A lot of my work starts with a website somebody else built. The developer moved on, the agency contract ended, or the employee who knew the passwords left. The site still runs, mostly, and nobody is quite sure what’s holding it together.
A website takeover like that is part detective work and part surgery. Rush it and you can lose leads, Google rankings or the whole site. Here’s the step-by-step process I use so nothing breaks along the way.
1. Find Out Who Holds the Keys
Before I touch anything, I make a list of everything your website depends on and whose name is on it:
- Your domain name: who it’s registered to and when it renews.
- Your hosting: where the site lives and who pays the bill.
- Your website login: an administrator account in your own name.
- Your Google accounts: Analytics, Search Console and your Business Profile.
- Your email and DNS: where your business email runs and who can change those settings.
- Paid add-ons: themes, plugins and fonts, and whose account they’re under.
If a former developer owns your domain or your hosting, that’s the first thing to fix. It’s your business. The keys should be yours, and I set things up so they stay that way even if you ever stop working with me.
Plan the order of those changes. Under ICANN’s transfer rules, changing the owner name or email on a domain can trigger a 60-day lock that blocks moving it to a different registrar. If the domain also needs a new registrar, I move it first and update the owner details after.
2. Back Up Everything
I make a full copy of the site before I change a single setting, and I keep it somewhere safe and separate from your host. That copy includes the files, the database and the media library. If something goes sideways later, we can always go back to the exact site you handed me.
3. Clean Out the Garage
Older sites collect plugins the way garages collect boxes. I go through each one. What does it do? Does anything still use it? Is something else already doing the same job? Every extra plugin is one more thing to update and one more door left open for hackers, so the ones nobody needs come out.
The numbers back that up. Patchstack’s State of WordPress Security report found that 91% of the 11,334 new WordPress vulnerabilities in 2025 were in plugins, and 46% had no fix from the developer when they were made public.
I also look at which pages actually bring people in from Google, so those get extra care during the cleanup.
4. Make Sure Leads Get Through
A broken contact form is the most expensive problem a website can have, and I find them all the time on inherited sites. I test every form, make sure the right person gets it, and check that your phone number, email and hours are right everywhere they appear, including your Google Business Profile.
5. One Fix at a Time
Updates and cleanup happen one step at a time, with a check after each. I look at the site on a phone and a desktop, logged in and logged out, before moving on. If something breaks, we know exactly what did it and can undo it fast.
6. Keep Your Spot on Google
Pages that already show up on Google keep their content and their web addresses whenever possible. If an address has to change, I point the old one to the new one with a permanent 301 redirect, so visitors and Google still find it. Google’s own guidance says to redirect each old page straight to its new one, avoid chains of redirects, and keep redirects in place for at least a year. I check Search Console before and after the takeover so we can see that nothing important dropped out. My post on small business SEO explains why those rankings are worth protecting.
After the Website Takeover: Fix It or Rebuild It
Once the site is stable and I know what’s in it, the choice gets easy. Some sites need a few weekends of repairs. Others are worth rebuilding, and all that homework means nothing important gets lost along the way. When I rebuilt the Make Be-Leaves website, I moved 441 photos and 25 galleries and kept their old links working. LoneStar Components and Wicked Pool Guys are two more sites I rebuilt by hand.
For the warning signs, read Is Your Website Dead or a Zombie? For budgets, read How Much Does A Website Cost? You can also see more of my web design work.
Website Takeover Questions
How long does a website takeover take?
It depends on the site. Gathering logins and making a backup usually takes a few days. Cleanup and testing take longer on older sites with many plugins, and I don’t rush the steps that protect leads and rankings.
Can I get my domain back from a former developer?
Usually, yes. Ask them to change the registrant to you or send the transfer authorization code. If they won’t respond, your registrar can explain the options, and ICANN’s transfer FAQ for domain owners covers your rights.
Will taking over my website hurt my Google rankings?
Not if it’s done carefully. Keeping page addresses where possible, using permanent redirects when they change and checking Search Console before and after keeps your existing rankings intact.
Inherited a website and not sure what’s under the hood? I’m happy to take a look.
