We hereby declare complete digital independence!

Every time we meet a client, we are surprised to discover anew that he arrives chained without free access to his assets. The market has not yet understood that nowadays the brand is the landlord and should own almost all digital assets. Tens of hundreds of thousands of shekels and more are invested in website infrastructure and campaigns – it probably makes sense that they would be your full ownership, right?

I wish the issue only came down to obtaining ownership. In some cases, promotion companies not only chain clients to their infrastructure and assets, but also refuse to cooperate with granting permissions. A process that should end in two clicks turns into a war of attrition.

In our opinion, it is time to embark on digital independence. To do this, it is worth starting by understanding what it is about, and where you should strive. Independence Day, the digital version, let’s start.

Your website, really yours?

Let’s start with the fact that in our opinion, the “renting” model for a website is not the most successful option. A website we build can easily stay up for 7, 8 or even 10 years and the cost of renting is not worthwhile for the brand. In other words, in the rental model there is a tie to a particular provider. And as mentioned, we are liberals and believe in freedom.
Assuming that you paid for your website in a fixed payment model (as opposed to renting) – the website is yours. Don’t be sold stories/excuses/reasons. The programmer is somehow always in Thailand on vacation when you ask him for the website. We make sure to state in all agreements that the client is the sole owner of the website and is entitled to receive a copy of all its code. According to our perception, if you paid for the website – it is yours! No provider should refuse to provide its code or backup library.

On which platform can we enjoy maximum freedom?

The short answer would be WordPress. But the long answer is this: in the past, many websites were built in a Tailor Made format with dedicated code. Today, in our opinion, systems like WordPress outperform alternatives in terms of infrastructure, security, and performance, as well as in terms of search engine indexing and long-term survival. WordPress is an excellent and recommended system. If it is built and configured correctly, it can be updated and improved constantly, and thus you have a website that theoretically can live forever.
There are a variety of ways to develop a website in WordPress. The most common is Elementor, an available, convenient, reliable, and good tool. We also use it in building for companies listed on the stock exchange, and it is undoubtedly a high-quality and flexible tool. In fact, it is considered a standard in the field. Elementor’s freedom frees you from the need to be tied to a developer.

Within WordPress, it is also possible and advisable to develop websites in a Tailor Made format, that is, customized. Although you will need to use a developer to implement changes later on, if he built the website according to the accepted standard, there is no reason why programmers and other professionals will be able to work with it easily.
In the world of e-commerce, Shopify is an excellent platform for developing online stores that we highly recommend. There are plenty of ready-made templates and you can also use dedicated code and developments. A common and powerful platform that we highly recommend.
When are there problems? It often happens that promotion companies create a template in closed code that only they have access to. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to change. Such an approach requires the client to work only with the specific promotion company that created the site for them – other programmers will not be able to change and maintain the site and will not even want to try. As a rule – sites built using existing templates are less flexible and less easy to change. Relying on many plugins and developments in Shopify, it is actually possible to use templates as well as dedicated code and developments.
Regarding other platforms – there is no point in reviewing them all, because no reader will survive an article of this length. It is enough to know that WordPress and Shopify are the accepted standard, the so-called Best Practice. True, you can be “tied” there too, but if you ask the right questions and choose a quality provider, you should get your own system with complete freedom.
Other platforms than WordPress or Shopify will often be a challenge. Not everyone will be familiar with them, you will not always find all the features you need, and the performance is also weaker.
Important! Don’t forget to demand full admin access to your website. These are the keys to the website, and it is important that they are in your hands, especially if at some point you end the relationship with the person who created the website for you.

Domain – One Address That Can Be Worth Gold

Your website address – the domain (www.mysite.co.il for example) – is a component that often only costs 75 NIS per year, but its value is enormous and measured in thousands of shekels and more, and increases the more seniority and links it has. A domain is a somewhat complex business on a technological and legal level, but we will be happy to explain.
First of all – the domain is a property that you must own, like a taboo deed for an apartment or house. No external party is allowed to own the domain. The domain is yours, but really.
We recommend buying a domain for an Israeli website through LiveDns, who provide excellent service in Hebrew. In English, it is recommended to buy at Name.com. There are several other good providers, but many of them (without involving ancestors and the knowledgeable will understand) will require quite a bit of effort in dealing with them. Buy the domain yourself on a recommended site and you will have peace of mind that you are the owner. Just don’t forget to renew. It is important to document who owns and who has access in the organization, so that you do not get locked out of the domain.
Now let’s complicate the plot a bit. The domain is connected to something called NS, and you must not under any circumstances “lock yourself out” of it. Your provider can manage it for you, but if you want to make changes to it, you need full access or a provider who will be happy to perform actions and requests for you effectively. As mentioned – your property, with easy control.
If you chose to manage your NS in Cloudflare – first of all, congratulations, you know what you are doing 😊! Second, don’t forget to document access well and be an admin there too so that you do not get locked out of your Cloudflare.

