It is a business owner’s nightmare. You hire a freelancer. You pay a deposit. You are excited about your new business website. Then… silence.
Your emails go unanswered. The phone rings out. This is known as “ghosting.”
If this is happening to you right now, take a deep breath. It is incredibly stressful, but all is not lost. We see this happen often, and there is usually a way to fix it.
The Short Answer Don’t panic. You might not need to start from scratch. Your first priority is to secure your domain name (your website address). Once you have that, a new team can often step in, gain access, and finish the job.
Here are the practical steps you should take immediately.
1. Check Who Owns the Domain
Your website files (the design) and your domain name (the address) are two different things. The domain is the most important asset.
- If you bought the domain: Great. You have control. You can point that address to any new web host you choose.
- If the designer bought it: Check your emails. Did they register it in your name or theirs? You can check a public “WHOIS” database to see the registered contact email.
If the domain is in your name, you are safe. If it is in theirs, try to contact the domain registrar (like GoDaddy or Namecheap) with proof of your business ownership to try and reclaim it.
2. Review Your Contract and Payments
If you are paying a monthly fee or have a scheduled second payment coming up, check whether you really need to pay this.
You might be thinking “They’re not responding so I’ll just stop paying”. Don’t do this straight away.
You need to check whether they’re responsible for your website’s hosting (where your website is housed), as if they are and you cancel paying them. They might just cancel your hosting and you may lose your website. You might also be contracted to pay them even if they’re not responsive.
First, check your contract. What does it say about your payment responsibilities? What happens if they stop fulfilling their end of the deal?
Second, check whether they are hosting your website. This will probably be mentioned in any paperwork/documents you got from them, or emails, possibly in your contract. It should state whether they host it, or whether you are responsible for finding a web host. If they’re hosting it (or managing the hosting for you), then for now, don’t stop paying them.
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Thirdly, I would recommend speaking to someone for legal advice. You might be able to access free legal advice through your business insurance company, or as part of a business membership organisation/chamber of commerce.
In the UK, the Federation of Small Businesses includes free legal help for members. BPP Legal Advice Clinic also offers some free legal advice for businesses.
If you’re unsure who is hosting the site, we recommend doing a WHOIS with someone such as https://whoishostingthis.com. But if it states Cloudflare (or another CDN) this can be masking the hosting providier. So you’ll need to dig further.
3. Gather Your “Keys”
Look through your old emails. Even if the project wasn’t finished, the designer might have sent you login details early on. Look for:
- Admin login for WordPress: If your site was made on WordPress this lets you get into the backend of the website.
- Hosting Control Panel login: This lets you access the server files.
- Login for a website builder : If you used a website builder such as Wix, SquareSpace, Webflow etc then you may have login details for them. Check your emails, see if you were sent these or added as a member to the account.
If you have any of these, a new developer can help save your website and move it away from the web designer who ghosted you.
4. You Don’t Always Have to Start Again
Many clients come to us thinking they have lost their money and need to rebuild from square one. That isn’t always true.
If the website exists on a server somewhere, we can often “rescue” it. We specialize in taking over WordPress websites, even if we didn’t design them. We can also help rescue sites created on other platforms like Wix or SquareSpace.
We can:
- Gain access to the site.
- Move it to our secure hosting.
- Fix the broken parts.
- Finish the build and get you online.
We can also help with finishing off any uncompleted web designs, and maintaining your site.
Drop us a message if you need help recovering your website or check out our website maintenance plans.
