Who owns the site, and what if I disappear.

When a business orders a website from one person rather than an agency, sooner or later it asks: what if something happens to that person? What if he closes the studio, moves away or simply stops answering? Will the site disappear with him?

It's a good question and it deserves a clear answer, written down in advance rather than when it's needed. A site isn't just design. It holds your copy, your prices, your photographs and an address people already know. If someone holds it as a pledge, every move becomes a negotiation. That's why I write it here, publicly, before you order anything.

Three things that are easy to mix up.

When people talk about ownership, they are really talking about three different things. The domain is the address, say yourbusiness.com, and it is registered in someone's name. The hosting is the computer on the internet where the site lives and from which it is sent to visitors. The site is what people see: the copy, the photographs, the design and the code that puts them together. Each of the three can sit with a different person, so it's worth knowing where each one is.

While I build and look after it, the site sits with me.

While I build the site and look after it, it lives with me, on hosting I run. That way I can put a change you send me live within 24 hours, watch whether the site is up and renew the domain on time. It's a practical arrangement, not a pledge.

Whenever you ask, it's all yours.

The site is yours as soon as you ask for it. On request you get:

• the content: all the copy, photographs and details
• the code: the whole site, with all its files
• the hosting the site runs on
• the domain, if the domain is yours

No notice period and nothing held back as a pledge. That holds today and on any day after.

Addresses under sorich.hr.

The one exception is the address. If your site, digital profile, guide or menu lives at an address under sorich.hr, that address stays mine and can't move, because it's part of my domain. What I do is help you move to your own domain and set up redirects, so old links, including those on printed QR codes, lead to the new address.

If you want everything on your own domain from the first day, say so at the start, and we talk it through before the build.

What's actually in that folder.

A website I build is a folder of finished files: pages, images, fonts and a few small scripts. There's no database to move and no system of plugins that needs updating.

Any ordinary host can serve a folder like that, with no special settings. One condition: the folder goes onto hosting and is opened over the web. Double-clicking a file on your computer won't open the site properly, because its addresses are built for the web.

That means you don't need me to move. Anyone who can set up hosting can put that folder online, even your nephew.

What if I disappear.

The answer is the same. Whenever you ask, you get everything, and that's enough for the site to carry on without me. You don't have to wait for something to happen: you can ask for the content and the code today, just to have them.

The folder doesn't depend on me or on my computer. To work, it needs no licence, no subscription to any program and no password of mine.

A guest guide comes with one more thing on paper: a print-ready PDF. Whatever happens to the signal or to me, the guest still has every answer in the drawer.

Who changes the content.

I do. Send the new text, price or photograph, and small changes are on the site within 24 hours, as part of the care plan. Editing the site yourself doesn't exist yet, and I don't promise it.

Questions worth asking anyone.

• Whose name is the domain registered in?
• What exactly do I get if I leave: the content, the code, the domain?
• Is there a notice period?
• Can another host serve the site, with no special system?

I've given my own answers above. Ask everyone else you talk to the same questions, and compare. If you also want to know what a site costs over the years, see the cost over three years.