Facebook, Instagram, and social networks

Most organizations today already know how important it is to maintain a social infrastructure as part of the brand’s marketing envelope. Your Facebook and Instagram pages have gained thousands of followers and sometimes more, and your advertising infrastructure has accumulated data, pixels, and audiences. They are all supposed to be fully owned by you. They are intellectual property with business value and even great financial value. So how do you do it?

First of all, it is mandatory that an appropriate person from the organization owns the assets. We recommend choosing an owner, a leading partner, or a senior figure, plus two or three other people from within the organization. This way, you can be sure that you have access from multiple directions. The access you need to receive is only one – full ADMIN. This is your property. Document who the owner is, this is information that you must not forget.
On Facebook, there are three different entities – a business page, a business manager, and an ad account. We won’t dive into all the tedious explanations of what each one does, but we will emphasize: you need to be the full owner and admin of all three.

Of course, the advertising company also needs full admin access to manage proper activity, but in addition to you, not instead of you. We strongly recommend that you put your credit card and enjoy full transparency of both the campaign itself and the charges. It is your asset and those who have something to hide, have something to hide.

Don’t stop at just Facebook and Instagram! Make sure that you are a full admin on every platform (partial list: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, X) and be sure to document in a neat document who has access.

Google In The Land Of The Free

Google is a little simpler than Facebook in this regard. Here too, you will need a person from your organization to be the full owner and admin, and preferably two or three. You need to have two types of admin – one for the ad account, and one as a paying party. On each platform, make sure that once your credit card is in, you receive invoices to the correct beneficiary and to you by email; these advertising invoices will be submitted to the accounting department and taxed. In general, if you are going to spend money on advertising, you should have access to everything and invoices in particular.

The exception to the rule – where is it okay not to have full ownership?

If you want the promotion agency to use its credit card, keep in mind that it will require that the account be owned by it. The payer is the owner. Still, we recommend that you always be the paying party. In exceptional cases, such as non-profits and entities that cannot pay by credit card, there is a simple solution: purchasing a prepaid card.
In short, if you are not the paying party, you may not be the full owner of the advertising accounts. All social media accounts and linked pages must of course be your assets.
Outbrain and Taboola platforms – if you rely on these platforms as your advertising center and they receive a serious budget, it is recommended that you own them. If they are active intermittently or occupy only a small part of the campaign, it is okay for the advertising agency to advertise there for you under its advertising infrastructure. There are quite a few agencies like us that own content sites and portals with power and influence and in such a situation it makes sense that they would want to advertise the portal on their behalf, of course transparently.
Lead system – you really don’t have to own it. Licensing and implementation can be expensive, and most agencies will know how to provide you with an end-to-end solution. You can switch to a different lead system at any stage and export the data to Excel with a click. If your provider owns the lead system license, there is really no reason to worry, it is a market standard that makes it easier for you and saves you time and money.

Hosting – you are not a server farm or a digital company. You probably don’t need to own any server or storage package with all the maintenance overhead that comes with it. Let a professional manage your storage for you, provided of course that they provide you with a copy of the code and allow full management of the management interface and domain. It’s worth the effort to find a reliable provider who will also manage your storage for you and provide a comprehensive solution for your entire digital infrastructure. You can manage your storage yourself, but it requires knowledge and time. In places where brands manage their own storage, we’ve encountered quite a few problems, glitches, and unsuitable packages. Leave the servers to the professionals.

That’s it, now you can light a barbecue and declare that you have digital independence. You are the full owner of all your assets and know what the right standard is in the market. If you don’t already own all your infrastructure – we’ll of course be happy to help you find a good home that believes in transparency.

Enjoy your digital independence!