Launch day is exciting, but what happens after matters just as much. If the agency that built your site disappeared tomorrow, could you keep it running? A proper handover makes sure you own what you paid for, can manage it day to day and can bring in anyone else to work on it later. Use this checklist before you sign off.
1. Ownership and access
- Domain name registered in your business's name, in an account you control
- DNS access: who manages it and how to log in
- Hosting account in your name, or a clear agreement if the agency hosts
- Admin access to the website or CMS, with your own login (not a shared one)
- Code repository your business owns, or guaranteed access to it
- Design files: source files and exported assets
- Brand assets: logos, fonts and licences, icons, photography and their licences
2. Third-party services
List every service the site depends on, who owns each account and what it costs:
| Service | What it does | Account owner | Renewal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain registrar | The address | ||
| Hosting | Runs the site | ||
| Email sending | Forms, notifications | ||
| Analytics | Visitor data | ||
| Payments | Takes money | ||
| Forms, booking, CRM | Leads |
Accounts should be in your name wherever possible, especially anything holding customer data or payments.
3. Search and analytics
- Google Search Console verified for your domain, with your account as owner; our Search Console guide explains why
- Analytics set up, with you as an administrator
- XML sitemap submitted; see the complete guide to XML sitemaps
- Redirects from old URLs in place if this replaced an older site
- Baseline numbers recorded so you can measure ROI
4. Documentation
- How to edit pages, add posts and change images
- How the site is built, hosted and deployed
- Where backups are kept, how often, and how to restore one
- Which plugins or packages are used and how they're updated
- Known limitations and planned improvements
- Why key decisions were made, so future developers don't undo them
5. Quality checks before sign-off
- Every page works on phone, tablet and desktop
- Forms send to the right inbox, and confirmation emails arrive
- Payments tested end to end
- Accessibility checked; see our WCAG 2.2 checklist
- Page speed and Core Web Vitals checked
- No broken links; see why broken links cost rankings
- Privacy policy, cookie banner and legal pages in place
- Security basics in place; see website security basics
6. Training
- A walkthrough session for whoever will update the site, ideally recorded
- A short written guide for common tasks
- Who to contact for help, and how fast they respond
7. Support and maintenance
- A clear warranty period for fixing launch bugs
- A maintenance plan, or a decision to do it yourself: updates, backups, monitoring
- How to request changes and how they're priced
Our website maintenance guide covers what ongoing care involves.
The first 30 days after launch
Launch isn't the end. A good first month looks like this:
| When | What to check |
|---|---|
| Day 1 | Forms, payments and emails work in production; analytics recording |
| Week 1 | Search Console for crawl errors; redirects from old URLs working |
| Week 2 | Core Web Vitals and page speed with real traffic |
| Week 3 | Conversion rates against your baseline |
| Week 4 | Bug list cleared under warranty; maintenance plan in place |
Keep a shared list of issues found after launch, with dates, so warranty fixes are clear.
Transferring ownership safely
If your agency set up accounts in its own name, move them carefully:
- Domain: transfer it into your registrar account, or ask the agency to change the registrant to your business. Don't let it expire mid-transfer.
- Hosting: either move the site to an account you own or get a written agreement and admin access.
- Code: ask for the repository to be transferred to your organisation, or for an export.
- Analytics and Search Console: add yourself as owner, then remove agency access only after you're sure everything works.
- Third-party services: change billing and owner emails to your business addresses.
- Passwords: change shared passwords after handover, and store them in a password manager.
A documentation template
Ask for at least this, in one document:
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Overview | What the site does, main features, who built it |
| Accounts | Every service, its owner and renewal date |
| Editing | How to update pages, posts, products and images |
| Technical | Platform, hosting, deployment, environments |
| Integrations | Payment, email, CRM, booking: what each does |
| Backups | Where, how often, how to restore |
| Decisions | Why key things were built the way they were |
| Support | Who to contact, response times, warranty end date |
Red flags at handover
- The agency owns your domain or hosting and won't transfer it
- No access to the code, or "proprietary" platforms you can't leave
- Admin accounts shared with the agency and no logins of your own
- No documentation at all
- Licences for fonts, images or plugins in the agency's name
A handover that keeps answering questions
Documentation goes out of date and people forget. Zelvorm's Handover Twin is an AI that knows every decision, conversation and component of a client's build, so after launch they, or a new developer, can ask how to do something or why it was done that way, and get the answer with a link to the original decision.
The short version
At handover, make sure you own the domain, hosting, code and design files, have your own admin logins, know every third-party service and who owns it, get documentation and training, check quality before sign-off, and agree how support works afterwards.
