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Is a WP design company within it's rights to refuse full permissions to a 3rd party?|

by rms1
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have a WP website designed and hosted by a company. I now wish to employ the services of another company for SEO purposes.

To get started, the SEO company will require full admin access details to the WP interface as well as FTP details to the server where the site is hosted ,with full permissions.

I only have access to the CMS which enables me to do what I am able.

Is the company who designed and hosts the site entitled to refuse these permissions?
#3rd #company #design #full #party| #permissions #refuse #rights
  • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
    Originally Posted by rms1 View Post

    I have a WP website designed and hosted by a company. I now wish to employ the services of another company for SEO purposes.

    To get started, the SEO company will require full admin access details to the WP interface as well as FTP details to the server where the site is hosted ,with full permissions.

    I only have access to the CMS which enables me to do what I am able.

    Is the company who designed and hosts the site entitled to refuse these permissions?
    Although it's a bit retarded for a webhost to not give you FTP access, it's their servers and if that's the service they offer, that's what you get. Check the T&Cs to see what you agreed to and paid for etc...

    Who owns the domain? Check the whois data at free tools like

    Whois Lookup, Domain Availability & IP Search - DomainTools

    The domain owner (the registrant), owns the domain, if you own the domain (in your name, not the webhosting company) and haven't agreed to some dumb T&Cs like the webhosting company owns your content, you can move webhosts to one that gives more access.

    Before doing anything permanent be sure you own the site. If concerned at least make a backup of your content, use the WordPress export feature under "Tools" >> "Export" so you at least have a copy of the content you can reimport into a new WP install if something goes wrong.

    Most webhosts give FTP access.

    My first business domain I registered it with someone involved in terrorist activity (was cheap)! Lost the domain a few months in and was told later I was ripped off, steep learning curve!

    David
    Signature
    Freelance SEO Consultant
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    • Profile picture of the author rms1
      Hi David
      I have a fairly good relationship with the designer however, he is very protective about his work. When I asked for access he said his reason for refusal was to protect me in case I screwed the site up.

      I know from past conversations that he doesn't think too highly about SEO companies. He reckons that with his training, I can do the SEO myself but to be honest, I am too long in the tooth to start learning a new career. I did have a 3 hour session with him but we barely touched the surface. I would much prefer to do what I know best and leave the other stuff to the experts in their field. These people are friends of the family by the way, who I know I can trust.

      With regards to the domain, I own it, I have had it for 8 years.

      I may be preempting that permission will be refused but I have a gut feeling there may be trouble ahead. I am now waiting for a reply to my request.

      I can see the export facility in the CMS, can I do any harm by using this?

      By the way, there was no mention about who owns the content , but there is a lot of it all written by us.
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      • Profile picture of the author rms1
        Hi again,

        Can I just add that I have received a reply and there are no objections so my worries were not justified
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      • Profile picture of the author SEO-Dave
        Originally Posted by rms1 View Post

        Hi David
        I have a fairly good relationship with the designer however, he is very protective about his work. When I asked for access he said his reason for refusal was to protect me in case I screwed the site up.

        I know from past conversations that he doesn't think too highly about SEO companies. He reckons that with his training, I can do the SEO myself but to be honest, I am too long in the tooth to start learning a new career. I did have a 3 hour session with him but we barely touched the surface. I would much prefer to do what I know best and leave the other stuff to the experts in their field. These people are friends of the family by the way, who I know I can trust.

        With regards to the domain, I own it, I have had it for 8 years.

        I may be preempting that permission will be refused but I have a gut feeling there may be trouble ahead. I am now waiting for a reply to my request.

        I can see the export facility in the CMS, can I do any harm by using this?

        By the way, there was no mention about who owns the content , but there is a lot of it all written by us.
        There's no harm in using the WordPress export facility. It gives you am XML file that holds a copy of the text based content of your posts etc... which can be imported into another WordPress install (a new one for example). It doesn't download the images, if your old site is still online it will import image to a new site, but if the images are offline they are lost, so it is not an effective backup.

        A sort of last resort backup if your host goes away and you didn't have another backup service, you can at least recover the text based content.

        You should have regular server backups, those are full backups of everything on the server that can be used to restore your site to the last backup point (I make weekly backups). You should have a plan in actions for if it all goes wrong, mine is weekly automated backups, I download the backups to my PC and keep them. Once a month I put the backups on 2 DVDs and store one at another location.

        To loose my network of sites, Godaddy (where my servers are located) would have to go under, my house including PC and latest backup DVD would have to be destroyed and the DVD at an alternative location would have to be destroyed as well. If that happens I'd be more worried about the asteroid that just hit the Earth than my websites :-)

        Worst case scenario is I loose one month worth of work.

        With good backups if your SEO makes a mess (some are worse than useless) you can recover the site from the latest backup. Don't let anyone touch your site via FTP etc... unless you are sure they know what they are doing and can be trusted. So I do understand your designers reluctance.

        David
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        Freelance SEO Consultant
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        • Profile picture of the author paulgl
          Lot's of hosts refuse full permission, if that's exactly what you mean.
          Some hosts are afraid of certain people doing certain things, making
          bad things happen for all.

          That said, I assume you don't mean stuff like that. You probably bought
          a website bought, sold, and maintained by them. That's a different animal.

          If you bought the website, you should be able to change hosts. If not,
          that might be in your agreement.

          All the more reason for people to get off their @$$es and start making
          websites from scratch. It's easier than you think.

          You keep relying on WP and other people, you deserve exactly what
          you get.

          Paul
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          If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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