Your small business website has many credentials — logins and passwords — for all the services used to create your website. Some you will set up; some your website designer or developer will set up. But you, as the business owner, need access to all of them; it is your business, after all. You may need quick access to solve a problem or to give access to someone else to work on your site. You can download a free document to help with your website credentials at the end of this post.
At the bottom of this post, you can download a document to help organize all the logins, passwords, and credentials associated with your business website.
Note: Do not give your passwords to just anyone; please make sure they are legitimate and qualified to help you first. Also, do not just send the entire list of passwords to anyone; provide access on an as needed basis.
Domain Name
Your website has a domain name; you may have purchased it with your website hosting, but it may also be registered with a separate service or have a login that is different from your hosting, even if you use the same company. You will only need to share this, if you need to point your domain name to separate hosting or email services.
Hosting
Often your hosting and domain name will be with the same service, but some hosting companies will assign you a separate username and login url for your hosting control panel. You will need to share this when setting up your website.
FTP
FTP is used to quickly add and edit all your website files. You will need to share these credentials with anyone working on or backing up your website. If your website host uses secure FTP, be sure to keep a record of the extra info required to connect – whether SFTP, SSL,TSL and Port.
WordPress
Anyone working on your WordPress website will need an Administrator login. It’s usually better if you can create a new one for them, so that you can remove it when they no longer need administrator access. Sometimes your website developer, especially if you have a maintenance plan, will provide you with a WordPress username that limits access. This is to make the WordPress Dashboard easier for you to navigate.
All WordPress website owners should have an Administrator user login to use when needed, because it is your business, after all.
WordPress Database
WordPress uses a database for all your website content. You need both the database and the files to reproduce your website. These credentials can be shared when you need to either backup your WordPress database or to move it.
Website Designer or Developer
You will want to keep the contact info for your website designer or developer, even if you don’t have them do regular maintenance. You may need to ask questions about your website at a later date.
Email Newsletter Service
You will want to have an email newsletter service to contact your clients, and your may want to share these logins with your website designer at some point.
Google Analytics, Webmasters, and Bing
These services are often shared in order to set up tracking for your website and to connect your sitemap. For instance, if you will have someone work on AdWords, it is recommended that you use a neutral email address that you can share.
Akismet – Gravatar – Jetpack – WordPress.com
WordPress.com provides services that can be used for your business website and blog. All of these services require a WordPress.com login (the free blogging service). Akismet is used for comment spam; Gravatar provides an image used when you comment on your blog or others; Jetpack provides many plugins all in one. Use as many or as few services, as you need.
Premium Theme or Plugins
Your website may use a premium theme or premium plugins; some examples are events, galleries, backup, e-commerce. If you use your developer’s license, you won’t have your own credentials, but if you own your own license, you will need to know when and how to renew, so you continue to receive updates.
e-Commerce
If you have an e-commerce website, you will have a merchant account. You will want to save these credentials and keep them just as secure as your bank credentials. You may want to temporarily change your password to share, if you need something like Paypal buy buttons created by your website developer. Otherwise, you will not need to share these credentials; they will have some kind of key or code that you can share instead in order to connect to your website.
Social Media
You will need to know your “page” URLs, so that you can add “follow me” links to your website. You may also have someone post to social media for you, and will need to share logins, or create additional administrative logins.
Download WebsiteCredentials.docx
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