How to switch web agency without losing your domain, email or Google rankings

Take stock before you tell your agency

Get access first and announce the move second. While the relationship is friendly, most of this takes one email; once an invoice is in dispute, every password becomes a negotiation. List everything your business relies on online, and for each item note who is listed as the owner and who has access today:

• Domain and DNS: registrant, registrar, expiry date and where the records are managed.
• Hosting and CMS: server control panel, an administrator login and backups.
• Email: on the same hosting, or with Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or another provider.
• Google and Meta: Search Console, Analytics, Business Profile, Ads, Business portfolio, Instagram and pixel.
• Paperwork: contract, accepted quotes, invoices and paid licences.

Who owns your website? Start with the domain

Your website and your email both depend on the domain, so it is the piece to secure first. How you transfer a domain depends on its extension.

.com, .net and other generic domains

Check the registrar and key dates with ICANN Lookup, which uses RDAP, the protocol that replaced WHOIS for these domains in January 2025. Registrant details are often redacted for privacy, so ask whoever controls the registrar account to confirm the registrant in writing. Under ICANN's Transfer Policy and its registrant FAQs:

• Only the registered name holder can approve or deny a transfer to another registrar.
• To transfer the domain you need its authorisation code (AuthInfo or EPP code), which the registrar must give you within five calendar days of your request.
• A transfer may be refused within 60 days of the initial registration or of a previous transfer.
• Changing the registrant's name, organisation or email triggers a 60-day lock on transfers, unless your registrar lets you opt out (it does not have to).

If the domain is already yours, ICANN suggests transferring first and updating contact details afterwards; its FAQs also explain how to complain if a registrar will not cooperate. One update to watch: on 7 June 2026 the ICANN Board adopted revised transfer rules and directed staff to implement them, so confirm the current timings with your registrar before you start.

Spanish .es domains: AuthCode and the administrative contact

Many Ibiza businesses use a .es name, governed by Dominios.es, the registry run by the public body Red.es. Two roles matter: the holder and the administrative contact. To see who is listed, search your domain on dominios.es and click "Registered. See Data". The transfer is requested by your new accredited registrar and approved by the administrative contact. According to the registry's official transfer procedure (in Spanish), you request the AuthCode from the current registrar, it is sent to the administrative contact and it is valid for 10 days from generation or until used. That contact then receives an email to accept or cancel the transfer; if nobody acts within 10 days, the request is cancelled automatically.

If the agency is the holder, you first need a change of domain holder, which the registrar, the holder or the administrative contact can request; if the agency is only the administrative contact, ask the registrar to update it. If you are already listed but have lost your login, the registry lets you recover access and even change the contact email by proving your identity with an electronic certificate or a copy of your ID document, which suits owners who are not on the island.

Watch the expiry date too. The Dominios.es FAQs say only the administrative or billing contact can renew a .es domain, and that ten days after expiry it is de-registered and becomes available to anyone. A forgotten renewal during a dispute could cost you your business name.

Get access to your website: hosting, CMS and licences

If the honest answer is "I can't get access to my website", start here. You need an administrator login for your content management system and a full backup: files and database, not just an export of pages. If the site runs on Wix, Squarespace or Shopify, the account itself should be transferred to your company; if it sits on the agency's server, ask for control-panel access or, at minimum, the backup and a list of everything installed.

Check the licences: premium themes and plugins are usually tied to the account that bought them and may stop updating once you leave. And make sure the new hosting issues the SSL certificate as soon as DNS switches, so no guest sees a "not secure" warning mid-booking.

If your page addresses stay the same, Google treats the move as a simple hosting change: a temporary dip in crawling right after launch is normal, followed by a steady recovery. If the URLs change too, read how to redesign a website without losing SEO first.

How to change hosting without losing email

Email failures are silent: messages stop arriving, and with guests booking from abroad that means lost enquiries. Everything hinges on the MX records, which tell the internet which server receives mail for your domain.

• If email lives on the same hosting as the website, moving hosting means moving mail too: create the mailboxes with the new provider, migrate old messages and keep the old service until you have confirmed everything arrives.
• If you use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, your mailboxes stay where they are: copy their MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC records exactly into the new DNS zone.

The classic mistake is building the new DNS zone with the website records but without the email ones. Export the full zone and replicate it, including Google and Meta verification records. Google's hosting-move guide suggests lowering the TTL (how long providers cache your DNS) to a few hours at least a week beforehand, and Workspace help warns that new MX records can take up to 72 hours to be recognised. Keep both mailboxes running and check both during that window.

And if your current registrar also hosts your DNS, move the DNS first and the domain second. Amazon Route 53's documentation warns that some registrars may switch off free DNS as soon as a transfer is requested, and that moving both at once can leave the website and email unavailable.

Google and Meta: become the owner before you say goodbye

Add yourself with full permissions first; remove the agency only afterwards.

Search Console

Every property needs at least one verified owner, proven with a personal token: an HTML file, a meta tag or a DNS record. Verify with your own; for a domain property that means a DNS record, another reason not to lose records in the move. When you remove the agency, delete its verification tokens too, or it can re-verify itself.

Google Analytics

Ask for the Administrator role at account level: the Analytics help says it is needed to delete users, and the last Administrator cannot remove themselves.

Google Business Profile

A profile can have several owners but only one primary owner. Get added as an owner, wait out the 7 days Google imposes on new owners, then have them transfer primary ownership to you; Google notes this keeps your business information, reviews included. If nobody responds, you can request ownership: the current owner has 3 days to reply, after which you may be able to claim the profile by verifying your business.

Meta

Find out which Business portfolio holds your pixel, Facebook Page and Instagram account. If the pixel belongs to the agency, ask them to share it with your business during the handover, and consider creating a new one in your own portfolio for full control. Its history starts from zero, so do it well before the season.

Contract, paperwork and what to ask for in writing

Reread the contract before you give notice: minimum term, notice period, what the monthly fee covers and who owns the domain, design, copy and photos. If the site was funded through Spain's Kit Digital grant, the programme's rules (Orden ETD/1498/2021) required the domain to be wholly owned by the business. Keep your invoices: they show what you paid for.

Then ask for everything in a single email, with a reasonable deadline:

Comparing proposals? Our guide to how much a website costs in Ibiza explains what should be included. Whoever you choose, insist that the new contract puts the domain and every account in your company's name.

The order of operations, step by step

This sequence keeps the risk low. Timings are indicative and count back from the day you switch DNS:

While the domain is still with the agency's registrar, they will make the DNS change for you, so agree that in step 3. And if a 60-day lock delays step 7, that is fine: your website and email are already under your control.

When to switch: work around the Ibiza season

The worst time to switch web agency in Ibiza is when your website works hardest: May to October, with bookings, WhatsApp enquiries and guests writing from across Europe. The sensible window is November to February, so everything is tested well before Easter. Add up the waits you do not control: a week with the TTL lowered, 7 days on the Business Profile, up to 10 days to approve a .es transfer, up to 72 hours for MX records and, if a generic domain changes registrant, a 60-day lock. Starting about two months before launch is not over-cautious.

If you are also rebuilding the site, treat it as one project: access and ownership first, design second, and the old site live until the new one is tested. At Grow Ibiza we specialise in website redesign in Ibiza and can manage the handover alongside the build.

Finally, keep the new keys in a company password manager, not one person's inbox.

Frequently asked questions