How to Fire Your SEO Agency Without Losing Your Site
Take back your domain, hosting, Search Console and Analytics before you cancel: the order to do it in, the Google and ICANN rules, and what to ask for.
Elmrank editorial4 min readLast reviewed
On this page
In August a site owner posted on r/SEO that their old agency had added itself as an owner of their Search Console. The thread got 30 comments and 23 points. Replies said Google had sent automated "new owner" emails to many site owners that day, so the agency probably did nothing. But the second most upvoted reply was the useful one: "find and delete the leftover html file, meta tag, dns record or analytics link." Old access lingers long after a contract ends.
The order that keeps you safe
| Step | What to take back | How |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Domain | Log in to the registrar; the account and the registrant should be you. Get the transfer code if it's in their account |
| 2 | Hosting and CMS | Admin logins in your name; change every password the agency knew |
| 3 | Search Console | Verify yourself as an owner, then remove their users and their verification tokens |
| 4 | Google Analytics | Hold the Administrator role at account level, then remove their users |
| 5 | Content and code | Export the posts, the media and, if there's a repo, a copy you control |
| 6 | Cancel | Send notice by the contract's method; keep the email |
One commenter in a thread about a freelancer who threatened a client after being cancelled put the rule plainly: "Change all passwords and remove all access to your site and anything else you shared with him. Do not say anything else until this is done."
Step by step
1. The domain
If the agency registered your domain in its own account, that's the first thing to fix. ICANN says "it is your right to transfer your domain name registrations between registrars," and the current registrar must confirm your intent. Two catches: a registrar "may deny a transfer request if the domain name is within 60 days of initial registration," and it can deny one within 60 days of the last transfer. If the domain is in the agency's account, ask them to move it to yours, or change the registrant through the registrar. Know the trade-off first: "You cannot transfer a domain name to a different registrar within 60 days of making changes to the registrant name, organization or email address," though some registrars let you opt out of that lock. If you also plan to switch registrars, ask yours how it handles the 60-day lock before you change anything.
2. Hosting and the CMS
Make sure the hosting account and the CMS admin account are yours, not users the agency created. Then change every password the agency knew, including the email accounts tied to them.
3. Search Console
Search Console has owners, full users and restricted users. Only owners can add or remove other people. If the agency is the only verified owner, verify the site yourself first; Google's help says that when you're taking over a site, "after you verify ownership you can unverify previous owners by removing their verification token." Tokens are the file, tag or record they used to verify: an HTML file, a meta tag, a DNS record or a Google Analytics link. Remove their users from the settings page as well.
4. Google Analytics
To delete users in Google Analytics, "you need to have the Administrator role at the account level." Make sure you hold it. Google notes that "any user with permission can delete any other user," so get that role first and remove the agency's users right after.
5. Content and code
Export your posts and media, and if the site lives in a code repository, get a copy or access in your name. Who owns content an agency wrote depends on your contract, so check it before you cancel.
- Domain registrar account and registrant are yours
- Hosting and CMS admin logins are yours; passwords changed
- You're a verified owner in Search Console; their users and tokens removed
- You're an account-level Administrator in Google Analytics; their users removed
- Posts, media and code exported or in your repo
- Cancellation sent the way the contract says, and saved
How much of this list our plan needs
On our plan, most of this list is yours from the start. Our terms say the code, prompts, checks and content we create live in your repo and belong to you, your domain is registered in your name or account, and we transfer it on request. Search Console stays your property; you share it with us.
Hosting is the exception: we provide it as part of the plan, and it stops when the plan ends. If you cancel, you email us, the plan ends at the end of the month you've paid for, and you move the site to a host of your choice before then. Since the code and content are in your repo, any host will do. There's no minimum contract.
While you're with us, we handle the technical side, from speed and indexing fixes to hosting, plus up to 30 articles a month for $300 after a $500 first month, and we reply to email within 12 hours. The technical SEO service page lists what that covers.
How we know this
Written by Elmrank editorial. Every source below was read on the date shown; the page was last reviewed on Oct 14, 2026.
- Search Console Help, Managing owners, users, and permissions, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- Search Console Help, Verify your site ownership, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- Analytics Help, Add, edit, and delete users, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- ICANN, FAQs for Registrants: Transferring Your Domain Name, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- r/SEO, Old agency added themselves as an owner to Search Console (comments by u/blazonstudio, u/RealisticWorth3567), accessed Oct 14, 2026
- r/SEO, Canceling my SEO service due to 0 ROI (comment by u/Nihill8), accessed Oct 14, 2026
- Elmrank, Terms of Service (cancelling, ownership), accessed Oct 14, 2026
Email us your site.
We reply within 12 hours with what we'd fix first. Then we run it for you, technical SEO and content: $500 for the first month, then $300 a month for up to 30 articles. You don't need any technical knowledge, and you can cancel any time.