If you're reading this, chances are it's already been a week. Or three. Maybe longer. You've called, texted, emailed — and nothing. Meanwhile your site's still broken, or still not launched, or something's wrong and there's no one to fix it.
First: you're not the only one this has happened to. It's shockingly common, and it's not because you picked badly — it's because this industry has almost no accountability built in. So let's skip the part where you feel dumb about it, and get straight to what actually matters right now.
Here's the order to work through this in.
1. Figure out who actually owns your domain name
This is the single most important thing to check, and most business owners have never looked. Your domain (yourbusiness.com) and your website are two completely different things, registered in two completely different places.
- Go to a WHOIS lookup tool (search "whois lookup," any of the top results work) and type in your domain name.
- Look at the registrar field. Does it say GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, or something else?
- Now check: do you have login access to that registrar account? Or did your web guy set it up under an account you've never seen?
If you don't have access to that account, that's priority number one to solve — everything else depends on it. A website with no working web guy is annoying. A domain name you don't control is a business emergency, because whoever holds it can let it expire, redirect it, or hold it over you.
2. Check who's hosting your actual website
Separate question from #1. Hosting is where the website files physically live. Ask yourself:
- Do you have login credentials to a hosting account (Hostinger, Bluehost, GoDaddy, SiteGround, WP Engine, etc.)?
- If not, do you at least know which host it's on?
If you genuinely have neither, you may not be able to recover the existing site — but you can still rebuild. Don't let that possibility stop you from moving forward; a from-scratch rebuild is a completely normal, fixable situation, not a catastrophe. I build a free working mockup first, so you can see exactly what you'd be getting before you decide anything.
Already know you're starting fresh? No need to keep untangling the old mess — I'll build you a free mockup of a new site, no charge, no commitment.
Get my free mockup →3. Send one final, documented request — in writing
Before you write this off, send a single email (not a text, not a call) to your web guy that does three things: states plainly what you need (login credentials, files, or a status update), gives a specific deadline (5 business days is reasonable), and says plainly what happens if you don't hear back (you'll be seeking the files/access through other means, or moving to a new provider).
This isn't about being aggressive — it's about having something in writing. If this ever needs to go further (a dispute, a chargeback, a new developer needing proof you tried), a dated, specific email matters. I've written out the exact email to send, word for word, if you want something ready to copy rather than starting from a blank message.
4. Don't sign anything to make this go away faster
If your original web guy does resurface, resist the urge to just re-sign whatever gets your site working again out of relief. If you're going to consider staying, at minimum get login access to everything — domain, hosting, and any third-party accounts (Google Business Profile, email, analytics) — in your own name before you agree to anything else.
5. If you're starting over, you're not behind — you're clear
Here's the part that actually matters most: a lot of business owners in this exact spot feel like they're behind, like they wasted months, like they have to explain themselves to whoever they hire next. You don't. "My last guy disappeared" is one of the most common sentences a web developer hears, not a red flag about you.
What you actually need at this point is simple: someone who answers the phone, tells you plainly what's going on, and doesn't lock you into another version of the same problem. That's the entire reason I built this business — and it's also why, once your site is live, I keep handling the upkeep every month instead of disappearing the way your last guy did.