What would happen if your web designer disappeared tomorrow? or if someone managed to hack into your web site? Things have been known to go wrong, and if they go, it can make your life agony.

Why would anyone want to hack my web site?

Chances are they don’t, however your website is probably on a server or network which holds tens, hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of other websites. If any of those become a target, yours could be affected.

… to make your life easier in any eventuality, you only need to take a few steps…

There are four parts to your site: Domain name, Hosting, Website files, and Database (optional).

You need to make sure that you and/or your future designer can take over quickly with the minimum of hassle.

Website files - When your website is complete, either ask your current designer for the files on CD or have them zipped and emailed to you for backup. If you know how to FTP, get the ftp details so you can do it yourself at regular intervals if necessary. Or there is sometimes a ‘backup’ option if you can gain access to the control panel for your site.

Database - Not all sites, but most now have databases. These need to be accessed separately. If you have access to your control panel, the ‘backup’ option usually backs up the database with the files so you should be OK. If not, use a MySQL or SQL export to do so. (Get your designer to walk you through the steps)

Hosting - Is your site hosting with a major company or directly with the web designer? If the latter, this could disappear with them if things go wrong. It’s easily replaceable however so don’t worry about keeping hold of it.

Domain name - If your domain name is a .co.uk, goto nic.uk (or nic.com for .com/.net/.org) Make sure that your name is listed by the registrant details and not your designer. This means if worse comes to the worse, you have easy access to moving it with you, if it’s not. Ask your web designer if it can be changed. (If you’ve opted out, it may look blank although you will still be assigned to it)

If you make regular updates to the site, make sure you keep regular backups of both the site files and database. If you run an online shop, just the database should suffice. Just double-check with your designer for specific information.

Ultimately you should now have a CD of files and database, control panel login and password and/or ftp login and password. This means if things go wrong, everything can be restored relatively quickly.

If necessary, this disk and password can go to your current designer or a new one and you should be back up and running with the minimum amount of data loss.

Remember, insurance can replace your equipment but it can’t replace your data.