How to Transfer Website Ownership After Selling it

Transfer Website ownership
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I am one of those guys who love to buy and sell websites and considering it as a serious business. Recently I’ve sold one of my blogs on Flippa.com and bought another one outside Flippa.

If you’ve ever done a transaction on Flippa, you might have noticed that they do not provide any information about website ownership transfer other than referring you to third-party sites like Escrow.com. For beginners, this is frustrating especially if they are not willing to use Escrow.

So this article will explain every aspect of handing over the website ownership between the buyer and seller.

How to transfer a Website to a new Owner:

Transferring domain ownership

Most of the people who sell their websites may have more than one domain on their domain registrar account. So for transferring a single domain ownership, the seller couldn’t just send the username and password of their account to the buyer.

However, domain transfer is not a rocket science. Also, if the website you are about to buy uses a third party DNS like a hosting company, the domain transfer will not cause any downtime issues as the DNS server settings will not change during the transfer.

The domain transfer is free of cost in most of the cases if the buyer has an account of that of domain registrar where the seller holds his domain. But transferring domain between 2 different registrars will cost some money. To transfer domain, from any registrar to another registrar, there are few basic steps which we need to follow:

  • Get your domain EPP code
  • Unlock domain
  • Give EPP code to new Website owner

Here are some resources from popular domain registrars (Name Cheap and Go Daddy) that will guide you to successfully transfer your domain.

NameCheap

GoDaddy

2. Website content, files and database transfer

Again if the owner hosts only one website or blog on his hosting account, he can send the account details to the buyer. There is no privacy problem, though. The new owner just has to change the primary email of the hosting account. Thus, the ownership transfer will be over! But if the seller has more than one website on his hosting account this strategy can’t be used.

But no problem, most of the hosting companies offer free website transfer for new accounts and account that being upgraded that requires a server move. So if you don’t want to mess up with the migration process ask your hosting provider that whether they can provide you a free website transfer.

If yours is a WordPress site you can learn about the migration process here at ShoutMeLoud earlier guide: Move WordPress hosting with 0 downtimes.

3. Ownership transfer of Social Media account

This may sound silly. But believe me, in my experience I can say that sometimes the buyer might forget to ask for transferring the ownership of social media accounts of the website they are about to buy. This step is crucial especially if the site has numerous loyal followers on social media or if the social media profile has an exact custom URL similar to that of the website domain.

Before you transfer your Website to new owner, make a list of all Social networking account of your website. Here are some of the common and popular accounts, which you should be transferring:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook Page
  • Google plus page
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Snapchat
  • Periscope

4. Feed transfer

Transferring of feed to the buyer’s account is another important thing to consider. Here is how to transfer the feeds between accounts on FeedBurner.

5. Sharing Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools Data

This is not compulsory but having previous data of Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools will let the buyer learn more about the website performance so far. This will also help if the buyer wants to show the previous stats to potential advertisers to encourage purchasing an advert like a banner ad on the site. So for sharing the data, the seller has to make buyer as an admin on these accounts. In fact, once became an admin, the buyer can stop sharing the data with the seller.
Resources:

If you are planning to be a website flipper for a long time, my recommendation would be: Keep your communication instant with the buyer. This will ensure not only a great service but will ensure your buyer will come back, when you are selling a new website again. I tried to add as many resources I could, and if you feel I missed something, let me know via comments.

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8 thoughts on “How to Transfer Website Ownership After Selling it”

  1. Great post Shahzad.
    I have one query. Recently I bought one site on flippa. I got domain & contents under my control. But there were few links for ads of institutes (direct ads not adsense), also there
    were provisions of making deals through mail/telephone. So at present I don’t know how
    many clients are paying and how much they are paying (to the old owner). Few links are still there on the website. I asked these details from my seller but he is denying to provide me the details. Although I can remove old links & add new ones & also I can contact the clients directly, it’ll take some effort from my side. So in this case what should I do? Should I book
    a complain with flippa support team? What are the legal remedies available for me? As it is obvious that seller is trying to hide a lot of things which is directly concerned with my potential earnings.(ps: I have already released the fund to seller which was made through flippa escrow)

  2. nayar

    Great article, If all the socials are seperate. And the website has its own dedicated gmail and analytics account could we not just give them the account details instead of having to share analytics info, or make them admin?

  3. Nikolas

    Great post! I was just wondering: if I transfer ownership of the domain name, will the email address also transfer? Or will I need to transfer something else for the other person to become the owner of the email addresses? Thanks

    1. Harsh Agrawal

      @Nikolas
      It depends how you are hosting your email. Usually client will transfer the website to his own server, and he needs to update MX record to point to his hosting (if you are using email service offered by your hosting company).

  4. GR Brown

    I just sold a local business site and I realized that I had no idea how to transfer ownership. Thanks so much Shahzad!!!!

  5. Sapna

    Hi Shahzad,

    Great information!

    You have really shared some very useful tips.I was not aware of about social media details can also be shared. Sharing Google analytics details can be helpful as well.

    Thanks Shahzad for the great information.

    Sapna

  6. linuxboy

    I’ve been flipping websites for some years now…and I can confirm the importance that this piece plays in the big business puzzle.Currently on a new project…

  7. Ehsan

    Nice to see you here Shahzad, I think after building authority and credibility to your blog and on social media, than selling it would be a big loss.

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