Handing over a site to a client

A good handover is mostly about roles and components. Set these up well and your client can run the site without being able to break it, and you get fewer emergency calls.

Give the client an editor role

Under Roles, give your client permission to change content and media and to publish. They don't need the design system, templates, plugins or settings. Add more people as they need it, because a licence is per site, so extra editors cost nothing.

Keep your own administrator account separate from theirs. The audit log then shows clearly who changed what.

Protect the design with components

Anything you want to protect goes into a component with properties. Your client fills in the text and the image, and the layout, spacing and colours stay as you built them. If they need something new, you add a component once and they can use it everywhere.

Show one working copy

Sit down with them, or share your screen, and make one small change together:

1. Open a page and change a sentence. It saves as a working copy, and the live page doesn't change.
2. Copy the preview link and send it to someone, so they can see how a review works.
3. Publish it, then open the live page.

After that they know everything they need for day-to-day work. Show them History too, because knowing they can restore an older version makes people much less nervous.

Use comments

Ask your client to leave comments on the page rather than sending screenshots by email. They can mention you with @, and you get a mail with a link to the right place.

Decide who owns any plugin licences

If the site uses a paid plugin, you can keep its licence in your account and manage it for them, or the client can own it. It can be transferred free of charge. Whichever you choose, write it down in your handover notes.

Write a one-page handover note

Include the addresses of the site and the admin, who has which role, where the site is hosted and who pays for it, who owns the domain and any plugin licences, and how to reach you. A single page like this saves a long search in two years' time.

Before you hand over, go through the launch checklist.