How do you move off a website you don't own?

Move in this order: get the domain into your business's name, secure owner access to Search Console and analytics, save the text of every page and the list of every URL, build the new site in accounts you own, then point the domain at it and redirect any addresses that change. If the old vendor controls the domain, transferring it comes before everything else, because every later step depends on it.

Leaving a site you rent is harder than leaving one you own, mostly because the old vendor holds pieces you need. Some will hand them over without fuss. Others will follow the contract to the letter, which may mean the old pages disappear on a set date. Plan as if you will have no help after the end date.

This is general information for business owners in any industry. What you may copy from the old site depends on your contract and on copyright law, so check that question with your own attorney before reusing anything the vendor wrote or designed.

Step one: get the domain into your name

Everything else points to the domain, so start there. If the vendor is the registrant, the first request is a change of registrant to your business, made through the registrar that currently holds it. ICANN's transfer FAQ and its current Transfer Policy, both as read on October 17, 2026, also cover moving the domain to a different registrar. Under the policy, a registrar that has no self-service option must provide the transfer code within five calendar days of a request. The FAQ lists the limited reasons a registrar may deny a transfer, among them evidence of fraud, a reasonable dispute over identity, payment owed for a previous registration period, an express written objection from the domain holder, and a lock status.

Timing matters here. The FAQ says a domain cannot move to a different registrar within 60 days of a change to the registrant name, and the current policy lets a registrar offer an opt-out from that lock before the change is requested. ICANN's Board adopted revised transfer recommendations on June 7, 2026, including a separate policy for changes to registrant data, and they are still being implemented. If you plan to change both the registrant and the registrar, ask the current registrar which rules apply before you start.

Step two: save the content and the URL list

On a rented site, you may lose access the day service ends, so copy what you need while you can still see it. Save the text of every page, the page titles, and every URL, including blog posts and pages nobody reaches from the menu. Keep a note of which images came with licenses in your name and which belonged to the vendor.

Rewriting is also where a move from a rented site can leave you better off than before. The facts belong to your business, and a new writer should not have to invent what your staff explain to customers every day. Your saved pages, plus a few interviews, give the new copy that raw material even if the old wording cannot be reused.

Step three: Search Console, analytics and redirects

Search and visitor history is easier to keep than to rebuild. A monthly report is not access. Make sure someone in your business is a verified owner in Search Console and an administrator in analytics before the vendor's access ends. If you keep the same domain and the same page addresses, Google's guide to changing web hosting covers the hosting side of the move: it starts by pointing the domain's DNS settings at the new hosting, and a temporary drop in Googlebot's crawl rate right after launch is normal.

If addresses change, old URLs need redirects to their new homes. Google's site move documentation describes configuring the server to redirect from old URLs to new ones, and advises keeping them for as long as possible, generally at least one year, adding that from users' perspective it is worth considering keeping redirects indefinitely. Once your domain points at your new host, those redirects can live there, in an account you control.

The harder case is when the vendor keeps the old domain and you have to start on a new one. Google's Change of Address tool, which forwards signals from an old site to a new one, requires you to be an owner of both the old and new properties in Search Console and to have a 301 redirect from the old homepage to the new one. On a domain you do not control, both of those depend on the old vendor's cooperation. Google's help page also advises keeping those redirects for at least 180 days, longer if Google Search still sends traffic to them.

Step four: switch, then check

Build the replacement in hosting and platform accounts registered to your business, and have it ready before the old service ends. Moving the domain is not moving the site. The domain is the address; the site is whatever that address points to, so the switch is a change to the domain's DNS settings once the new site is tested. After the switch, test the redirects for your most-visited pages, submit every form, and confirm submissions reach a company inbox. Analytics can show which pages get visits, but not always which ones lead to a call, so ask the front desk or dispatch team: "Which pages do callers mention having read before they phoned us?" Test those first. The full checklist for protecting search traffic during that switch is in the migration guide to protecting search traffic.

A fictional example: a med spa and a plumber

Here are two fictional businesses. A med spa in Texas learns its domain is registered in its marketing vendor's account. It asks for a change of registrant first, waits for that to complete, and only then commissions a new site, so the new pages are never built on an address it might lose. A fictional plumbing company in Ohio already holds its domain but rented its site, and its contract ends in six weeks. It saves every page that week, has itself added to analytics, launches the new site two weeks before the end date, and redirects the old service page addresses to their replacements. What happens to the old site on the end date is covered in what happens to a website when you cancel a marketing contract.

Hudson South's Foundation level, the first of four, includes the site, migration with redirects, structured data and forms, all owned by the client. The client owns everything after the move: domain and hosting account in the client's name (Netlify, the WordPress host, or Squarespace), the site's files, all copy, the page library, the structured data, the Hudson Twenty-One profile, the research, and the analytics and Search Console accounts. Stock photos, premium fonts and paid plugins belong to their vendors and are licensed in the client's name so they carry over, and in regulated industries the licensed professional still approves content, even at the Hands-Off level. The pages themselves come from four steps in order: Authority Asset gathers approved business knowledge and evidence, Hudson Twenty-One records how the business communicates across 21 dimensions, Market Intelligence researches buyer questions and the market, and AEO Creation turns those inputs into answer-first content. Platforms are compared on the website builds page.

Start the move with a clear picture

On a free 30-minute call, we compare your site with the competitors your buyers also consider, so you know which pages are worth carrying over.

Sources

1. FAQs for Registrants: Transferring Your Domain Name. ICANN. Read 2026-10-17.
2. Transfer Policy. ICANN. Read 2026-10-17.
3. Approved Resolutions, Regular Meeting of the ICANN Board, 7 June 2026. ICANN. Read 2026-10-17.
4. Site Moves and Migrations. Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-17.
5. Changing Your Web Hosting and SEO. Google Search Central. Read 2026-10-17.
6. Change of Address tool. Search Console Help. Read 2026-10-17.
7. Managing owners, users, and permissions. Search Console Help. Read 2026-10-17.