing for the sake of it costs weeks and does not fix what was never said out loud.
And if the site is built on the provider own platform
This is the awkward case, and it is worth knowing before signing anything. Some providers build the site on a system of their own: you own the content, but you cannot take the site with you. You can still leave; it just means rebuilding. If that is your situation, at least download the copy, the photos and the list of your page addresses before you go.
How long changing web agency really takes
With the provider cooperating, one to two weeks. The part that cannot be rushed is the domain transfer, and the day of the switch barely shows if it has been prepared properly: the site keeps answering and so does the email. We do them first thing in the morning, never on a Friday.
How we do it and what it costs
Migrating the site and the mailboxes is included in our plans, and it says so on our prices page: Tu Landing is 100 € a month and Tu Web 200 €, VAT on top and with no lock-in, with domain, hosting, email and maintenance inside, and the domain in your name. The presence plans at 400, 750 and 1,500 € add articles, the Google listing and campaigns.
How we set up domain email is in business email. And if you would rather stay where you are and simply want somebody to check that everything is in your name, we do that too and tell you what is missing.
We work from Palamós, with businesses across Girona and Barcelona
We have done this move dozens of times and the pattern repeats: the fear lasts longer than the switch. If you are thinking about moving, send us your web address and we will tell you which pieces to ask for and in what order, with no commitment and even if you end up staying put.
Tell us what you need and we'll give you a price
We reply the same day. No commitment, no sales pitch.