The Website Folder Every Business Owner Must Have
This is a manila folder with paper in it. You can type up the info and keep it electronically, but this is administrative info that multiple people might need access to and you should keep a paper copy of everything for easy access. It needs to include these 8 things:
- DOMAIN REGISTRATION INFO
- The name of your domain registrar
- The web address of your control panel or administrative tools for your domain registration
- The username and password to access your account
- The expiration date of your domain registration
- The email address you gave them as the primary way they can contact you
- WEB HOSTING INFO
- Your web hosting company (usually NOT the same as the domain registrar)
- The web address of your control panel or administrative tools for your website hosting
- The username and password to access your web hosting account
- FTP ACCESS INFO (this is the connection information you need in order to upload files to and download files from your website).
- This includes the hostname or FTP address of your webserver which is often ftp.yourwebsite.com. Different web hosting companies may use different processes and your hostname may be an IP address or it may be www.yourwebsite.com, or something else. Whatever it is, write it down. Or print out the email they sent you when you signed up for web hosting and put it in this folder.
- This also includes an FTP login which is another username and password. Sometimes it is the same username and password as your main hosting account control panel and sometimes it’s different.
- The email address you gave them as the primary way to contact you
- EMAIL ACCOUNT INFO
- Instructions from your web hosting company on how to set up email accounts
- A list of the email accounts and user passwords you created (or someone else created for you)
- Instructions on setting up email accounts on users’ computers in Outlook or another email program
- Instructions on gaining access to your email accounts over the web
- WEB DESIGNER/DEVELOPER INFO
- Your web designer’s name, address, phone, fax and email info.
- Get a CD from your web designer with ALL of your website files including photos and graphics. Even if you change your website content often, this CD can save your bacon if your web designer goes out of business, moves away, gets hit by a bus, or otherwise tries to take control of your website from you.
- INFO ABOUT OTHER SERVICES ON YOUR WEBSITE
- If your site has any 3rd party widgets or add-ons like e-commerce, you need to capture all of your account information for those parts of your website and keep them in this folder also. This could include your merchant account, your marketing or advertising info (like PPC campaigns), streaming content like news headline feeds, stock tickers, etc.
- DIRECTORY LISTINGS
- If you listed your domain with any directories like the Open Directory Project (DMOZ), Yahoo Directories, or any of the online yellow pages, make note of that for your folder and write down the categories your site is associated with.
- INBOUND LINKS
- If you have acquired links to your website from other websites, keep that info in this folder also. Make a note of the sites that promised to link to yours and check on them.