By Julie Friedman Bacchini

Tell me if this sounds familiar – you need to access your web site and no one knows where the login information is. Even worse? The person who set up your web site or its hosting hasn’t worked at your company for years. Suddenly, the “Forgot Password” option has become completely inadequate.

I am amazed at just how often I encounter situations like this with clients. Some types of accounts are easier to recover than others.

More and more sites have implemented two step or two factor authentication to access them, and while that is fantastic for security, when you have lost access to the account and/or the person who created the account, those extra layers can make it virtually impossible to recover access.

How can you avoid this scenario?

Step one – make sure that there is a master list of all types of digital accounts and their associated logins, security questions and answers or access PINs on the company server and in hard copy format and that at least two people in your organization know where these things are located.

Step two – put in place a policy that all accounts for the business must be set up with an email associated with the business. This would apply to any kind of digital service, such as web site access, web site hosting, Google accounts (used to access Google Analytics or AdWords for example), Facebook business page, Twitter account, etc. It can also be wise to set up emails specifically for this purpose within your organization, such as social@companyxyz.com, to further aid in continuity.

Step three – maintain ownership of any accounts that are set up or managed for you by a third party or outside firm or consultant. It is a wise practice for you to set up the actual account in your business’ name and then grant access to your service providers. This also prevents unscrupulous vendors from holding your digital assets hostage if you decide to stop working with them.

Your digital assets are among the most valuable assets your business possesses in today’s marketplace. Protect your investment in them by setting up and maintaining control of them.

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Julie Friedman Bacchini is the president of Neptune Moon LLC, a full-service internet marketing and web design firm. She and her blog are regularly included in many top search marketing influencer lists. Julie has presented on topics such as web site experience, local search visibility and paid search both locally and at national industry conferences, including SMX East and PPC Hero. You can find Julie on Twitter @NeptuneMoon or reach her via email at info@neptunemoon.com or telephone at 484-341-8181.

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Top photo credit: Visual Content Hacker via photopin (license)