Because the person who knows where your domain lives is usually one person, and one day they are on holiday and your site is down. Writing it once turns a panic into a phone call.

Is anything stored anywhere?

Only your own browser, and only if you press save. Nothing is sent to a server, there is no account, and clearing the saved copy removes it.

What should I do with the printed copy?

Put it somewhere a panicked future you will look. A folder by the till, the back of the office binder, or with the insurance papers all beat a file on one laptop.

blaircox.com

Web presence record sheet

One page holding everything about your website that you should not have to keep in your head.

Fill this in once and you have a takeover document: where the domain lives, who hosts, where email runs, what the site is built on, where the logins are kept, and who to call. Twenty minutes with your bills and your inbox will cover most of it. Half filled is still useful, because the blanks make their own argument.

This sheet asks WHERE your logins are kept, never what they are. Do not write passwords on it.

The basics

Business name

Website address

Domain

Registrar company

Account holder name

Domain renewal date

Year, month and day, like YYYY-MM-DD.

Where the registrar login is kept

Auto renew

On Off

Who holds the registrar account?

The business Someone else Not sure

DNS

DNS provider

Often the registrar, or Cloudflare.

Where that login is kept

Who can change your DNS?

The business Someone else Not sure

Hosting

Hosting company

Plan name

Monthly or yearly cost

Account holder

Hosting renewal date

Year, month and day, like YYYY-MM-DD.

Where the login is kept

Whose name and card are on the hosting account?

The business Someone else Not sure

Email provider

Mailboxes

Does email run on the web hosting?

Yes No Not sure

If yes or not sure, be careful: changing hosts can take your email down with it

If your web hosting vanished tomorrow, would email keep working?

Yes No Not sure

Website platform

What it is built with

Theme or builder

The three most important plugins or apps

Where the admin login is kept

Does the business have its own administrator login?

The business Someone else Not sure

Are the theme and plugin licenses in the business's name?

The business Someone else Not sure

Backups

What gets backed up

How often

Where they live

Who checks that they work

Does a backup exist outside the hosting account?

The business Someone else Not sure

People

Who built the site

Who maintains it now

Who to call when it breaks

Emergency alternate

Can a second trusted person reach the critical accounts?

The business Someone else Not sure

Notes

Anything else worth writing down

What your answers mean

answer the who-holds-it questions and this page will tell you what they mean

If this page has blanks you cannot fill, that is worth fixing.

Nothing you type here is sent anywhere. It stays in your browser unless you print it.

Questions people ask

Why does this exist?: Because the person who knows where your domain lives is usually one person, and one day they are on holiday and your site is down. Writing it once turns a panic into a phone call.
Is anything stored anywhere?: Only your own browser, and only if you press save. Nothing is sent to a server, there is no account, and clearing the saved copy removes it.
What should I do with the printed copy?: Put it somewhere a panicked future you will look. A folder by the till, the back of the office binder, or with the insurance papers all beat a file on one laptop.

Not sure what the site is built on? Run the built with check and copy the answer into the platform section.

I do the full human version of this for a handful of businesses. Ask me.