Moving your website? Prepare an email-and-domain cutover brief

“Move the website” can mean changing a hosting account, a domain setting, the site's addresses or several of those together. Business email is another dependency. The safest starting point is an inventory and a written transition, not a promise that nothing can go wrong.

You do not need to become a DNS specialist. You do need to know who owns the accounts, which services depend on them and who has authority to make changes. This brief is a preparation tool for an agreed technical review, not a set of universal DNS values to paste into your account.

Separate four responsibilities

• Domain registration: the account responsible for renewing and managing the domain registration.
• DNS management: the provider where records point services toward their destinations.
• Website hosting: the service delivering the pages and application.
• Business email: the provider handling mailboxes and mail delivery.

These can be sold together but are not the same service. Google's Workspace instructions, for example, explain how MX records direct mail to that provider. They are not website-hosting instructions and are not a template for every mail provider. Ask the person handling your transition to identify your actual mail service and its documented requirements.

Create an access inventory without sharing passwords

Record the domain, renewal owner, hosting provider, email provider and the person authorized to approve changes. Note whether the business can sign in and receive account recovery messages. Keep credentials in an appropriate secure system; do not put them in a public inquiry form or an ordinary project brief.

An illustrative example: a fictional landscaping company uses one supplier for its old site and another for mail. Its owner knows the website password but not where DNS is managed. A new provider cannot responsibly assume that changing hosting is the only task. Resolving account ownership and access is a prerequisite, not a hidden implementation detail.

Inventory what must remain reachable

List the current homepage and important service URLs, the published contact details, inquiry forms and any third-party booking or payment links. Include subdomains if the business relies on them. Record who controls each destination and whether it is in the new scope.

A simple URL map has three columns: old address, intended new address and action. Keep a useful existing URL where practical. If a URL must change, Google recommends mapping old pages to relevant destinations and using appropriate permanent redirects. Redirecting every retired page to the homepage is not a substitute for a considered map. Search visibility can fluctuate during a move; no transition plan can honestly guarantee unchanged rankings.

Agree the sequence before the switch

The written plan should say what will be prepared and checked before public changes, who approves the new website, which settings may change and how business email dependencies will be reviewed. Identify a suitable change window with the business, but do not translate that into a zero-downtime guarantee.

Ask what a rollback would involve and what evidence would trigger it. Some external systems have their own delays and limits. The responsible provider should explain what is reversible, what requires another party and what is outside the agreed work. A backup is useful only if there is an understood restoration path.

Use a practical acceptance checklist

• Public domain and agreed important URLs reach the intended website.
• Relevant redirects work and do not loop.
• Phone, email and approved external links point to the correct destinations.
• The agreed inquiry path has been tested with permission and without unsolicited messages.
• Email continuity checks are coordinated with the authorized mail administrator.
• Titles, canonical URLs and crawl settings are reviewed on the live domain.
• Ownership, renewal responsibilities and handoff materials are recorded.

Do not treat a successful website load as proof that email works, or an email arriving once as proof that every mailbox and integration is covered. Record the exact checks performed and the remaining limitations.

Put costs and boundaries in writing

Client-owned domain, hosting and third-party services remain continuing costs. Existing subscriptions may need to remain active during an agreed transition. Major migrations, unsupported platforms and integrations require technical review rather than automatic inclusion in a standard informational website rebuild.

Our ownership and hosting article explains the commercial distinction. The website service page describes a scoped transition, and the materials checklist can help assemble approved content without including account secrets.

Bring a brief, not a bundle of passwords

If you are considering a provider change, ask about your website transition with the public address, current platforms and general constraints. We can identify what needs investigation before agreeing deliverables, schedule and a fixed price in writing.