Before anyone leaves, put in writing who owns the site and domain, who pays and decides, how each person appears on it, and what happens to their page, reviews and email address when they go.

Several names, one website

Four stylists rent chairs in the same salon and share one website, with a page each. Three bookkeepers sharing a suite do the same, and so do instructors who share a studio.

The site was set up years ago by whoever was keenest. The domain is in that person's name, the hosting is on their credit card, and the others pay their share when asked.

It works well until someone leaves. Then their page, their reviews and their email address on the shared domain all turn into questions nobody answered at the start.

What nobody decided

Independent professionals who share space are not a single business. Each has their own clients, prices and income, and the website sits awkwardly between them.

Usually nobody has decided who owns the site, who pays for it, who may change it, or whose decision it is to add a new person or remove an old one.

While everyone gets along, those gaps cost nothing. They matter on the day two people disagree, and that day often comes with a departure.

Where the disputes start

The same handful of things cause trouble when one person leaves:

The first is the most serious. Whoever holds the domain can, in practice, decide everyone else's online address.

Who owns the site and the domain

Decide who owns them and write it down. It may be the person who holds the lease, a company the group forms, or one member holding them on everyone's behalf.

Register the domain to that owner, with a contact address several members can read, and set renewals on a card that will not quietly expire.

Keep the logins for the domain, the hosting and the site in one place the group can reach, with a named person responsible for each.

How each person appears

Give every member the same kind of page: name, photograph, a short biography, services, how to book and how to get in touch. Equal pages prevent a quieter argument about prominence.

Agree who writes each page and who approves changes. Most groups let each person edit their own page, while changes to the home page and the layout need everyone's agreement.

Decide too whether members may link to their own sites, show their own prices, or take bookings through their own systems, since each choice affects the others.

A worked example

Four independent public speaking coaches rent a training room in a downtown office building and share one website, with a page each and a calendar of group workshops.

One coach was moving to Victoria. Her page held her best testimonials and a video of a workshop, her clients wrote to her at the shared domain, and the domain was registered to another coach.

The coaches wrote a two-page agreement. The coach who signs the room's lease holds the domain for the group, with a shared contact address, and each coach edits only their own page.

When someone leaves, their page becomes a short note with their new contact details for three months, then goes. Testimonials naming them leave with them, and their address forwards for the same three months.

The departing coach's clients found her new details on the page they knew, and the remaining three kept a site nobody else could switch off.

When someone leaves

Agree how much notice a departing member gives, and what happens to their page: removed at once, or replaced for a set period by a note with their new contact details.

Their photographs, biography and the testimonials naming them are theirs to take. Reviews left on a shared listing, such as the group's Google listing, stay with that listing and cannot be moved.

Agree also whether the remaining members may say where the person went. A simple line on the page is kinder to clients than an address that suddenly leads nowhere.

Email on the shared domain

An address on the shared domain is convenient while someone is a member and awkward afterwards, because clients keep using it for months.

Agree a forwarding period, followed by an automatic reply pointing to the new address. After that, the address can close or stay reserved so nobody else is given it.

The messages in that mailbox belong to the departing person's client relationships. Agree in advance that no other member reads them, and how the person takes a copy.

Putting it in writing

The agreement can be short: who owns the site and domain, how costs are shared, who decides what, how each person appears, and what happens when someone joins, leaves or the group ends.

Everyone signs it and keeps a copy, and it is read again whenever someone joins. A new member who agrees to it on day one has little ground to dispute it on the last.

This is general information about sharing a site, not legal advice, and a lawyer can turn the group's notes into an agreement that suits its situation.

The counter-case

A salon owner who owns the business, the lease and the website, and lists renters as guests on it, already has a clear answer to most of these questions.

Two partners who have worked together for twenty years may also feel that writing anything down is unnecessary between them.

Still, one written page covering the domain, the logins and a departing person's page takes an hour and spares everyone a hard conversation later.

Settling it while everyone gets along

  1. Find out who holds the domain and the hosting.
  2. Agree who owns the site and domain from now on.
  3. Move the logins to a place the group can reach.
  4. Give every member the same kind of page.
  5. Decide who approves changes to shared pages.
  6. Write down what happens when someone leaves.
  7. Sign it and read it with every new member.

Step six heads off the dispute. Agreed in calm months, a departure becomes a matter of following the agreement, not of negotiating while someone is packing.

When the site belongs to someone else and your business gets one page on it, a franchisee's page on the head office website sets out what to ask for.

Frequently asked questions

Who should own a website several professionals share?

Whoever the group agrees on in writing: the leaseholder, a company the group forms, or one member holding it for everyone. The domain should be registered to that owner.

What happens to a departing member's page?

Whatever the agreement says. A common choice is a short note with their new contact details for a few months, after which the page is removed.

Can reviews move with a person who leaves?

Testimonials on their own page can go with them. Reviews on a shared listing, such as the group's Google listing, stay with that listing and cannot be moved.

What about their email address on the shared domain?

Forward it for an agreed period, then set an automatic reply with the new address. Agree beforehand that no other member reads the messages in it.

Why does the domain matter so much?

Whoever holds the domain controls the site's address and every email address on it. If that person leaves or falls out with the group, everyone else is exposed.

Does the agreement need a lawyer?

A short written agreement is far better than none, and a lawyer can turn it into a document that suits the group's situation.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Sharing a website with people you do not employ?

Tell us who holds the domain today, and we will help you set up ownership, logins and member pages that survive departures.

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