List the services your website depends on
Your web address, email, enquiry forms, booking tools and website files may be managed by different suppliers. Moving the website does not automatically move everything connected to it. Ask for a simple list showing who looks after each part.
Check that the practice knows who controls the accounts and how access can be recovered if a staff member or supplier leaves. The handover should make these arrangements understandable without asking you to manage technical settings yourself.
Ask about backups and help when you need it
Find out what is backed up, how often and whether the supplier has demonstrated restoring it. A backup needs to cover the information and files required to get your actual service working again.
Ask about support hours, how to report a problem and who deals with urgent faults. Discuss concrete examples: a page will not open, a form stops arriving or a booking link fails. Those examples make gaps in a support package easier to spot than broad promises of maintenance.
Plan the move before changing the public site
Ask the supplier to check the new setup using your important pages, downloads, forms and booking routes. They should account for existing links so people arriving from search results or saved bookmarks still reach a useful destination.
Agree when the change happens, who checks it and how to return to the previous setup if necessary. A page loading successfully does not prove that an enquiry reaches the right place. Arrange authorised form checks without creating confusion for staff or sending unnecessary real requests.
Understand the ongoing bill
Separate the cost of providing hosting from content edits, software updates, security work and help with connected tools. Ask what is included and what would be quoted separately. Establish who tells you about changes that could affect the service.
Before leaving the old supplier, confirm that the practice can access its new accounts and that the agreed checks have passed. Keep the handover instructions somewhere the responsible team can find. A successful move should leave ownership and support clearer than they were before.
Turn reading into a next step
Your action checklist
Work through these checks with your team or supplier. Tick the ones you have resolved and leave unknowns open.
Service and account owner; restore evidence; move checks; fallback; included and extra support.
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Further reading
These sources provide background for the topic. The practice examples and checklist are illustrative planning suggestions from Kay & Co.
Related guides
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