Your web developer disappeared. Here is how to get your site back.

It happens all the time here. A cousin, a friend's son, a freelancer who moved abroad, an agency that closed. They built the website in 2017, and now the hours are wrong, the phone number is old, the contact form goes nowhere and nobody can change any of it. Worse, nobody is sure who owns the domain.

Here is how to get control back, in the order that works.

Step 1: find out who holds the domain

The domain is the only part that truly matters. The site can be rebuilt; the domain is your name on the internet.

Go to a WHOIS lookup site (search "whois lookup") and enter your domain. You will see the registrar (the company it is registered with, such as GoDaddy, Namecheap or the .bs registry) and often the registrant (the name or organisation it is registered to). Three outcomes:

• Your business is the registrant. Good. You need the login to the registrar account. Use the registrar's "forgot password" with the email on the record; if that email is dead, contact the registrar's support with proof of the business.
• The developer is the registrant. Ask them, in writing, to transfer the domain to an account in your name. Most will. If they do not respond, contact the registrar: with business documents and a trademark or trading name, registrars will usually help.
• The domain has expired. Register it again immediately, in your name, before someone else does.

Step 2: find the hosting

The site lives on a server somewhere. From the domain's DNS records (your registrar shows them, or a "DNS lookup" site), the nameservers or the A record tell you the hosting company. Common ones here are GoDaddy, Wix, Squarespace, Bluehost and a few local providers.

Contact that company with the domain name and proof of the business. They can tell you whose account it is under and begin recovery. If the account is in the developer's name and they will not cooperate, you may not get the old files, and that is fine. See step 4.

Step 3: get the content out

While you can still see the site, save everything: copy the text into a document, download the photos, screenshot every page. If the site is on WordPress and you can log in, export it. This takes an hour and means you lose nothing even if the old site vanishes tomorrow.

Step 4: decide whether to recover or rebuild

If you now control the domain and the hosting, and the site only needs updates, a competent developer can take it over. Ask them to move it to hosting in your name and give you every login.

If the hosting is lost, the site is on an old platform, or it was not bringing in customers anyway, do not spend money reviving it. Rebuild on the domain you now control, with a provider who gives you ownership in writing. A rebuild takes a week; untangling a dead site can take months.

Step 5: make sure it never happens again

Whoever builds the next site, insist on this:

• The domain is registered to your business, in an account you hold.
• The hosting is in your name, or you have a written agreement that it transfers on request.
• You have every login in a password manager.
• Someone answers when you need a change, and you know what that costs.

The shortcut

Every Bold Bahamas rebuild starts by checking who holds your domain, recovering it or registering one in your name, and ends with every login in your hands. The site is built before you pay, live in seven days, and kept updated under a care plan with a real person on WhatsApp. If your site is stuck, send us the address and we will tell you where things stand within a day.