How do I switch web design agencies without losing my website?

Before you tell your current agency you're leaving, confirm three things: you have access to your domain registrar login, your hosting account, and a full copy of your site's code or export. If any of those live only in someone else's account, sort that out first — that's leverage you want before, not after, you announce you're switching.

What to ask your current agency for:

• A full backup or export of the current site
• DNS access, or confirmation of exactly where your domain is registered and managed
• Login credentials for any tools tied to the site — analytics, forms, hosting

A refusal to hand any of this over is itself the answer to the question of whether you ever really owned your site. That's worth knowing regardless of whether you switch.

For the cutover itself: plan it during a slow traffic window, make sure your new site preserves your existing page URLs (or redirects old ones to new ones) so you don't lose your search rankings overnight, and update DNS last, once everything else is tested and ready on the new side.