Hi All,

Previously it has been extremely easy to get customers to sign over their domain to me, as it was always the norm.  Now I am coming up against a lot of instances where an IT company is managing the domain, because they are managing the Office 365 accounts for emails.

Not managing the domain now puts Web Design/Development companies in a situation where they come second in the relationship with the client behind the IT company.

I don't want this post to be an argument for both sides.  But I would like to accumulate a list of positive reasons why a domain should always be handled by the Web Designer/Developer as opposed to the IT company.

My own theory is that content is wasted if sat on a domain reference, waiting for Google to craw before it is eventually masked with the domain from the client.

Also I am seeing adverse SEO performance on some websites I have hosted on a new reseller hosting account, that uses load balancing and CDN.  I believe this can cause Google's algorithm to suspect plagiarism (constant changing of IP address on shared server with load balancing and copies of the website all over the world on CDNs). 

In my opinion, a similar thing could be happening when Google is crawling a domain reference before a domain is forwarded.  So Google has crawled and read the content on the development website (domain reference), rendering the content 'old news' when it comes to masking of/forwarding to the domain reference.

So, what is your factually correct reason that a client should keep the domain with their web design/developer, as opposed to the IT company who runs their office 365?

The answer to this could help the whole Web Design/Development Industry, strengthen the relationship with our clients over that of  the IT industry.

There is no reason why anyone should hand over a domain.

Nor is there any need for most sites to use a CDN.

I always leave domains to the client, if they want me to modify DNS I will but only if they supply me with a temporary login.

That means they are responsible for renewing and managing their domains - saves me the hassle.

On 3/4/2022 at 12:46 PM, fisicx said:

There is no reason why anyone should hand over a domain.

Nor is there any need for most sites to use a CDN.

There are plenty of reasons for a client to handover their domain.  The biggest one being managed services.

"Most sites" actually DO need CDN's.  It is used for international trade. 

I did not ask for either of the answers you gave, but thank you for getting involved.

On 3/4/2022 at 9:08 PM, BlueDreamer said:

I always leave domains to the client, if they want me to modify DNS I will but only if they supply me with a temporary login.

That means they are responsible for renewing and managing their domains - saves me the hassle.

Hi, it seems that you prefer to leave the domains with the clients as part of your own business model.  I'm very happy that you have found a preferred way of working.  On the basis of the information you gave, I would have then assumed that the DNS would need to be changed, but thank you for clarifying the process for me.  After 15 years in the business, its always good to get feedback from someone with so many post as you have written.  It makes be envious, as I wish I had so much time on my hands. I suppose I'm just too busy making websites as to be so committed to a forum as yourself.

If you read the original post, I might not have explained well enough that I want to keep the domain (manage), so apologies, if you didn't get that.  Thanks for getting involved. 

I like being part of a community.  Especially one where I can be useful, as well as draw from the collective mind.

There is also flip side to guessing whether to stay on a forum or not... "You are the company that you keep".  If there is no one on here of a professional calibre who wants to contribute to the exact conversational brief I've taken time to type out, I think it is best I unregister.  The header for this website should include a tagline to suggest the more casual nature of this forum, so more professional people/questions can find another forum.

Currently, I am unimpressed by the condescending nonsense I have been subjected to.

My question did not include requests for information on:

- what do you always do?
- requests for no sensical comments about "handing domains over".
- non sensical comments about the need for CDN's (mmm. I suppose they exist for a reason)
- 101 information on registering domains
- how I can I have a lazier approach to managing clients.

I can see exactly where this is going to go, so unless by some complete surprise, someone with professional knowledge and a qualified opinion on THE QUESTION IS ASKED wants to jump in and save me from this madness,  I'll probably close the account down by Tuesday and jog on.

34 minutes ago, just another web designer said:

There are plenty of reasons for a client to handover their domain.  The biggest one being managed services.

"Most sites" actually DO need CDN's.  It is used for international trade. 

I did not ask for either of the answers you gave, but thank you for getting involved.

You said to sign over a domain. That’s totally different to having access.

very few sites are used for international trades. The majority are small business sites that only operate locally.

