Do you own your website?

I wager that most of you have never questioned whether or not you own your website. But do you? You’d be surprised to learn that a large portion of you might not own your own website. You might not if you fit one of the following criteria:

• You use one of the website builders such as Godaddy’s Website Builder or Wix.
• You use a paid templating service such as SquareSpace. (Read their fine print here.)
• Your web designer maintains the rights to your code or graphical intellectual property.

Let’s break these down a bit. The free website builders and the templating systems use proprietary software (each unique to the company) that is hosted on the company’s server. The beauty of the website builders is that a non-coder can build a website, without every having to write a line of code. The darkside of that concept is that your website cannot exist outside that environment. And these companies are not about to give you their proprietary software. If you ever decide to switch hosts or stop paying the monthly fee, you cannot move your website. You have nothing to show for all the money you paid in or hours you put into building it. You are essentially paying rent to use their software and that website- aka the code their software wrote- is not yours.

Second case: Your web designer maintains the rights to your code and graphics. This one is a bit less common. Many designers and graphic artists have clauses in their contract that allows you the client to use the code and graphics they have developed for you while they maintain ownership. They give you the right to use it within a certain environment. Often times, you are not allowed to move the website. You may also be able to use the logo in certain environments, such a business cards but not car wraps. Of course, they are allowed to create these graphics for you….

It is my personal opinion that these clauses do not benefit the client in any way, but keep you locked into working with that designer. A good web designer does not need to use ploys or tricks to maintain clients. They maintain clients by providing quality service. Be wary of any designer who needs to use these ploys to maintain business revenue.

So what then is the best bang for your buck when it comes to websites?

I recommend self-hosted websites with WordPress templating when a CMS is required.

Self-hosted means that you pay for the hosting space yourself, through a company such as Godaddy or Network Solutions or a hosting manager. The site is either written in HTML, WordPress or another open source CMS that can be moved or transferred. By using open source (freely available to anyone with no payment) software, you are able to transfer the site and the software to any compatible environment. This gives you the freedom and power to choose.

To wrap it up: If you use a templating software or website builder that is not open source, or your contract has clauses, you may not own your website. Check before you buy.