Who do I speak to about changing my website?

There is a version of this question that is really about a specific edit, and a version that is really about not knowing who is responsible. The second is far more common, and it is worth solving properly, because it will keep recurring.

Work out who currently controls what

Three separate things, often held by three different people, which is why "who do I speak to" has no single answer.

The domain. Your web address, held at a registrar. Run your domain through a WHOIS lookup and you will usually see the registrar. Privacy services hide the owner's details, but the registrar is normally visible, and knowing it is most of the battle.

The hosting. Where the files actually live. The easiest way to find this is your own bank or card statements. A recurring payment to a hosting company, sometimes as little as a few pounds a month, has your answer on it.

The site itself. Whoever built it, and whoever has the login.

If those three are all with one supplier, your life is simple. If they are scattered across an old agency, a former employee and a platform nobody remembers signing up for, that is worth untangling now rather than during an emergency.

Then ask, in a way that gets a reply

When you do contact them, be specific. Vague requests sit in inboxes.

Not: "Can you update the website when you get a chance?"

Instead:

Please change the phone number in the footer and on the contact page from 0121 000 0000 to 0121 111 1111. Could you confirm when it is done, and let me know the cost if this is chargeable?

A precise request, a request for confirmation, and a question about money. All three make it much harder to leave unanswered, and the third prevents the awkward invoice later.

If nobody replies

Give it a week, then chase once. After that, stop trying to obtain cooperation and start obtaining access, which is a different objective and does not require them.

Get control of the domain. Contact the registrar directly. As the business the domain relates to, you have routes even if you are not the listed contact, and for .uk domains Nominet has a process. This matters more than the website itself.

Get control of the hosting, via the same route: the hosting company, with proof that you are the business paying for it.

If neither works, rebuild. This sounds drastic and is usually less painful than expected. Producing a new site is no longer the expensive part. What you must recover is the domain, because rebuilding at a different address costs you every link and every printed card you have.

The whole situation, and how to avoid it recurring, is in my web designer has disappeared.

Decide how this works from now on

Once it is sorted, set it up so the question never has to be asked again.

Write down who holds what. Domain registrar, hosting, the site login, the Google Business Profile. One page, kept somewhere other than in those accounts. This takes fifteen minutes and saves days.

Make sure everything is in the business's name. Not a member of staff's personal email, not a supplier's.

Agree a route for changes, with a named person and a stated turnaround, so a price change is a message rather than an expedition. That is the whole point of having someone manage it.

Why this matters more than it seems

A website that is difficult to change stops being changed. Not deliberately: each individual edit is small enough to postpone and awkward enough to be worth postponing.

Eighteen months of that and the site describes a business you no longer run. Old prices, a member of staff who left, a service you dropped, hours that are wrong. Every one of those quietly costs you enquiries, and none of them appear on any report.

The fix is not a better website. It is knowing exactly who to ask and being confident they will reply.