I have hundreds of clients around the world. I have access where needed but I’d never require them to sign over their site. They are the registrant and their host looks after the hosting. As a developer all I need is access.

57 minutes ago, fisicx said:

You said to sign over a domain. That’s totally different to having access.

very few sites are used for international trades. The majority are small business sites that only operate locally.

I have hundreds of clients around the world. I have access where needed but I’d never require them to sign over their site. They are the registrant and their host looks after the hosting. As a developer all I need is access.

Non of what you have said has furthered the conversation.  You've helped enough here, thanks.

2 minutes ago, just another web designer said:

Non of what you have said has furthered the conversation.  You've helped enough here, thanks.

I’m obviously not understanding what you mean by sign over a site.

I understand it to mean you transfer the domain registration and you take control of the hosting account.

Just now, fisicx said:

I’m obviously not understanding what you mean by sign over a site.

I understand it to mean you transfer the domain registration and you take control of the hosting account.

You said that you don't understand, and then you said that you did. and in that understanding, you described what I was talking about. do you see what's happening.  Please go away.

Nope that’s not how a forum works.

This week I’ve been working on a analysis tool for a bank in Australia. I’m one of a team build various things for the site. I have access to their git to upload updates.

Why would I expect them to sign over anything to me?

Anyone else?

3 hours ago, just another web designer said:

Hi, it seems that you prefer to leave the domains with the clients as part of your own business model.  I'm very happy that you have found a preferred way of working.  On the basis of the information you gave, I would have then assumed that the DNS would need to be changed, but thank you for clarifying the process for me.  After 15 years in the business, its always good to get feedback from someone with so many post as you have written.  It makes be envious, as I wish I had so much time on my hands. I suppose I'm just too busy making websites as to be so committed to a forum as yourself.

If you read the original post, I might not have explained well enough that I want to keep the domain (manage), so apologies, if you didn't get that.  Thanks for getting involved. 

When I started developing web sites in the 1990's, domains were very expensive to register, £100 for a .com was common. In those early days I did register and manage a few domains for clients, that was fine when they paid renewal fees on time, but if they didn't there were instances where domains lapsed and clients effectively lost their sites - I wasn't going to pay out of my own pocket! Ever since then I've insisted client manage and pay for their own to protect myself.

Yes I have made a lots of posts here, helping people find solutions and commenting. It doesn't take that much time out of a week, answering a few posts in-between work and/or tea breaks. It's always been a great way of continuous learning, thinking about someone who has a web dev problem and how I might solve it. Most of the modern web was built by people sharing information and helping each other in that way.

Is there a case for agencies/developers to manage their clients domain(s)? Yes, if the client is happy doing it that way, some clients will prefer that, others may be wary. Not for me though 😀    

The original post is a question. It wasn't a request for people to provide their own life stories. That might seem abrupt, but not what I would consider rude, (considering if someone did this to me in a supermarket, I would no less think they were taking the proverbial).

What I do consider rude is turning posts on this website into an excuse to grandstand ones own experience and life stories (I believe there is a separate section for that on this very forum).  The experiment in joining this forum was to see if there was any worth. 

fisicx = An exert from his website linked on his profile footer... "rule 8: treat your website visitors like idiots" and his WordPress theme for 'tradespeople' has the mobile responsiveness of a potato.  Yeah! Of course you are the best person to take advice from regarding professional web design issues. and working for a bank! which one? the bank of Wakanda?! Your price calculator examples are not of commercial quality.

bluedreamer = using the forum as his own personal social network.  You would have thought that having "helped so many people" you might understand how to actually do that. example... if you know the answer, give the answer.  If you don't have the answer, say you don't know the answer.  No one expects everyone to know everything.  I was expecting replies from people who know what I am talking about.  If you didn't know what the subject I was talking about involved, you should have started your own thread and I would have been happy to oblige in explaining it to you. 

I think this thread speaks for itself in terms of the outcome of my experiment.  I won't be coming back checking for replies.  Maybe in future, the owner/moderators of the forum would consider warning existing members for harassing others to present potentially valuable members from being driven away by bedroom web designers who's only purposes are to troll new members till their hearts content.